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Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Finals Predictions + Semifinals Recap |
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Below were my picks for the first round. I thought I was being bold, but after seeing who others have picked, my selections may be as outlandish as I first thought. Seeing how it all transpired, I clearly wasn't that bold in round one.
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals :
Tampa Bay over New Jersey in 6 games
Boston over Toronto in 7 games
Washington over Columbus in 7 games
Pittsburgh over Philadelphia in 6 games
Western Conference Quarterfinals :
Nashville over Colorado in 5 games
Winnipeg over Minnesota in 6 games
Los Angeles over Las Vegas in 6 games
San Jose over Anaheim in 7 games
I went 7 for 8 in the first round, totally whiffing on Vegas. Got Boston and Pittsburgh series completely accurate in terms of games played. Missed broadly in terms of number of games played in the Sharks series. Overshot by one game in the Lightning, Capitals and Jets wins and undershot by one in the Predators victory.
Conference Semifinals:
These were my predictions for the Conference Semifinals. In my original overall playoff predictions, I had San Jose over LA. Here, I replaced the Kings with the Golden Knights, but still had the Sharks advancing. My predictions for round one got all four Eastern teams correct.
Eastern Conference Semifinals :
Boston over Tampa Bay in 7 games
Washington over Pittsburgh in 6 games
Western Conference Semifinals :
Winnipeg over Nashville in 7 games
San Jose over Las Vegas in 6 games
I went 2-for-4, getting Washington correct and Winnipeg right in the actual number of games played. Whiffs on Boston, who spent more time talking about Brad Marchand’s licking than in the Tampa Bay offensive zone, and Las Vegas, who rode stellar goaltending again from Marc-Andre Fleury and a balanced atttack to defeat San Jose.
Conference Finals Schedule:
Here are my predictions. Originally, I had Winnipeg over San Jose. Here, I replace the Sharks with the Golden Knights, but still have the Jets advancing. In the East, I had Boston over Washington. The Bruins are replaced by the Lightning, who I take to get past the Capitals and advance to their third second Cup Finals in the past four years.
Eastern Conference Finals :
Tampa Bay over Washington in 6 games
Western Conference Finals :
Winnipeg over Las Vegas in 7 games
Brief analysis of each series
Tampa Bay vs. Washington
Tampa Bay heads into the conference finals on a roll and healthy for the most part. Washington, to quote Caps announcer John Walton, finally exorcised the demons, defeating Pittsburgh to advance to their first conference finals since 1997-98. Top-end talent is on display all over the ice, from goal line out, Stamkos, Kucherov, Point, Hedman, Vasilveskiy are a few names for the Lightning with Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Carlson and Holtby for the Capitals. Backstrom isn’t mentioned because he is dealing with a hand injury and his status for at least the beginning of this round is up in the air, which is a huge key for Washington. In addition, Andre Burakovsky, out the first two rounds of the postseason, is skating and might return during this series.
Tampa got key production from Miller and Gourde to advance while Oshie provided similar for Washington. Vasilevskiy and Holtby, who replaces Grubauer in the second game of the first round and is 8-3 in the playoffs, each come in on a roll. Tampa must stay out of the box, as their penalty killing hasn’t been a major issue and power play a key for the Caps. If Backstrom can go, that’s a huge boost for Washington. Washington must be careful not to think the win over Pitt was their Cup Finals, as it was just a step not the final hurdle. On paper, this is a pretty fair match up, with an advantage to Tampa due to their depth on the blue line. But Ovi and Kuz come in on fire, with each possible Conn Smith’s Trophy winners if Washington advances. Tampa’s depth up front paved the way with Tyler Johnson stepping up to have a big series and send the Lightning back to the Cup Finals. Lightning in 6
Winnipeg vs. Las Vegas
Two newbies in the conference finals for their first time in their franchise histories. For Winnipeg, you have to go back to the original Jets team and realize it was 31 years since they had won even one series, while for Vegas, this season has exceeded any kind of fanciful expectations they might have had. Each team deserves to be here. Winnipeg-Nashville could have been a Cup Finals with the Jets winning Game 7, 5-1, their third road win of the series. Las Vegas, using the formula that led to a round one sweep of LA, powered past a pretty good San Jose team to make it to this round.
In short, Winnipeg and Vegas each have a ton of speed and are deep up front. The Jets likely have a better blue line but the Knights D has exceeded expectations. Fleury has big game experience while Helly may be the next great American goalie. The casual fan saw how good Scheifele, Stastny, possible the best deadline acquisition this year, Wheeler, Laine, Connor, Byfuglien and Trouba are, and that’s just touching on some of the names for Winnipeg. Vegas doesn’t have big names, but can match Winnipeg’s production up front with Karlsson, Marchessault, Smith and Haula coupled with strong play from Schmidt, who also provides playoff experience. Perrrault and Little augment Winnipeg's offense and the Jets have to watch out for Tuch from Vegas. Morrissey and Myers lengthen the Jets’ blue line while Fantenburg and Engelland provide depth for Vegas. Fleury has been unconscious this postseason, but Helly outplayed his Nashville counterparts to get to this stage. I think Ehlers has his moment in the sun this round helping the Jets advance. Jets in 7
For New York, the interest level is two-fold. First, we will know at least around where the Rangers' third pick in the first round is, as they own Tampa's pick in that round. Second, I understand rooting for the Lightning, since if Tampa wins the Cup this year, the Rangers get their first round pick next season as well.
Would I be shocked if I was wrong in both series? Not in the slightest because a Vegas-Washington matchup is quite possible and might be orefeeed by the NHL because they can sell the glitz of the strip and Ovechkin in their ad campaigns. As I wrote in my playoff preview blog, predicting the playoffs is at times a futile exercise and that remains true even after round one. As we know, a Cup run is a battle of attribution with injuries playing a major role. Every year, some unsung hero steps up to help lead his team to an unexpected win in either a game or series. This season should be no different. Nothing beats sudden death overtime hockey, especially when your team is not one of the two on the ice because you can just watch as a fan rather than living and dying with each rush up the ice. Settle in and watch the contests in the best time of year in what should be a tremendous conference finals.
New York Rangers Blogger • 
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