Stanley Cup Playoffs Round 1 Takeaways

Photo from The Sporting News

That was probably the best first round series of Stanley Cup Playoff hockey I can remember for a very, very long time.

So let’s discuss what we learned.

Florida defeats Washington in 6 games

The Caps took the President’s Trophy Winners and made life miserable for them. and were about inches away from a commanding 3-1 series lead and on the cusp of a major upset.

Those inches ended up mattering, because the Panthers then tied game 4 and won it in overtime, then overcame a 3-0 deficit in game 5 to win, and finished it off in OT in game 6.

The Caps were right there, but small mistakes/bad fortune against a team as good as Florida ended up costing them in the end.

But that’s nothing to hang your head at.

Speaking of that…

Tampa Bay defeats Toronto in 7 games

Boy oh boy.

I get it. We should make jokes and laughs because this is now the 5th straight season the Toronto Maple Leafs were eliminated in the final game of the opening round.

But this year was different.

This year, they went toe to toe against the two time defending Stanley Cup champions and fell just short.

There is zero reason to panic in Toronto with how this season went and how this postseason series went considering who they had to play.

But I would understand why management might, considering the prior 4 seasons before this one as well.

But that’s a huge mistake.

Carolina defeats Boston in 7 games

The Bruins goaltending is a big question mark, and there are severe questions on if captain Patrice Bergeron will return to the team.

If he doesn’t, the Bruins need to be committed to a season or two of retooling.

They don’t need to rebuild by any means, because they do have quality pieces on the roster like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand.

But they need to take a step back to take another leap forward.

New York defeats Pittsburgh in 7 games

Despite Penguins fans continuing to chant “IGOR” over and over again at Rangers netminder Igor Shesterkin, it didn’t seem to work.

And you can tell it didn’t work, because according to TopDownHockey and JFreshHockey, there wasn’t a single more lopsided series than the Penguins and Rangers.

The Penguins should have clobbered the Rangers and been in and out of the series in 5 games considering how much better they were, but Shesterkin’s play in the final 3 games is what gave the Rangers the series win.

Colorado defeats Nashville in 4 games

Juuse Saros is the type of goalie that can steal a series for a team and help pull off a big upset.

But Juuse Saros didn’t play for Nashville, so they had absolutely no chance of doing so and it showed almost immediately considering the Avalanche went up 5-0 in the first period of game 1.

It was a bloodbath, which makes sense considering how much better Colorado is than Nashville.

St. Louis defeats Minnesota in 6 games

Minnesota could have had a chance in this series if they didn’t fiddle around with goaltending and stopped taking penalties.

But hey, maybe next year they’ll learn their lesson.

Edmonton defeats Los Angeles in 7 games

If you told me that Edmonton would get pushed to the ropes by the Kings, I’d say it’s likely due to the fact that Mike Smith laid a big ole egg and made it hard on them.

Well, that actually didn’t happen. Mike Smith was great! He even had 3 shutouts!

So what is it then?

I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. They won the series.

But they had solid goaltending, they have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid and another top 10 player right behind him in Leon Draisaitl.

Why was this so complicated?

Maybe that’s just what the Oilers are these days.

Or MAYBE, it’s because they wear their dark blue alternates in the playoffs instead of their iconic royal blue and orange.

My guess is that one.

Calgary defeats Dallas in 7 games

People talk about Jonathan Quick in 2012, or Tim Thomas in 2011, or Jean-Sebastien Giguere in 2003.

Goalies who went ballistic during the postseason and won the Cup (or almost in Giguere’s case) by carrying the teams on their backs.

Jonathan Quick had a 13.3 goals saved above expected in 20 games played in 2012. Tim Thomas had 20 in 25 games played in 2011, which is amazing!

Giguere? 18.8 in 21 games played in 2003.

Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger had an 11.1 goals saved above expected in 7 games played.

And they lost the series.

Now, we don’t know if those numbers would have continued had they moved on or if they would have dropped.

Quite frankly, I don’t care.

That was one of, if not the best playoff series I’ve seen from a goaltender.

As for the rest of the Stars, that’s now 2019 and 2022 where your goaltender gave you everything you needed in a game 7 before you lost in overtime because you couldn’t get the final goal.

Try your best to make sure that trend doesn’t continue…