Stanley Cup Playoff Takeaways: Conference Quarterfinals
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We have gone from 16 to 8 teams in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the most recent champion of the remaining 8 was Carolina in 2006.
Some droughts will be ended* this year.
*Vegas and Seattle omitted. Six years and two years are not droughts.
Let’s get into what we learned in the first round.
Florida defeats Boston 4 games to 3
The Boston Bruins set the record for the most wins and points in regular season history.
They were, statistically, the best team in history.
That’s why this upset was so shocking.
Or was it?
Let’s discuss these two teams without the record.
The Panthers were the 2022 President’s Trophy Winners who started the season slow with a new head coach but got it going late and made the playoffs, while the Bruins were a good team who got unbelievable goaltending from Linus Ullmark, who has never come close to having a season like this, and Jeremy Swayman, who is a rookie.
So when Ullmark comes back down to Earth in net and the Panthers start scoring lots of goals, is it really that shocking?
I’m not going to say it’s not an upset. It still is.
But people focused too much on the two teams records, and not who the teams truly were.
Toronto defeats Tampa Bay 4 games to 2
The Leafs needed to win this series regardless, simply to get that weight off their backs.
But the way they won this series is more important than if they had just swept Tampa Bay.
The Leafs got destroyed at home in game 1, bad enough to make fans go “Oh no. It’s happening again!”
They responded in game 2 with a demolition of their own.
Then there’s the comebacks on the road in games 3 and 4 leading to overtime wins, including an “it was 4-1” moment that they’ll look back fondly on.
And then, in overtime of game 6 after they couldn’t close the door in 5, they slammed it shut instead of letting Tampa back into Toronto.
More demons were exercised than just getting out of the first round for Toronto.
Carolina defeats New York Islanders 4 games to 2
It’s pretty obvious Carolina was the better team, but those injuries at forward made this series a lot more scary than it should’ve been.
The Islanders already play solid defense and have great goaltending, so a lack of quality forwards for Carolina put them in real danger.
It must have been a relief to see the most unlikely of goals go in through Sorokin to end the series.
But Carolina has some problems going into the second round.
New Jersey defeats New York Rangers 4 games to 3
After a conference final appearance last year, if you told me the Rangers wouldn’t make it back to that point, I would assume it was due to goaltender Igor Shesterkin not performing to the same level he did a year ago.
But with 8.8 goals saved above expected, he performed to the same level.
The team around him, however, did not.
That was never more obvious than in game 7, where the Devils had almost 10 more odd man rushes than the Rangers, and had 5.37 expected goals compared to 1.61 for the Rangers.
In game 5, Igor rightfully laid into his team for their poor performance.
They got the message in game 6. They decided to ignore it for game 7.
Vegas defeats Winnipeg 4 games to 1
This series was lost after game 3.
The Jets, after stealing one in Vegas to get home ice advantage, had Vegas in double overtime after their own 4-1 comeback.
A win there would really put the pressure on Vegas, and be a huge momentum boost for the Jets.
But after a key penalty kill, in front of an excited crowd, a costly turnover gave the game to Vegas.
They got played off the ice in games 4 and 5 to be eliminated, and then got called out by their coach.
Pretty costly goal!
Edmonton defeats Los Angeles 4 games to 2
Someone needs to take the gun away from Edmonton so they stop shooting themselves in the foot.
In game 1, the Oilers took a costly penalty in overtime. The result? A Kings overtime goal.
In game 3, the Oilers took a costly penalty in overtime. The result? You guessed it! A Kings overtime goal!
In game 4, the Oilers went behind 3-0 in the first period. Luckily for them, they fought back to win in overtime.
And then, in game 6 with a 4-3 lead and 10 minutes left before advancing to round 2, Stuart Skinner decided to make an extremely boneheaded play while on the powerplay to tie up the game for the Kings.
Again, luckily for the Oilers, they won and advanced, but whether or not the message is in their heads is yet to be seen.
If they continue to shoot themselves in the foot like that against Vegas, it’ll be a short series.
Seattle defeats Colorado 4 games to 3
I said it before the playoffs started.
Your star players only play a third of the game. Depth is everything in hockey.
When the Avalanche had Nathan Mackinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the ice, they were always a threat to score, while the Kraken top line of Eberle, Beniers and McCann didn’t do much of anything all series.
But when those top lines weren’t on the ice, it was an entirely different game.
The Kraken played the Avalanche off the ice with their depth, and after a game 7, where the only threat to score for Colorado was Mackinnon and both Kraken goals were scored by third liner Oliver Bjorkstrand, the Kraken found themselves advancing as Colorado heads home.
Another Seattle reminder to Denver in the last calendar year that one man does not make a team.
Dallas defeats Minnesota 4 games to 2
I said before the playoffs started that if Kirill Kaprizov doesn’t get going, it will be a short stay for the Wild.
Kaprizov scored the first goal for the Wild this postseason, and then did not have another point the entire series.
Grand opening, grand closing.
