March for the Cup is 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.
We are now into the second round of March to the Cup. Today we will be returning to the Mario Lemieux Division and the defending Stanley Cup Champions enter the tournament today after receiving a bye in round 1. Here are the matchups. Vote for who you believe is the best candidate to move on.
(2) St. Louis Blues vs (15) Winnipeg Jets
We have a rematch from last year’s playoff run except the Jets are not at the level they used to be at. In fact, they are the worst team in the NHL in xGF% at 43.57. Yes, that is even worse than the Detroit Red Wings who are purposely bad this year. On the bright side the Jets may have the best goalie in hockey this year, which can be incredibly problematic for the opponent in a playoff series. However, the Blues are still solid and their goaltending has been stable. Also worth noting that Vladimir Tarasenko is healthy and eligible for this series which is a huge boost.
This is an interesting matchup. The Stars and Penguins have similar shot share results over the last 25 games.
The Penguins have better top end players and better forward depth. The Stars are fifth best in the NHL in xGF% at 52.58 (PIT 7th 51.97) so they are no slouch. Dallas boasts some of the best goaltending in the NHL. They are second in the league in 5v5 save percentage at .933. The Penguins goaltending is a mystery in both who they will play and how that goalie will actually perform. It’s been a wild card and thus the team sits in 20th at .915. Even though Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn aren’t as good as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin the sum of their parts has had a strong year. Although the Stars enter the Coronavirus break going 0-4-2. Remember when the Stars started 1-7-1 this year? It has been a weird year. Their results have been terrible at the beginning and end with their middle stretch being an impressive 36-13-5. Which Stars team are we getting. What kind of goaltending will the Penguins get? This is closer to a coin flip than most people think.
(3) Colorado Avalanche vs (19) Nashville Predators
If this was the Nashville of old it would be a hell of a matchup. These are two franchises going in opposite directions. Colorado is on the rise and Nashville is fading from being one of the best teams in the league. We have some quality players who are available for Colorado including Mikko Rantanen and Nazem Kadri which give them a significant boost whether they actually need it or not. For Nashville they have a healthy Ryan Ellis who missed most of 2020 after Corey Perry’s dirty hit. The Avalanche have received really good goaltending and Nashville has a Pekka Rinne problem. Will the Predators start Saros? They should.
(3) Colorado Avalanche vs (19) Nashville Predators
(6) Philadelphia Flyers vs (11) Carolina Hurricanes
What a great second round matchup. The Flyers have been super interesting this year. They’ve done a great job putting results together. The Hurricanes are also really good. Their seeding would have been higher if they didn’t lose both Dougie Hamilton (legit Norris candidate) and Brett Pesce to injury. Both those players are back. The Hurricanes also added Vincent Trochek and Sami Vatanen. Second line center was a need for the Hurricanes and they got a pretty decent on in Trochek. I think a Hurricanes team at full health definitely punches above their 11th seed ranking. Carter Hart and James Reimer both carry a .914 all situations save percentage heading into this one.
(6) Philadelphia Flyers vs (11) Carolina Hurricanes
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