A look at the NHL playoffs

During the 1996 playoffs, there was reportedly a lucky hangnail that belonged to an anonymous member of the Florida Panthers. The nail was supposedly chewed during especially tense situations throughout each game, and perhaps it is no small coincidence that the Panthers went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals that year. Such is life in the National Hockey League playoffs, when even the strangest superstitions are considered part of the norm for two months of tight play, loose officiating, and shaggy playoff beards. The playoff series all started on either Wednesday or Thursday night, and here is the skinny on each of them: