Stanley Cup Playoff Takeaways: Conference Semifinals
Photo by Karl DeBlaker from the Associated Press
Boy, this final four is a little warm, isn’t it?
Unusual for hockey, and probably not very nice for Canada and those up North who love the sport.
But you can’t deny that it’s growing!
Here’s what we learned from round 2.
Hurricanes defeat Devils 4 games to 1
I severely underestimated the Hurricanes depth.
It wasn’t like it was a shocking miscalculation.
Their best forward, Andrei Svechnikov, is on long term injured reserve. Tuevo Teravainen was out for the entire series. I’m convinced Sebastian Aho is hurt but is simply powering through because they’re already missing two crucial forwards.
I figured against a high powered Devils team that they’d struggle to keep up.
But man, I was very wrong.
The Canes breezed through the round, beating the Devils in 5 games, and the 3 goals they scored in game 5 were the least they scored all series.
I won’t make that mistake again.
The Canes are real scary.
Panthers defeat Maple Leafs 4 games to 1
If you pay big time money for a player, you need them to perform in big time spots.
Sergei Bobrovsky was heading towards being one of the worst contracts in sports, signing for 7 years at $10 million per year, and giving the Panthers below average production and, in a weird sort of way, becoming the 3rd string goalie behind Spencer Knight, who is out in the NHLPA assistance program, and Alex Lyon who was called up to relieve Knight and stole the starting job from Bobrovsky.
But in round 1, Florida called upon Bobrovsky to give them help against the Bruins, and he has delivered ever since with 9.3 goals saved above expected and putting the Panthers in the conference finals.
That horrible contract is finally starting to pay off.
And on the other side of the ice, where three huge contracts have paid nothing but dividends as the Maple Leafs offense has been lethal for years, they went missing.
John Tavares, Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, who make a combined $33,543,250 dollars, had 6 total points in the 5 game series.
You pay for production.
Florida got it. Toronto didn’t.
Golden Knights defeat Oilers 4 games to 2
Stuart Skinner is a rookie of the year candidate, and had a solid season in Edmonton.
That solid season gave the Oilers hope that they could make a run with their talented offense.
And they got production! Connor McDavid had 20 points in 12 games. Leon Draisaitl had 18 points in 12 games. They scored at will.
But they didn’t get what they needed from Skinner.
Skinner was -6.2 on goals saved above expected, which sank the Oilers in the end.
But it’s hard to fully blame Skinner, because it simply has to come down to coaching.
After a brutal start to game 4 against the Kings, the Oilers pulled Skinner and went to Jack Campbell, who played great as the Oilers came back and won.
Head coach Jay Woodcroft, correctly, in my opinion, put Skinner back in net for game 5.
But Skinner never got better, and Campbell continued to sit on the bench as the Golden Knights scored at will on Skinner.
Woodcroft never saw the sign to make a switch, and it’s another wasted season in Edmonton.
The Golden Knights, one year after missing the postseason, have made that Jack Eichel trade very much so worth their while, as have the Sabres for what they got for him.
A perfect example of a win-win trade.
Stars defeat Kraken 4 games to 3
The Stars are in a perfect sweet spot right now.
They have young studs, like Jason Robertson and Wyatt Johnston.
They have players smack in their prime, such as goaltender Jake Oettinger and defenseman Miro Heiskanen.
And they have the old guard, like Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin and Joe Pavelski, who have experience and are hungry for their first ever Cup.
It’s the perfect strategy for long term success, and it showed in this series vs the Kraken.
Jason Robertson had a rough series, but Joe Pavelski backed him up and had 8 goals on his own.
Jake Oettinger had some rough games, including a difficult game 6, so Miro Heiskanen played 32 minutes in game 7 to alleviate some of the pressure the Kraken could put on him.
The Stars are put together very well, and it has them one round away from being back in the Stanley Cup Final.
And the Kraken, in only their second year of existence, are building something similar.
