Yesterday I introduced March for the Cup where you will vote on hypothetical playoff matchups in a bracket style setup mimicking the NCAA basketball tournaments. Here is the setup.
I’m going to seed all 31 teams based on the current overall standings with one play in game because of the odd number of teams. You will have a chance to vote on who you think should win the matchup. I’ll give some brief overviews and you’ll use those and your own intuition to make your selections. The results will be hidden until the next blog when the results are revealed. We will go round by round until we have a winner. Who knows? Maybe our selection will be the only winner this season.
This is all hypothetical. However you want to analyze things, go for it. If you want to assume every team has full health, go for it. Anything goes in the Coronavirus era of hypothetical playoff hockey, well almost anything. The Detroit Red Wings will not be winning the Stanley Cup. They were voted out yesterday in a defeat to the 30th seeded Ottawa Senators. And to stay on brand the Red Wings will not win the #1 overall pick because they are allergic to luck in the draft lottery.
Now that we have our 30 teams I entered them into a bracket creator. Two teams will have byes in the first round. They will be the Boston Bruins and the St. Louis Blues. You may remember them as the two teams who played in the Stanley Cup Final last year. They are legitimately the #1 and #2 seed in the league right now according to the standings.
We don’t have the teams broken up by Conferences. The teams aren’t really playing and they don’t need to use airplanes so here’s our chance to seed the teams based on overall standings and not the current divisional format. We have two sides to the bracket. The first Division is the Mario Lemieux Division and the second Division is the Jaromir Jagr Division. Here is what they look like
Mario Lemieux Division
Jaromir Jagr Division
There are quite a number of matchups we will probably never get in real life so it should make things interesting. Today you will have an opportunity to vote on the Mario Lemieux Division games. Let’s take a look at the different matchups.
(3) Colorado Avalanche vs (30) Ottawa Senators
Matt Duchene does not play on either team anymore. Which one of these team’s is in better shape for that? I’m guessing the team that is the #3 seed and the one who drafted Bowen Byram with the other’s draft pick. The Avalanche are a handful and leading the way is one of the league’s very best players in Nate MacKinnon. Throw in Mikko Rantanen (he’s healthy if you want him to be) and it is one of the best duos in the league. Cale Makar is ridiculous and if not for injury would have probably ran away with the Calder Trophy. The Senators are rebuilding and have been collecting draft picks. Usually rebuilding teams don’t make the playoffs, but here they will face the #3 seed whether they are ready to or not.
(6) Philadelphia Flyers vs (27) Anaheim Ducks
What can you say about the Philadelphia Flyers? They have had a tremendous season. At the time of the stoppage they are in second place in the most competitive division in hockey and were only one point behind the first place Washington Capitals. It is no longer the Claude Giroux and Jakub Voracek show, although they are still both good, it is Sean Couturier and Travis Konecny leading the way. Kevin Hayes may not be good at the end of his contract, but it is year one of the deal and he has provided the Flyers with some much needed center depth. The Ducks are in the twilight of the Ryan Getzlaf era and started to sell off parts like Ondrej Kase. Their leading scorer is Adam Henrique at 43 points and the really sums up how their season has gone. Who will will win the battle of former Chris Pronger lovers?
(7) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (26) New Jersey Devils
We got ourselves a divisional matchup. The Penguins have not been at their best the past month while the Devils were doing a great job piling up points. The teams did face each other in the last game before the games were suspended. Pittsburgh won 5-2. Pittsburgh’s issues can be traced directly to injuries on their back end. Brian Dumoulin and John Marino are back and guess what? So is Jake Guentzel. The Penguins are a deep team when they are fully healthy. Since you get to call the shots you can also bench Jack Johnson if you want. Not too many teams would be thrilled to face a fully healthy Penguins team in this tournament bracket.
(10) Dallas Stars vs (23) Chicago Blackhawks
The Stars stars aren’t as bright as they used to be. Tyler Seguin has 50 points in 69 games while Jamie Benn only has 39 points in 69 games. Will Jamie Benn be upset if his season ends with 69 games played? If he is he’ll have to get over it. The Stars are still a solid team with an xGF% of 52.58 good for fifth in the league. Ben Bishop is having another strong season. His all-situations save percentage is around .920. The Blackhawks as a team have been down for a number of years. Patrick Kane is still an elite producer of offense he has 84 points in 70 games. Jonathan Toews has had a solid year with 60 points in 70 games. There’s a huge drop off after those two and that is the problem. They just don’t have the depth they used to. They no longer have Robin Lehner either. However, you could add Brent Seabrook back to the Blackhawks if you so choose...
(11) Carolina Hurricanes vs (22) Arizona Coyotes In real life the Hurricanes are in rough shape due to injuries. For this they have Dougie Hamilton and Brett Pesce back in the fold. They don’t need an EBUG because their goalies are healthy again. They are well-balanced and are a tough team to match up against. The Coyotes pushed their chips to the middle of the table when they decided to trade for both Phil Kessel and Taylor Hall this season. Kessel has had a down year away from Crosby and Malkin and Hall is nowhere close to being the Hart Trophy caliber player he was in New Jersey. A healthy Darcy Kuemper and his .932 5v5 save percentage can certainly help out the Coyotes. Loser here gets relocated to Quebec City or Houston
(14) New York Islanders vs (19) Nashville Predators
The Islanders started the season out strong and the strong start kept them in the playoff picture. Their recent stretch of play has been really bad. Heading into the Coronavirus break they have lost 11 out of their last 13 games going 2-7-4. JG Pageau has regressed to the mean after being scorching hot most of the year in Ottawa. Nashville has had a so so season. They are no longer the power house they were just a few years back. Missing Ryan Ellis was problematic. Getting Matt Duchene has helped with their offensive depth, but Mikael Granlund and Kyle Turris are closer to spare parts than difference makers. Pekka Rinne rocking an .895 all-situations save percentage isn’t helping anything. This is one of the closer matchups in round one. Barry Trotz is propping up the Islanders much like he used to do with the Predators. Should be interesting to see where the vote goes.
(15) Winnipeg Jets vs (18) Florida Panthers
Good news for Mark Chipman is that these games aren’t real and he still doesn’t have to pay his hourly employees for these fake games. The bad news is because of their 15th overall ranking is they are drawing a team close to them in ability. Both of these teams have some really good forwards. Neither team’s defense is impressive. A huge difference is the goaltending with Connor Hellebuyck vying for another Vezina while the former multiple Vezina winning goalie Sergei Bobrovsky is playing like he is already retired in Florida. Also hurting the Panthers is the void left by Vincent Trochek in a trade that still leaves me puzzled. Who will take this former Southleast division matchup between the Panthers and Thrashers?
I’m not trying to sway votes so I’ll post who I voted for in the next blog.
Results of round one in the Mario Lemieux Division will be posted in the next blog as well so stay tuned. Enjoy the matchups and the voting.
Thanks for reading!