We might as well preview each series as they come, and we need a gamethread.
Why not both?
Carolina vs. Ottawa – Fraudwatch East
The Sens were the ones who got the final ticket to ride in the East, and must now face the Carolina Hurricanes in the first round.
Truly, to two nicer teams, this wouldn’t happen.
The Hurricanes are once again the kings of stuff happening; they lead the league in CF%, FF%, and are 2nd in xGF%. They have the puck in a stranglehold all the time and shoot from everywhere to juice the first two stats, but inevitably
their blanketing approach gets them into the dangerous areas and they shoot a lot from there too. History states that they struggle with teams that are a little more physical or able to take what time with the puck that they get and use their greatest weakness in goal against them.
Unfortunately for the Sens…usually recent history says that happens in the Eastern Conference final, so they’re gonna have to put their whole foot down on the gas to get over this team.
It is a matchup between two teams that are excellent at getting pressure on the puck with goaltending that has been enormously suspect. The big decider may be special teams; both have had miserable years on the power play, and the first one to start making those vanishingly small chances of man advantage time work for them against stout penalty kills may give them an edge that slays the other.
Just…don’t expect a high scoring game. This series will be your 2-0 classics over and over again if both teams have their way.
Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia – The Battle of Pennsylvania
Do you really need a primer on this?
It’s Flyers-Penguins. Go watch what kind of violent carnival spectacle that turns into. Turn off whichever game you’re watching and go watch this instead.
On paper the Penguins should probably come out on top as they are just head and shoulders better on paper than the Flyers at almost every position…with the notable exception of one: goaltending. Stuart Skinner has a long way to go before he can prove to an audience that he isn’t the guy we all saw in Edmonton, and even if Dan Vladar still hasn’t fixed any of the issues he had in Boston (puck tracking’s still very much a problem for him), he’s playing some of the best hockey in his life.
Whole series have been decided by goalies getting hot at the right time, and while everything suggests that this will end in a Pens victory…with this series, I don’t think you can ever truly know; Only Habs-Bruins finds consistent ways to drag two teams down to each other’s level.
Minnesota vs. Dallas – Green with Hatred
If you’ve ever wondered “man, who’d ever be rivals with the Dallas Stars of all teams?”, then you’re about to get a crash course. These two fanbases abhor each other.
Part of it is history. Norm Green had to sell the Stars because he was too f!#king stupid to make money on hockey in Minnesota, and the other is Dallas fans desperately trying to ask the Minnesotans to get over that and being responded to with a hearty “NO”. Repeat until one team wins cup.
The Wild and Stars are a phenomenal matchup for fans of watching how the game has sped up over the past few years. Both sides are chock full of excellent skaters and emphasize that game over all else.
As for entertainment value? Well, one of the big things that should be watched out for is how Dallas handles not getting the power play opportunities that they would otherwise get in the regular season. Dallas as a 5v5 team is kinda meh, but on the man-advantage are absolutely world-ending monsters. Meanwhile Minny is just kind of good all around, if not for their center depth being kind of mediocre.
