You can make a good argument for any one of eight or nine teams to hoist the Stanley Cup in late-June. Of course, you can make a good argument for several of those teams to fall in the first round of the playoffs that start today with opening games in Winnipeg (3 p.m.) and Dallas (5:30 p.m.). There simply aren’t many first-round ‘gimmes’ anymore. With the competitive balance never better than it is now, just surviving the 82-game grind to get to the post-season is challenging.