Why Each Team Will/Will Not Win the Stanley Cup: Eastern Conference
Photo by Adrian Kraus from the Associated Press
It’s playoff time in the NHL, and it comes at the end of a very strange season.
Lots of talk about the bad playoff format, loser points, the East being far better than the West.
But all of that is out the window now! A blank slate.
Here is why each Eastern team will, or will not, win the Stanley Cup.
Carolina Hurricanes
Why They Will
They are the deepest team in the East.
They get scoring from everywhere, even if they don’t have superstar forwards, they are excellent defensively, and they’re extremely well coached.
Being able to roll four lines is crucial come playoff time.
Why They Won’t
Goaltending.
If you look at Brandon Bussi & Pyotr Kochetkov’s record and goals allowed average, they look like a great tandom.
But both goaltenders are below a .900 save percentage on the year.
The Canes do a remarkable job preventing teams from getting shots through, but when they do, they go in.
That can sink a series for sure.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Why They Will
They’re a solid team who has experienced star power with no signs of slowing down.
Sidney Crosby, maybe you’ve heard of him, just finished his 21st season, and had his 21st straight point per game season.
Evgeni Malkin, maybe you’ve heard of him, just finished his 20th season, and was a point per game player as well.
The duo has dragged the Penguins to three Cups already, and they frankly haven’t slowed down yet.
Why They Won’t
Those two aren’t spring chicken, Erik Karlsson isn’t getting any younger, and Kris Letang, despite being a Penguins legend, has become a bit of a turnstile defensively.
Add in Stuart Skinner’s playoff woes, and it’s a recipe for an early exit.
Philadelphia Flyers
Why They Will
This team is Philly personified.
They play a very physical brand of hockey that their coach Rick Tocchet wants, Matvei Michkov and Trevor Zegras bring the flash and excitement that can get the crowd on their feet, and Dan Vladar finally had a great season in goal.
They play hard, they play fun, and the crowd loves them.
The Flyers brand of hockey is back.
Why They Won’t
The Flyers brand of hockey doesn’t win Stanley Cups.
Not to mention, ten of their 43 wins this year were in the shootout, which doesn’t exist come playoff time.
I like the direction this team is headed, but they’re not there yet.
Buffalo Sabres
Why They Will
Yep. You read that right.
The Buffalo Sabres are finally back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
And not only are they back, they’re the hottest team in the East.
On December 9th, the Sabres were dead to rights, and it looked like another wasted season.
Since then, they have gone 39-9-5 to finish out the season.
That’s over half the season they played at that high of a level!
This isn’t one of those weird years where everything went right for them and the conference was bad (we will get to that team tomorrow).
The Sabres are just flat out good.
Why They Won’t
The Sabres winning the Stanley Cup?
Really?
Guys, they just made the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
Baby steps.
Tampa Bay Lightning
Why They Will
Let’s see.
They have one of the best forwards in the world in Nikita Kucherov.
They have one of the best defenseman in the world in Victor Hedman.
They have one of the best goalies in the world in Andrei Vasilevskiy.
They have one of the best coaches in the world in Jon Cooper.
I could keep going, but you get the gist.
The core group surrounding them isn’t so bad either.
Why They Won’t
They’re slumping a bit, and they’re slumping against playoff teams.
In the final month of the season they lost to the Sabres three times, Montreal twice, and went 1-1 against Ottawa.
Those tough losses cost them the division when they had a very good shot at it.
Bad time to not be playing your best hockey, especially since Montreal is who they face in round one.
Montreal Canadiens
Why They Will
You’ll never believe this, but the Montreal Canadiens found a really good goalie.
Jakub Dobes had a breakout year, and did so while watching Nick Suzuki get over 100 points, Cole Caufield score 51 goals, and Lane Hutson, in his second full year, almost become a point per game player as a defenseman.
If they keep that up, they can make a run.
Why They Won’t
You don’t win a Stanley Cup with only four guys, and you definitely don’t when they are really the only four guys.
I know Plus/Minus isn’t everything in the NHL, but Nick Suzuki is +37, Cole Caufield is +29, and Lane Hutson is +36.
Nobody else on the team is over +10.
Those three are dragging this team along, and you need depth to win a Cup.
I haven’t seen the Habs get that depth yet.
Boston Bruins
Why They Will
The last time the Bruins won the Stanley Cup, they had good players, but were mainly dragged across the line by their goaltender Tim Thomas.
Jeremy Swayman is playing the role of 2011 Tim Thomas this year, with 28.8 goals saved over expected this season, which was second most in the league.
Let Swayman take the reigns and go get another Cup, Boston.
Why They Won’t
The Bruins are 16-16-9 on the road this year.
And because of the NHL playoff format, the Bruins are the 7th seed more or less in the playoffs despite being the 5th best team points wise, so they’re likely never going to have home ice advantage all postseason.
If they can’t figure it out on the road and drop some games at TD Garden, they’re not long for this.
Ottawa Senators
Why They Will
They’re really good, and they’re red hot to end the season.
I mean, apart from goaltender, there really isn’t a weak spot in the lineup.
Good depth, great defenseman, and a young core that grew up together and saw them make the playoffs last year and take Toronto to 6 games.
Now, they feel they can take the next step and go even farther.
Why They Won’t
Their goaltending isn’t just bad.
It’s atrocious.
The Senators have played three goalies more than 10 games this year, and the BEST one of the bunch was James Reimer with a -0.8 goals saved above expected.
And that’s not even mentioning team captain Brady Tkachuk having his dad on his podcast talking about how bad their main starter Linus Ullmark is.
Good luck getting around that mess…
