The Wild have been more inconsistent, and they don't come into the playoffs at the top of their game. Pick - Stars beat Wild 4-2Īustin: The Stars have played like a top-10 team all season, and when they are at their best, they look like a real Stanley Cup contender. If that turns out to be the case, how long will Fleury's leash be? I do believe that we'll see both goalies in this series, and that's not a recipe for success. Gustavsson makes more sense, as he's had a much stronger campaign, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised if head coach Dean Evason goes with the veteran in Fleury to start the series. For the Wild, it'll be interesting to see who gets the start between the pipes out of Marc-Andre Fleury and Filip Gustavsson. Jason Robertson has become one of the league's most lethal goal scorers and the amount of depth that the Stars have is out of this world. They're an offensive juggernaut that ranked seventh in goals-per-game (3.41) throughout the regular season. However, the Stars are definitely the better team in my eyes. (3) WildĬhris: The Wild and Stars were both battling with the Avalanche for the Central Division crown down the stretch. Pick - Avalanche beat Kraken 4-1 (2) Stars vs. It'll be fun to see playoff hockey in Climate Pledge Arena, but Colorado will spoil the party rather quickly. For Colorado, Alexandar Georgiev has never started a playoff game, but he is coming off a much stronger regular season than either goalie in Seattle. Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones have combined for one of the league's worst save percentages again this year, and that is a major problem against this Avs team. The biggest issue for the Kraken is in goal. Pick - Avalanche beat Kraken 4-1Īustin: Seattle has solid depth, and the scoring is balanced throughout all four lines, but the team may not have enough firepower to match the talent that fills Colorado's bench. Sure, this isn't the same loaded Avalanche roster from a season ago, but they're clearly the better team here. They'll be without captain Gabriel Landeskog for the entire postseason, but Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar bring a ton of firepower that Seattle just doesn't possess. The Avalanche have dealth with a ton of injuries, but they still won the Central Division and are getting hot at the right time. Their reward? Getting to face the defending Stanley Cup champions in the opening round. Pick - Oilers beat Kings 4-2Ĭhris: In just their second NHL season, the Kraken are headed to the postseason for the first time. If the Kings' goaltending was in a better place, I would be more tempted to pick them, but the Oilers just have too much firepower. The biggest x-factor in this series will be each side's goaltending situation. The battle between elite defensive forwards Anze Kopitar and Phillip Danault and peak Connor McDavid will be a lot of fun to watch. On the other side, the Kings have been one of the best defensive teams in hockey all season, allowing the second fewest expected goals at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick. Edmonton might give up a little more the other way, but the defense has improved drastically with the addition of Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner has become a reliable starting goaltender. Pick - Oilers beat Kings 4-2Īustin: The Oilers have an explosive offense that features a 60-goal scorer, a 50-goal scorer and two 30-goal scorers. While the Kings surpassed expectations, I just think that McDavid and company will be too much for them. These two teams split their four meetings during the regular season, so it's going to likely be a tight series. He's has put together a season for the ages as he recorded a mind-boggling 153 points, and led the way for the Oilers. Pick - Jets beat Golden Knights 4-3 (2) Oilers vs. While Logan Thompson, Laurent Brossoit and Jonathan Quick have been anywhere from solid to really good for the Golden Knights, can you bet on that trio in the playoffs? I'd rather roll the dice with Hellebuyck and pick the Jets to pull off the upset. Connor Hellebuyck is a top-three goaltender in the NHL, and he is capable of carrying Winnipeg past Vegas on his own. Even if Mark Stone is back in the lineup for the Golden Knights, the Jets have the biggest advantage in this series. The Jets went 11-8-1 in that same span, but they were much better at five-on-five, controlling 56.5% of the expected goals. Austin: The Golden Knights went 14-3-3 down the stretch, but they controlled just 46.9% of the five-on-five expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick.
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