Anthony previews Round 2 of the NHL Playoffs

Round 2 (They don’t call us experts for nothing)

In the great and slightly altered words from Brad Pitt in the movie Moneyball “How could you not be romantic about Baseball Hockey?” OK, so he obviously said baseball, and I am making some adjustments but HOLY COW what a first-round. I am not even sure I can recite every storyline cause that would be more than this entire article. The Leafs exercise their demons and eliminate a team that has made 3 straight Stanley Cup Finals in the Tampa Bay Lighting. Last year’s champs (The Avalanche) got knocked out by the 2nd year franchise Seattle Kraken. One of the East favorites the New York Rangers lost in 7 to a much younger (and faster) Devils team. THE TEAM WITH THE GREATEST RECORD IN REGULAR SEASON HISTORY, The Boston Bruins lost to the Florida Panthers. A team they 23 more wins than in the regular season. Oh, and the Stars, Canes, Oilers, and Knights advanced too all with their own great storylines. Now we head into the 2nd round without the top 2 teams who entered the playoffs with the best odds to win it all (Bruins and Avalanche) while also losing the Rangers Lighting and Kings who all ranked in the top 8 for best odds to win it all. Even crazier is at this point no matter who wins we are going to see one of 2 things. If the Hurricanes can pull this off, it would be their first cup since 2006 (17 years). If the Panthers, Knights, or Kraken pull this off it will be their first cup EVER. So, we either get to see a team who hasn’t won in at least 17 years or a lot longer for some teams (I am looking at you Toronto) OR a team that hasn’t won ever. The chart below shows exactly what I am talking about.

All I could say is if you missed round 1 (first off shame on you) you can absolutely NOT MISS round 2 which kicks off tonight. Down below I will be going over all the matchups as we take this field of 8 and look to reduce it down to 4.

Maple Leafs vs Panthers

A matchup that literally NO ONE thought was possible. The Panthers were the last team to make it into the playoffs and had to play the best regular season team in NHL history (record-wise) in the Boston Bruins in round 1. Led by the BEST current American-born hockey player Matthew Tkachuk the Panthers pulled off the biggest upset in NHL history. For Toronto on the other hand, their round 1 matchup was about exercising their demons. They hadn’t won a first-round series since 2004 and they faced off against a team that eliminated them last year in the first round despite Toronto having a 3-2 lead in the series on them last year. The Leafs did win the regular season series between these 2 teams 3 games to 1 however 3 of those 4 games went to overtime. It was also Paul Maurice’s bench outburst on his Panthers in their March 29^th game against these very Leafs that in my opinion turned around the Panthers’ season. The Panthers will obviously go into this matchup as a heavy underdog (The Leafs are now the odds-on favorite to win the title based on the remaining teams). I, however, am not totally sold on that. That first-round win for Toronto meant a lot but this can also go one of 2 ways for them. That first-round win, being it’s been so long and so many people thought they couldn’t do it could be their “Stanley Cup” and it will be too hard for them to overcome that in round 2. OR finally getting the monkey off their back may break through this team’s mental issues and allow the talent they possess to really take over. In which case they are deservedly in my opinion the best remaining team. The Panthers as we have seen though will not go quietly. Tampa certainly plays physical and chippy, but I would argue no player in the league plays that style while also imposing his will offensively as well as Matthew Tkachuk does. Also, for the Panthers Sergei Bobrovsky reclaimed the starting goaltending job and looked pretty good the last few games of the Boston series. While Toronto isn’t as deep as Boston was, I would argue they have higher-end talent at the forward position at least in their top few lines. If “BOB” can stay hot this series may end up a lot closer than people think.

Tail of the tape (playoffs)

My Pick- Leafs in 7

Hurricanes vs Devils

A lot of people (me included) thought this would be a New York showdown series. Well, The Canes and Devils had other plans. After the Devils sputtered to open their series vs the Rangers losing the first 2 games at home in that series by a combined score of 10-2 the Devils made a goalie change going from Vitek Vanecek to their youngster Akira Schmid and the rest of the series was completely different. Schmid would only allow the Rangers 7 total goals over the last 5 games of the series (they scored 10 in the first two). The Devils’ constant offensive pressure with just an unreal amount of speed that this team is capable of paired with a very Physical Defensive back end just seemed to be too much for the Rangers to handle. I personally thought the Isles’ physical style would be too much for Carolina to overcome, especially with their losses on the offensive end. I was wrong, and their defense and goaltending were far better than I thought they would be. I still don’t have a ton of faith in their offense being able to keep up with New Jersey but maybe their defense can slow them down enough to make the difference manageable. They split the season series 2-2 with each team winning 1 on the road and 1 at home.

Tail of the tape (playoffs)

My Pick- Devils in 6

Stars vs Kraken

Are we supposed to take the Kraken seriously? We didn’t pay enough attention to them coming into the playoffs. They were a team that managed 100+ points in the regular season. Their sky-high 11.6% team shooting percentage on the year dropped in round 1 down to 8.6% but it didn’t matter. Philipp Grubauer played lights out in net (.926 sv%) and their defense (led by Vince Dunn and Adam Larsson) showed they could give the Avs top-line FITS. The Stars on the other hand went through what started out feeling like an absolute physical brawl with Minnesota but ultimately the Stars offensive strengths showed through, and they took over the series. I said before I thought the Stars were the most complete team in the West and I still believe that. They did look different offensively for a bit after losing Joe Pavelski in game 1 but they overcame that, and the offense came around. I don’t think the Kraken will be near as physical a team as Minnesota was but the Kraken also possesses a great deal more firepower than the Wild did. This series could come down to which teams Goalie breaks first. The Stars took the season series 2-1 however their loss to Seattle came in Dallas while both wins were in Seattle.

Tail of the tape (playoffs)

My Pick- Stars in 6

Golden Knights vs Oilers

The Oilers finished the season with the best Power Play % in NHL history. They then followed that up with the single highest PP% in a playoff series converting 56.3% of their power plays in their first-round matchup vs the Kings. They now get to play the Knights who while boasting a better all-around defensive unit than the Kings had, DO NOT have the type of defensive-minded forwards like Kopitar and Danault to chase around Connor McDavid for a series. The Knights continue to overcome injuries up and down their roster and they have their Captain Mark Stone back and playing at a high level (8 points in their 5-game series win over Winnipeg). Laurent Brossoit played well vs his former team in that 1^st round matchup but is in for a whole new challenge against this high-powered Oilers team. Roughly half of the Oilers’ goals vs the Kings came from either Draisaitl (7), McDavid (3) or Evander Kane (3). However, they also were lacking production from guys like Kyler Yamomoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins which could change against a team like Vegas who as stated doesn’t have the same level of defensive-minded forwards the Kings possess. Ultimately while the Knights were a better regular season team, taking on a healthy and full-power Oilers team in a 7-game series seems like a tall order for a team who hasn’t had a steady goalie all season. Not to mention Vegas just allowed Winnipeg to convert 41.7% of their Power play chances. They must be better in this area or else the Oilers can turn this series very quickly. The Oilers took 3 of 4 games on the season from Vegas but Vegas’ lone win did come post-trade deadline.   

Tail of the tape (playoffs)

My Pick- Oilers in 6

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