I don't think I needed the couple days to digest the Hawks falling short in Game 7 against St. Louis. It's a bummer and a disappointment, but the Blues are a very good team, and they earned their first trip to the second round under Ken Hitchcock. I tip my cap.
I ended up doing a terrible job overall
predicting the first round this year, and the scheduling weirdness means that this is getting posted after the second round gets underway. But in the interest of full disclosure, I wrote my preview for the one game taking place on Wednesday of the second round in advance, because I had to wait for the Game 7 between Nashville and Anaheim to be played out to fully preview this round.
With a (somewhat) heavy heart, I soldier on. Here are my predictions for the next round.
Western Conference
St. Louis Blues (49-24-9, beat Blackhawks in seven) vs Dallas Stars (50-23-9, beat Wild in six)
Blues won 4 of 5 regular season meetings (2 in OT, 1 in SO)
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| Photo by Dilip Vishwanat (NHLI via Getty Images) |
To a degree, St. Louis rode the hot goaltending of Brian Elliott, who saved 92.9 percent of the shots he faced against the Hawks, but the Blues have a pretty dangerous offense as well. Vladimir Tarasenko might be the most dangerous offensive player left in the Western Conference, but he got plenty of support from guys like Robby Fabbri. More importantly, the defense is solid too, with guys like Alex Pietrangelo really helping to shut down the Blackhawks' big guns. They're going to have their hands full again this series, as the advanced stats seem to favor Dallas. Jamie Benn was one of the league's best scorers this season, and guys like Patrick Sharp also had good series against a subpar Wild team. Dallas was a high-octane offense during the regular season, but that's something that doesn't always translate to April and May. What's more concerning is Dallas' goaltending. Kari Lehtonen only had a .911 save percentage against Minnesota, and more than once a beat up Wild team rallied to make games interesting. It's kind of crazy to think about this, but now that the Blues have slain the defending champs, they've got a great shot at getting out of the West.
Blues in six.
Nashville Predators (41-27-14, beat Ducks in seven) vs San Jose Sharks (46-30-6, beat Kings in five)
Teams each won 1 of 2 regular season meetings (Sharks won in SO)
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| Photographer uncredited |
We live in a world where the Nashville Predators could be the Pacific Division Champions en route to a conference final appearance, and for the fourth straight year, the Ducks have blown a 3-2 series lead to lose a Game 7 at home. Nashville will ride the strong goaltending of Pekka Rinne up PCH, though they have that strong defense of Shea Weber and Roman Josi that helped shut down Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. They're going to have their hands full with Joe Pavelski, who destroyed Jonathan Quick in the last round. Nashville, meanwhile, boasted a fairly balanced attack in their comeback over Anaheim, but they'll have to deal with a solid Martin Jones and a decent defensive corps led by Brent Burns. At the end of the day, the Sharks finally get another shot at getting to the Cup Final.
Sharks in six.
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins (48-26-8, beat Rangers in five) vs Washington Capitals (56-18-8, beat Flyers in six)
Penguins won 3 of 5 regular season meetings (1 in OT)
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| Photo by Greg Fiume (NHLI via Getty Images) |
The NHL has been salivating since Sunday when the Capitals avoided
another epic collapse to meet up with another darling in Pittsburgh. The league is getting just its second playoff matchup between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin and the first since 2009. Washington had to survive a furious rally by the Flyers to steal a pair of games, but Braden Holtby showed why he's likely to win the Vezina Trophy in June with a shutout in Game 6, but Washington's defense was stellar in that game as well. They're going to have their hands full against a top heavy Penguin attack, and if the Caps start getting sloppy and commit penalties, Pittsburgh's power play could eat them alive. On the other hand, the Pens still have injury concerns in goal, and Marc-Andre Fleury is still dealing with a concussion, so Matt Murray will have to continue his solid play. This is going to be a very entertaining series, and I really think it could go either way. Ultimately, I'm going to go with home ice. Barely.
Capitals in seven.
New York Islanders (45-27-10, beat Panthers in six) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (46-31-5, beat Red Wings in five)
Islanders won 2 of 3 regular season meetings
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| Photographer uncredited |
This series started Wednesday, which for these teams is probably a bit of an "about time" scheduling. The Lightning have had several days off after dispatching Detroit in the first round for the second straight spring. They remain without Steven Stamkos, who has skated with the team a little bit but is reportedly not close to returning from blood clot surgery. Other injuries have had time to heal, but I do wonder if rust will come into play early in this series. The Bolts are getting an Islanders team that pulled the upset on the back of a triad of overtime victories, including one by captain John Taveras in the clincher. He's been red hot so far this postseason, but the Isles will need other guys to step up as well, given the talent still available for Tampa. Jonathan Drouin stepped up nicely against Detroit, and Nikita Kucherov had five goals to help pace a Bolts attack that was shorthanded. Ben Bishop for Tampa and Thomas Greiss for New York have both played well. Ultimately, I think this is a fairly tight matchup that could go either way. We'll probably see more overtime games in this series, and I'm sure Tampa will pull one of those out, which just might be enough.
Lightning in six.
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