NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs 2016: Round 2 Preview

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ue to a scheduling quirk,  the 2016 NHL Playoffs for Round 1 ends tonight, the same night Round 2 begins. Sixteen teams will be reduced to eight (pending the Game 7 match-up tonight between Anaheim and Nashville). Which teams will make it to the Conference Finals?

The Stanley Cup 
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Eastern Conference Round 2:

Washington Capitals vs Pittsburgh Penguins

This is an exciting match-up for story lines as Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin, the respective captains of the Penguins and Capitals, have long been compared to each other. While Ovechkin has been proven to be the greater pure goal scorer, Crosby has a Cup championship and a gold medal, while the Great 8's NHL playoff career has fizzled in the past. Of course this second round match-up is more than just two players, but about two teams. The Penguins dispatched the Rangers in Round 1 with relative ease, including outscoring the Rangers 14-4 in the last 3 games of the series. Pittsburgh's dynamic offense will be a handful for the Capitals. Washington beat an over-matched but spirited Flyer team 4 games to 2 in the first round, but mostly by defense. One presumes that the loaded Caps offense will need to be less profligate to beat the Penguins. I still see the Caps as the favorite here, although this series seems primed for 7 games. Caps in seven, Holtby as series MVP.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Islanders

The Lightning showed a great deal of moxie and pride in beating the Detroit Redwings 4 games to 1, without their All-star captain Steven Stamkos. Most of their lineup also has playoff experience from losing the Cup only just last year to the now eliminated Chicago Blackhawks. The Islanders are an easy team for a neutral to root form having won their first playoff series since 1993 in beating another upstart team, the Florida Panthers. Islander goal-tending and defense and timely scoring, especially from their captain John Tavares, will be a challenge for the Lightning. Who knows how far the Islanders can ride their storybook post season? I see these teams as evenly matched and see another 7 game series, with the Islanders taking Game 7 in Cinderella fashion. 

Western Conference Round 2:

Dallas Stars vs St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues, long a strong regular season team that wilted in the playoffs, finally shed some of that criticism by ousting the defending Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks, in a thrilling seven game series. The Blues have an array of talent in depth, but will it be enough to keep up with the high scoring offense of the Dallas Stars, who defeated an over-matched but prideful Minnesota Wild squad in 6 games? This despite the Wild's nearly heroic comeback in Game 6. Even without Star forward Tyler Seguin, Dallas top-ranked regular season offense shows no signs of abating. Will the Blues be able to continue to silence critics with another round of playoff success? Or can Star's captain Jaime Benn and crew relegate the Blues to another playoff flame-out?  I think the intense series with Chicago may have taken something out of St. Louis and a rested Stars team should win this series in 6 games.

Nashville Predators* vs San Jose Sharks

The one wild card situation is who the Sharks will be playing. The Sharks had a nearly perfect opening round series against a seemingly gassed Kings team, which likely went a long way to put their 2014 playoff implosion in the distant past. Shark's captain Joe Pavelski continues to show his leadership alongside a Shark's power play unit that is lethal. As for the opponent in Round 2, the Ducks would seem like the favorite hosting Game 7, but their last three Game 7's have also been in the Honda Center, all being losses. Ducks leaders Getzlaf, Perry, and Kesler have a lot of pressure to win this match-up, while the Predators, having never been in a Game 7 in their brief organizational history, should be playing loose. I think the Ducks skill finally breaks their recent spate of Game 7 losses and will see the Ducks host the Sharks in Round 2, which should be a hard-hitting series, going 7 games, also to the Ducks, having home ice for the last game.

*Edit: The Predators have held on for a 2-1 victory in Game 7 over Anaheim, extending the Ducks' Game 7 misery another season. Now that the Predators play the Sharks, I will make the alteration to the previous prediction that the Preds will win the series oer the Sharks in 7 games, based off Pekke Rinne looking locked in and Nashville getting uncannily timely, if limited offense.

Drop the puck: this blog-series returns prior to the start of Round 3. 

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