By WAYNE REDSHAW
One down, three to go.
First-round matchups in the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup playoffs were completed over the weekend and now it is onto round two.
I didn’t do badly predicting in the opening round picking six winners out of eight. My only blemishes were two Canadian teams — the Toronto Maple Leafs in the east and the Winnipeg Jets in the west. I picked the Leafs over the Boston Bruins in six and the Jets over the Colorado Avalanche in seven. The Leafs-Bruins series went seven but it was Boston who prevailed winning 2-1 in overtime in the deciding game. Meanwhile, Jets’ goaltender Connor Hellebuyck didn’t continue his outstanding performance from the regular season and the Avalanche took advantage and won in five.
Now, here’s my fearless forecast for round two.
Eastern Conference
Bruins vs Panthers
Last year, these two teams squared off in the opening round and the Bruins, who ran away with the regular season to nail down the President’s Trophy jumped out to a 3-1 series lead only to lose to the Florida Panthers in seven. I can’t see this series going seven games this time around.
The Panthers, who went all the way to the finals last year only to lose to the Vegas Golden Knights have the home ice advantage and that should make a difference. Furthermore, they are well rested having disposed of their state rivals —the Tampa Bay Lightning — in five games. Also throw in the factor the Bruins have to be dog-tired after a tough seven-game series with the Maple Leafs. If the Panthers can jump out to a 2-0 series lead it will be a brief series.
The Bruins are going to need magical goaltending from Jeremy Swayman again just to keep this series interesting. I just think the Panthers have too much depth up front with Sam Reinhardt, Matthew Tkachuk, Aleksander Barkov, Carter Verhaeghe and Sam Bennett although the latter was injured in the last series and is expected to miss at least the opening game of this round. Meanwhile, the Bruins top aces— Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy were spotty against the Leafs at times.
Prediction: The Panthers in five games.
Hurricanes vs Rangers
This series should be a dandy pitting two talented teams in the Carolina Hurricanes and the New York Rangers. The Rangers hardly worked up a sweat in disposing of the Washington Capitals in a four-game sweep.
It will be a different story against the Hurricanes, who are relentless on forechecking and very aggressive on penalty killing. But in the end I feel the Rangers will prevail. They simply have more skilled players in the likes of Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Kreider, Adam Fox, Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere. And in goal I’ll take Igor Shesterkin over Frederick Andersen any day.
Another reason I like the Rangers is their power play. Carolina may have excellent penalty killers but the Rangers have a potent power play. The best advice for the Canes — try to avoid dumb penalties.
Prediction: The Rangers in six games.
Western Conference
Oilers vs Canucks
There are only two Canadian-based teams remaining in the hunt for the Stanley Cup and those two — the Edmonton Oilers and the Vancouver Canucks —and unfortunately they square off in round two putting one on the sidelines in the end.
Who will it be? Vancouver won all four regular season games with the Oilers but keep in mind three of those victories came early on when the Oilers were dreadful and were losing to everyone. A coaching change for the Oilers did miracles. They are a completely different team compared to the first month or so of the regular season.
For that reason, I’m going with the Oilers. They have too much going for them starting with a potent offence led by who else Connor McDavid. He’s the guiding light for the Oilers, the play-maker, the general in charge. And McDavid has a great supporting cast with the likes of Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and defenceman Evan Bouchard. Bouchard in my opinion has really jelled into a top blueliner.
The Canucks will be heard from in this series with J.T. Miller, Brock Boeser and Quinn Hughes showing the way. However, despite finishing first in the Pacific Division and having home ice advantage I just don’t think they can match the Oilers. And the big question mark about the Canucks is goaltending. They lost their No. 1 backstop in Thatcher Demko. He could possibly be back but don’t count on that factor. They did get some surprising performances from replacements but Nashville, who the Canucks faced in round one; and Edmonton are two entirely different teams. The Oilers simply have too much offensive fire-power and they can kill you on the power play if presented with too many opportunities.
Prediction: Oilers in five games.
Avalanche vs Stars
In round one I didn’t think the Colorado Avalanche would advance past the Winnipeg Jets but they did. I thought the Jets’ Hellebuyck would be the difference maker and he wasn’t.
In this series, the Avs are facing the Dallas Stars, who dethroned the defending Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights in seven games in the first round.
I wasn’t impressed with Colorado entering the playoffs against the Jets as they seemed to sputter towards the end of the regular season. But the Avs got their act in order against the Jets and I expect it to carry over into round two with Dallas.
The Stars were hard-pressed in getting past Vegas in seven games. They also didn’t get off to a great start in the opening round dropping the first two games on home ice.
While they have home ice advantage in this series I think fatigue may be a key factor in the end. I like the Stars goaltending with Jake Oettinger as I’m not sold on Colorado’s Alexandar Georgiev. However, the Avs, who won the Cup in 2022, seem to be clicking offensively at the right time to compensate for the questionable goaltending to advance.
When you look down their lineup — Nathan MacKinnon, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Mikko Rantanen and Calle Maker — they have great depth. Dallas simply can’t match them despite having Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Jason Robertson, Joe Palelski and Wyatt Johnston.
Prediction: Avalanche in six games.
(Wayne Redshaw covered the NHL for 40 seasons and in 1987 was named a Life Member of the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association. He was also inducted as a media member of the Buffalo Sabres Hockey Hall of Fame in 2000.)
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