With a memorable and bone-crunching opening round in the rearview mirror, the National Hockey League turns to the second round as eight teams went home with their dreams dashed while eight teams are a little more bruised and battered than they were when the playoffs began over two weeks ago. Four teams remain in the Western Conference and each team is 12 wins away from their dreams of hoisting the Stanley Cup coming to fruition.
Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 2 Eastern Confrence Preview and Predictions
In the Western Conference, remaining in the Central Division bracket are the No. 2 seeded and defending Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks and the No. 4 and second wild-card Minnesota Wild while the Pacific Division has boiled down to the No. 1 seeded and Western Conference-best Anaheim Ducks and the No. 3 Los Angeles Kings.
A quick look back at the first round, Sports World News predicted the Ducks to beat the Dallas Stars in five games (Result: Ducks in six), the Sharks to defeat the Los Angeles Kings in seven games (Kings in seven), the Colorado Avalanche to top the Wild in five (Wild in seven) and the Blackhawks to defeat the St. Louis Blues in seven (Blackhawks in six).
NHL Hart Trophy Predictions after Finalsists Announced
Overall, SWN went 2-2 in the Western Conference and 6-2 in total in Round 1.
Central Division Finals: Chicago Blackhawks (No. 2) vs. Minnesota Wild (No. 4)
The Blackhawks win over the Blues was slated as an upset based on seeding as they came in as the No. 3 seed compared to St. Louis' No. 2, but in reality no one really counted the defending champions out. The Blackhawks roared out of an 0-2 hole to win the next four games and take the series in six. The Wild were able to fend off the youth and speed of the Avalanche and crawl out of 2-0 and 3-2 series holes to win the series in seven games with a dramatic overtime triumph in Game 7.
Minnesota took three of the five meetings from Chicago this season with the Blackhawks winning the most recent meeting 3-2 on April 3 in a shootout at the United Center. These teams are also familiar with each other in the postseason as the Blackhawks topped the Wild in five games in last year's quarterfinals en route to an eventual Stanley Cup win.
Captain Jonathan Toews and top-pair defenseman Duncan Keith paced Chicago in Round 1 by each notching a team-high seven points. Toews tied for the team lead with three goals while adding four assists and Keith notched two tallies and a team-best five helpers.
Keith's defensive partner Brent Seabrook was suspended for three games last series but managed to light the lamp twice and add four helpers for six points in the opening round. Patrick Kane tied Seabrook for second on the team in the opening round series with six points off of three goals and three assists while his plus-six rating tied him for second in the entire playoff field through Round 1.
In the first round, the Blackhawks finished with the third-best mark in goals-allowed per game (2.33). On special teams, the Blackhawks power play was ninth out of the 16 teams by converting at 15% while The Wild were 10th (14.3%). Chicago boasted the best penalty kill through the first round, staving off 93.1% of other team's man-advantages while Minnesota finished fourth (88%).
The Wild stunned the Avalanche off of a Game 7 overtime-winning goal by Nino Niederreiter and come into the series boasting Zach Parise, who is tied for the NHL lead with 10 playoff points off of three goals and seven assists after Round 1. His seven assists rank him tied for second in the NHL Playoffs in helpers.
Mikko Koivu finished second on the team with six points and proved he is a play-maker by notching five helpers and lighting the lamp once. Minnesota had four players with five points in the opening round, including Charlie Coyle who had a huge series and tied with Parise for the team lead with three goals while adding two assists and regular-season leading scorer Jason Pominville also contributed, notching a goal and four assists for five points.
Minnesota goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov lost his job to Darcy Kuemper down the stretch of the series with the Avalanche, however with Kuemper suffering an undisclosed injury in Game 7 of the opening round, Bryzgalov will get the nod for at least Game 1.
Bryzgalov is 1-2 with a ghastly 4.25 goals-against average this series along with a .826 save percentage. Corey Crawford will man the crease for Chicago and he comes into the series with a 4-2 record and ranks third in the playoffs with a stingy 1.98 GAA and .935 save percentage.
Final Thoughts: The Wild have a great team with a lot of contributors like Parise, Coyle and Koivu, but the Blackhawks boast a very deep lineup with the likes of Toews, Kane and Marian Hossa among others and they definitely have a goaltending edge if the erratic Bryzgalov remains in the crease past Game 1 and even if Kuemper does return, Crawford has the experience of backstopping his team to a Stanley Cup. While the Wild could put up a fight and steal a couple of games, this series may end up mirroring last year's Round 1 series with the Blackhawks standing tall.
The Pick: Blackhawks over the Wild in five.
Pacific Division Finals: Anaheim Ducks (No. 1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (No. 3):
The Ducks were amazing at home down the stretch of the season and did what most thought they would and toppled the Dallas Stars to get here, though the series was a heavily contested affair and wasn't quite a cakewalk for Anaheim. Los Angeles shocked the world and did what only three other teams have ever done by digging their way out of a 3-0 series hole against the San Jose Sharks and came back to win the next four games, closing it out with a 5-1 rout just two nights ahead of the start of this series.
The Ducks may have been the best team in the Western Conference, but every hockey fan knows that when the Kings get hot they can win it all as they did in 2012 when they came in as an eighth seed and ousted the Vancouver Canucks in five games, the St. Louis Blues in four, the Phoenix Coyotes in five and the New Jersey Devils in six en route to hoisting their first ever Stanley Cup.
Anaheim won four of the five meetings this season, including a game at Dodgers Stadium in January as part of the Stadium Series, and will look to stop the Kings from getting on a roll.
As was the storyline in the regular season, Corey Perry and team captain and Hart Trophy finalist Ryan Getzlaf led the Ducks in Round 1 over the Stars with each player notching seven points. Getzlaf earned his by tying a team-high with three goals in the series while adding two assists as Perry notched a team-best five helpers while lighting the lamp twice.
Anaheim also had five players with four points in the first round series, including Nick Bonino who tied Getzlaf with three goals and added an assist along the way.
The Kings ranked second in Round 1 with an average of 3.75 goals per game after notching just eight goals in the first three losses to the Sharks and then dropping 14 goals on San Jose for the final four games. Los Angeles ranked sixth out of the 16 teams in the first round on the power play (25%) while Anaheim ranked fourth (26.9%). The Ducks penalty kill ranked third overall at an 89.7% clip while the Kings were fifth (87.5%).
Anze Kopitar led the Kings in the first round by ranking tied for first in the NHL Playoffs in points (10), tied for second in goals (4) and tied for third overall in assists (6). Justin Williams is tied with Kopitar for second in the playoffs with four tallies.
Williams also added two assists to tie Jeff Carter (two goals, four assists) for second on the Kings in points with six through the first round.
Perhaps the best player for Los Angeles was top-pair defenseman Drew Doughty, who logged an average of 26:31 time on ice in the series while finishing second on the team in points (7) and tying Kopitar for the team lead in assists (6).
In net, Jonathan Quick backstopped Los Angeles to the second round with a 4-3 record along with a 3.10 goals-against average and a .914 save percentage while the goaltending job is up in the air for Anaheim as Frederik Andersen started the first five games last series until Jonas Hiller closed it out in Game 6.
Final Thoughts: This series could very much go either way as the Ducks have been amazing at home and were the Western Conference's best team in the regular season while the Kings are getting red-hot and look to ride the wave of making history in the first round into motivation for Round 2. Both teams have a great depth of talent, but it could very well come down to goaltending. While Quick allowed the most goals in the postseason during Round 1 against San Jose, he also faced the most amount of shots and had to make the most amount of saves out of any goalie in the playoffs. If Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau keeps flip-flopping goalies it could lead to some inconsistencies. The series could go either way, but in the end the Kings will continue their magical run and top the Ducks.
The Pick: Kings over the Ducks in seven games.
The Stanley Cup Playoffs have been amazing thus far through the first round, and the second round promises to be full of more twists turns and surprises along the way.
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