Wow! It is unbelievable! The New York Islanders are the first team since the 1993 Buffalo Sabres to sweep a playoff series and then get swept in the next round after they easily swept the underwhelming Pittsburgh Penguins and then proceeded to get swept by the feisty Carolina Hurricanes who beat the defending Cup Champs, the Washington Capitals, in overtime of the seventh game. The Islanders were pretty evenly matched with the Hurricanes in most of the stats' departments and they played pretty well throughout the series. Granted, the Hurricanes played better than the Islanders defensively, holding the Islanders to only five goals in the series and capitalized on several mistakes by the Islanders defence to spark their offence, which outscored Barry Trotz’s team 13-5. Some significant mistakes include a turnover in game one before Jordan Staal scored the overtime winner and when Robin Lehner turned the puck over in the third period of game three which led to a Justin Williams game winner which effectively sealed the series. I really had faith that the Islanders would go to the ECF especially because Washington lost against Carolina in the first round and Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh had already been swept. But these “Bunch of Jerks” are headed to the ECF for the first time since 2009. Congrats! Also, I predicted the Islanders win in five games, but the Carolina Hurricanes won in four games. The madness of these insane NHL playoffs continues.
After sweeping the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the President Trophy this year, the Columbus Blue Jackets felt super confident heading into their second-round matchup with the Boston Bruins who beat the evenly matched Toronto Maple Leafs in a hard-fought seven-game series. The Blue Jackets played very well at the start of the series and Sergei Bobrovsky reverted to his dominant form in net, similar to how he played against the Lightning. Despite being a little rusty in game one because of the week’s rest they had after advancing to round two, the Blue Jackets defence played amazing in game one and Columbus controlled the pace of most of that game, despite losing in overtime. Columbus dominated games two and three for the most part, including possession time, shots and hits despite being beat in the faceoff circle. The Bruins have several guys who are very good at faceoffs like Brad Marchand, Patrice Bergeron, etc. After being outplayed in the first three games of the series and being down 2-1 in the series after a Matt Duchene double OT winner in game three, Boston picked it up in games four, five and six. They were more physical, faster, still dominant in the faceoff circle and they were able to play with leads. That was key in winning the series, they are 8-0 in the playoffs when leading after 40 minutes. The Blue Jackets also couldn’t score, they scored four goals in three games and averaged under two goals per game this series, compared to about 4.25 last series. In the final three games, Bobrovsky was good, but Tuukka Rask played better, allowing only four goals on 115 shots and won two crucial games on the road only giving up one goal that shouldn’t have even counted because it hit the netting. Their young defence also played a big role in helping Rask. This was the deciding factor in Boston’s series win. Bruins and Canes in the Eastern Conference Finals. Charlie McAvoy also got suspended one-game suspension for the hit to the head against the Blue Jackets’ Josh Anderson when he should’ve got suspended for at least five. Also, he only got a two-minute penalty, he should’ve been ejected but at least he was facing the player he hit, unlike Marchand. Because the refs gave the Vegas Golden Knights player a five-minute penalty that should’ve been two, they didn’t want to accidentally give another five-minute major that shouldn’t be called and get yelled at again. But for goodness sakes, the play stopped already, take a minute to look at the replay. I hate how the NHL has replay but some stuff is not reviewable or challengeable. Dang-it, NHL. Anyway, Hurricanes vs Bruins in the ECF. I got the Canes in seven.
The St. Louis Blues and the Dallas Stars who are both coming off amazing victories in the first round of the playoffs; the Blues took down the red-hot Winnipeg Jets in six games and the Stars took down the well-rounded Nashville Predators in six games. Entering this series, both teams were pretty evenly matched. Both teams were alright on offence, but they both had excellent goaltending (Binnington and Bishop played amazing all season long up to the end of this series) and had a lot of talent on defence. It was a defensive battle all series long, both teams combined for only 30 goals in six games, one of the lower numbers so far this playoffs. The Blues have veteran talent on their blue line such as Jay Bouwmeester, Alex Pietrangelo and Michael Del Zotto and the Stars have a mix of veteran leaders and rookies with players like Marc Methot and John Klingberg. Both of these defences are very good and have been playing like that all season long, including the first two rounds of the playoffs. However, Dallas has $15 million invested in their defence, which is very cheap for good production. St. Louis has $28 million, which makes sense because of their high talent level. The series was very evenly matched. St. Louis won game one, Dallas tied the series in game two. St. Louis took a 2-1 lead, in game four Dallas tied it. Dallas took game five, St. Louis won game six to force a game seven. Both teams played well defensively in game seven, but the difference was the Blues’ defence in the second period. The Stars only took one shot on goal in the 2nd period. St. Louis completely controlled all momentum in this game. Ben Bishop was the only reason why the game was tied 1-1 after 40 minutes. The third period was even, but St. Louis won in double overtime on a counter attack. Great series, Blues advance to WCF.
The Sharks and Avalanche both had impressive wins in the first round of the playoffs. The Sharks came back from a 3-1 series deficit and in game seven scored four goals on a controversial five-minute major penalty that shouldn’t have been called. Meanwhile, the Colorado Avalanche dominated the Calgary Flames and beat them in five games. Their offence, defence and goaltending were better than the Flames’. This series was very evenly matched and Colorado’s high powered offence with the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen was matched by the excellent talent on the San Jose Sharks’ defence led by Erik Karlsson, Dan Boyle and David Schlemko. Both goalies, Jordan Binnington and Martin Jones both had an amazing series despite allowing a few bad goals at some certain points in the series. The potent San Jose Sharks’ offence led by Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, Logan Couture and Tomas Hertl was the difference in this series. Their ability to win faceoffs, control possession time and create counter attacks from their defence was insane. They also did a very good job of getting lots of chances to score and scoring lots of goals. This series was a roller coaster. The two teams were pretty evenly matched for the most part and when San Jose would take a lead in the series which they did three times, the Colorado Avalanche would win the next game and even the series up. So that being said, the Sharks were going to another game seven after the emotional one against Vegas. San Jose struck fast and controlled the pace for most of the first period and took a 2-0 lead. The Avalanche controlled possession in the last four minutes of the first period and cut the lead in half with seconds left in the frame. Midway through the second period, Colin Wilson tied the game 2-2 on a pass from Nathan MacKinnon. But, it was ruled after a Sharks’ coaches challenge that Gabriel Landeskog, the sixth man on the ice was offside. He hadn’t put both feet on the bench before making a change. He still had one foot on the ice in the offensive zone when the puck crossed the line. Even if it wasn’t offside, it would have been too many men. Another favourable call goes San Jose’s way in game seven. The Sharks added a goal later in the second period to make it 3-1 and the Avalanche couldn’t come back. Sharks vs Blues in the WCF. I got the Sharks in seven.
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