No Canada, but the NHL's final four could still be fun

This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.

The days are getting longer, the temperature is getting warmer, and our favourite NHL teams are gone from the playoffs. In other words, a typical late May here in Canada.

While the abrupt second-round exits of the Oilers and Leafs took much of the air out of the Stanley Cup tournament, the conference finals might still be entertaining if you know where to look. Here are a few things to know as Florida and Carolina open the Eastern final tonight and Dallas and Vegas begin their Western series tomorrow:

Nobody saw this coming.

Heading into the playoffs, none of the remaining teams ranked in the top four of the betting odds to win the Cup. Their implied title chances ranged from a bit under 8 per cent (Carolina) down to less than 3.5 per cent (Florida), with Vegas and Dallas both in the neighbourhood of 6 per cent.

The betting markets gave Boston, Edmonton, Colorado and Toronto the best shots at the Cup, only to see the Presidents' Trophy-winning Bruins and defending-champion Avalanche flame out in the first round. As many Canadian fans (and TV execs) salivated at the likelihood of an Oilers-Leafs final, things went south — literally. The NHL is billing this as its "southernmost" final four ever and the first time in Stanley Cup playoffs history that all of the semifinalists are based in Sun Belt states.

While Florida, Dallas, Las Vegas and the Carolinas can be pretty hot places, they're hardly traditional hockey hotbeds. None of these teams have been in their current locations for more than 30 years, and the Golden Knights are just five years old. The four franchises