It's the hardest sports trophy to win, so it stands to reason that the Stanley Cup playoffs will provide needle-moving levels of intrigue as teams wind their way through a 16-win gauntlet before one takes a celebratory victory lap.

The two-month drama got underway with a blockbuster opening weekend that saw opening puck drops for six of the eight first-round series, with the two others—Vegas vs. Dallas and Los Angeles vs. Edmonton—set to start on Monday.

The B/R hockey team was revved up and ready to take it all in on the way to compiling a quick and definitive list of winners and losers from the tournament's first two days.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.

Winner: Playoff Hockey

No, really. It's a thing. After regular seasons in which free-wheeling play and viral goals are the norm in some places, the arrival of the NHL playoffs typically means a more disciplined, systematic approach.

That was borne out by the first six games, all but one of which saw fewer than the nightly average of 6.22 total goals scored across a 1,312-game regular season.

Only Winnipeg's chaotic 7-6 defeat of Colorado on Sunday went past the typical rate, while Boston's 5-1 win against Toronto on Saturday and Vancouver's 4-2 victory over Nashville each had a half-dozen tallies.

Saturday's other game between Carolina (3) and the New York Islanders (1) had four, and Sunday's first two games—Tampa Bay (2) vs. Florida (3) and Washington (1) vs. the New York Rangers (4)—checked in with five apiece.

Goalies had the upper hand early as three of the first 20 goals scored were empty-netters, and 199 saves were made on the first 216 shots for a .921 save percentage, which is 18 points better than the league's .903 average in the regular season.

Winner: Man Advantages

Following up on the previous theme, power plays matter in the playoffs.

Thus, teams that limit penalties tend to thrive as do those that capitalize when they are gifted with a man advantage in postseason play.

The winners in each of the weekend's first three games had at least one goal while combining to go 4-for-11 (36.3 percent) on the power play, while the losing sides managed just one goal in seven combined opportunities (14.2 percent).

The league average this season was 20.9 percent.

Boston's Jake DeBrusk broke open the 5-1 win over Toronto with late second-period goals on consecutive chances while Auston Matthews (high sticking) and Max Domi (slashing) were serving penalties taken two minutes apart.

In Carolina, Evgeny Kuznetsov scored the seventh power-play goal of his playoff career just 95 seconds into a win over the Islanders. He had three goals and 12 points on power plays for Washington during its run to the Stanley Cup in 2018.

In Florida, Carter Verhaeghe's power-play goal against his former team gave the Panthers a lead they never lost in a 3-2 defeat of the Lightning. His eight power-play goals during the season were second on a team whose 23.5 percent success rate was eighth in the league.

Ironically, Tampa Bay's 28.6 percent clip was first overall and the Lightning did get one from Steven Stamkos with 10 seconds remaining on Sunday.

Loser: Maple Leafs Fans

Anyone familiar with the NHL knows the plight of Canada's largest city when it comes to the Stanley Cup chase. Toronto hasn't hosted a championship parade since the final throes of the Original Six in 1967 and hasn't sniffed the title round since.

The Maple Leafs have won just one playoff series since 2004 and haven't beaten this year's first-round opponent, the Boston Bruins, in any playoff encounter since 1950.

So, even though Toronto is seeded third in the Atlantic Division to Boston's second and it wouldn't be an upset if another early exit was imminent, it's got to be hard to be a hockey fan alongside Lake Ontario today.

A 5-1 loss in Saturday's opener was disappointing on every level, with goalie Ilya Samsonov making just 19 saves on 23 shots (.826 save percentage). The Bruins scored two power-play goals in five chances, and 69-goal sniper Auston Matthews hit a post with an open net when it was still just 1-0.

Also, 98-point man William Nylander missed the game with an undisclosed injury and his status for Game 2 has not yet been clarified. In other words, buckle up Maple Leafs fans, it's fixing to be a bumpy ride. And if it ends too quickly, a summertime demolition could result.

"We've had some really big names go out and we've had a lot of guys step up," Toronto forward Mitch Marner said. "Unfortunately, (Saturday) wasn't one of those nights."

Winner: 1st-Time Scorers

It's another thing that makes the playoffs so special: Unlikely heroes.

And though it's yet to be determined whether the likes of Matt Rempe, John Beecher or Martin Fehervary have any real impact on who hoists the Cup this year, each got off to a good start with their first career playoff goal.

Rookies Rempe and Beecher lit the lamp in their inaugural exposure to the postseason for the Rangers and Bruins, respectively, while Fehervary's goal came in his ninth career playoff game with Washington, which was beaten, 4-1, by New York.

Beecher, a 23-year-old center, scored Boston's first goal against Toronto just 2:26 into the first period.

"I knew the energy was going to be there in the building," he said. "We came up for the national anthem and [I] honestly got chills just sitting on the bench and hearing the crowd and how fired up everybody was to be there."

Rempe, meanwhile, played 17 games during the regular season and established a quick reputation as a tough guy with 71 penalty minutes. He had one goal and two points while averaging less than six minutes per game, but he opened the scoring on Sunday against the Capitals with a wrist shot that beat Charlie Lindgren at 4:17 of the second period.

He's the first Ranger to score in his first playoff game since 2011.

"It was awesome, the crowd was absolutely bumping. It was electric, it was unreal. Love it," Rempe told ESPN between periods. "So much fun. Having a blast, it's unreal. It's the coolest building I've ever seen."

Loser: Road Teams

It's a hockey adage as old as time: The series doesn't start until the home team loses.

So, even after the weekend's first six games, we have no series just yet.

Each of the higher-seeded teams protected home-ice advantage through Sunday night, with a pair winning one-goal nail-biters and the other four reaching the final horn with multi-goal cushions. It's the first time since 1970 that home teams started 6-0.

Those six teams were each among the league's top-10 home performers during the regular season, ranging from the New York Rangers (tied for second, 30-11-0) to the Boston Bruins (tied for 10th, 24-11-6).

Winning at home bodes especially well for Florida, Boston and the Rangers, who were simultaneously ranked second, third and fourth in road points, too. And that means Monday's Game 2 is especially crucial for Toronto, which was the best road performer among the weekend's losing teams, finishing tied for fourth with a 24-11-6 record.

Teams in the 2023 playoffs were 1-6 after falling into an 0-2 hole, with only the New Jersey Devils rallying to win (in seven games) after starting with two road losses. The Devils defeated the Rangers in the two subsequent road games in the series after finishing the 2022-23 regular season as the league's second-best road team.