We’re pretty much at the halfway point of the first round. Everyone has played two or three games. Teams are beginning to get a sense of who the opponent is. We’re starting to get a grasp of what these series are.
And with all that, a game of what we (I) expected going in as well what maybe wasn’t expected. Lets dig in.
Expected: Star power. Connor McDavid has six points through two games, putting up five assists in the playoff opener after putting up 100 assists in the regular season. Zach Hyman has followed up his 54-goal campaign with four goals through a pair of playoff games. Brad Marchand, who tied Cam Neely for the Bruins all-time lead in playoff goals (55), is tied with McDavid for the league lead with six points, albeit through three games. Cale Makar has five points. Matthew Tkachuk has three goals.
Not expected: Lopsided series. There’s a chance three of the four East series are sweeps. Vegas is up 2-0 on Dallas and looks like the same buzzsaw that won the Cup last year. That looks like one in danger of being over quick. The Avalanche are 1-1 with the Jets headed back to Colorado, the series played in a style that benefits the Avs. The last two seasons have yielded a combined eight Game 7s in the opening round; three last season and five in 2022. This year looks like the year where water reaches its level on that side of things.
Expected: Great goaltending. If for no other reason because it’s the playoffs and if accuracy mattered to the founding fathers of this fever dream we call playoff hockey, they would’ve just called it goalie. We’ve seen more than a handful of how-did-he-make-that type saves, highlighted by the Sergei Bobrovsky stop in Game 2 that looked like something out of a video game.
Not expected: Jake Oettinger outplayed by Vegas once again. Oettinger finished out the regular season looking like the backbone of a team primed to make a Cup run. But he’s been largely subpar through two games of these playoffs, allowing six goals and stopping pucks at an .850 rate, outplayed by Vegas counterpart Logan Thompson. And maybe something more alarming if you’re a Stars fan – Oettinger has an .874 save percentage and 3.57 GAA over his last 15 playoff games dating to the start of last year’s Second Round. That won’t cut it this time of year.
Expected: Maple Leafs/Bruins has been most dramatic. Two division rivals, two teams that have faced each other three prior times in the playoffs in the previous 11 years. Tyler Bertuzzi, Max Domi and Ryan Reaves on one side. Brad Marchand and Pat Maroon on the other side. Two of the game’s elite players going head to head in David Pastrnak and Auston Matthews. Through three games, it’s lived up to it and then some. And now you’ve even got the two coaches going back and forth. Unless the game has completely passed me by, we’ll likely come out of this series expecting a penalty-filled, fight where a hockey game breaks out type of affair between these clubs next season.
Not Expected: Golden Knights running away from the Stars. Though, hand up, I should’ve given if the last seven years have taught us anything it’s that everything comes up Vegas. After a regular season that was largely uninspiring, the Golden Knights suddenly look like the juggernaut that ran through the league en route to a Cup last spring. Jonathan Marchessault looks like the guy that won the Conn Smythe, Jack Eichel looks like the guy that made as strong a case to win the Conn Smythe as you could without winning it, the defense has stiffened up and Thompson has held it down in the crease.
Expected: William Nylander steals headlines. Because he’s one of the game’s most dynamic figures, on and off the ice. They don’t call him Willy Styles for no reason.
Not expected: William Nylander steals headlines.. by not playing. Nylander played all 82 games and put up a career-high 98 points only to miss the first three (and likely more) games of the playoffs with a reported migraine issue. The Leafs just simply can’t have anything go right for them ever.
Expected: Islanders/Hurricanes among lowest scoring. Two teams that love a good 2-1 game. Game 2 was a fun one, a 5-3 Hurricanes comeback win. The other two were 3-2 and 3-1, the latter of which included an empty netter. Kind of what we expected.
Not expected: Avalanche/Jets among highest-scoring. The two clubs have combined for 20 goals through two games – tied with Kings/Oilers for the most. Not something you really expected in a series that while, yes, involved the high-tempo Avalanche, also featured a Jets club that had the league’s best goalie and second-best defense.
Expected: Rangers sliding past the Caps. The Capitals/Rangers series is two games old and it doesn’t look like it’ll be more than four of five games.
Not expected: Panthers on verge of sweeping the Lightning. This had the look of a series destined to go seven games. But the Panthers have really just had a little bit more than the Bolts in every category and it’s proven to be the difference. The Cats are 14-1 in their last 15 Eastern Conference playoff games and have followed the same blueprint – a methodical, heavy game backed by strong goaltending.
Expected: Canada bringing the heat. The spectacle that is the white out in Winnipeg is something you can’t turn away from no matter how hard you try. The crowd virtually draped in white, along with the ice (which is also white) then the navy Jets jerseys serving as a nice complement is an unreal scene. And it’s like that everywhere in Canada. The scenes inside the arena are must-see, all while about 10-fold people gather outside the arena. It’s like football in the south or soccer in Europe.
Not expected: Potentially only one Canadian team advancing out of the First Round (if that). In the continued search for the first Canadian Stanley Cup since 1993, it looked like a pretty good possibility at least three of the four Canadian participants in these playoffs would reach the final eight – with the Oilers heavily favored to beat the Kings, the Canucks expected to take care of the Predators along with either the Jets or Maple Leafs potentially getting out. Well so far, the Maple Leafs are down 2-1 to the Bruins, the Jets and Canucks are tied 1-1 with the Avalanche and Predators, respectably, and looking vulnerable. Meanwhile, the Oilers, like the Jets and Canucks, lost home ice to the Kings on Wednesday in their 5-4 overtime defeat.
Puck Watching 