One of the most exciting opening rounds of playoff hockey in recent years is sadly over, and the inevitable letdown of round two begins tonight.
What did we learn from the opening round?
The Habs are a playoff juggernaut...
...at least when
playing against an AHL-quality backup goalie and that guy's backup. The
Habs were the only team to sweep in the opening round, and against a
higher ranked seed no less, yet they aren't really world beaters. The
drop off between Ben Bishop and Anders Lindback and Kristers Gudlevskis
was huge and Montreal took full advantage. Not that anyone outside of
Quebec is really viewing them as anything more than the underdog against
the Bruins, but if there's one team the Bruins seem to have some
trouble with (read: don't steamroll), it's the Habs. They are their
kryptonite.
The Sharks are still the Sharks
Unbelievably,
they did it again. No, not blow a playoff series in horrific fashion.
Sucker us all in to believing they were Stanley Cup bound. Despite the
Sharks' near 10-year history of being considered a Cup contender only to
bow out of the playoffs early, they were still trendy picks to make it
out of a tough Western Conference and vie for their first Stanley Cup.
Amazing that they can continually tantalize people with their regular
season dominance and then suddenly lose it all at the most inopportune
moments. I have wrote disparaging remarks about the Sharks for years and
shrugged off everything Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau have
accomplished, yet I too jumped on the bandwagon and had them pegged for
glory. When will we learn?
The Blues are not the new Sharks
Even
though the Sharks are still the Sharks, the Blues could be making a
case that they are deserving of the chokers mantle. The Blues of the
90s/early-2000s were always a great regular season team that could never
hack it in the playoffs, and some might say the new iteration of the
Blues are the same. But it's hard to pinpoint what, if anything, is
really wrong with the Blues. Apart from being blasted in Game 6, the
Blues fought the Hawks about as tight as you can through the first five
games. Only one contest was decided by more than a goal and that was won
2-0 by the Hawks thanks to an empty netter. The Blues will have to
decide what to do with Ryan Miller (who certainly didn't shine in the
playoffs, or the last handful of games in the regular season), but other
than maybe looking for a little more offense, the Blues don't really
have to make any major changes and can still be considered contenders
next year. There's no shame in losing to the Hawks, the only shame is if
you blow up a good team because of it.
Nathan MacKinnon has arrived
MacKinnon's
63 points in the regular season were the third most by a teenage rookie
in the past decade, behind only Patrick Kane (72) and Sidney Crosby
(102). He also grew strong as the season progressed, with 39 points in
43 games after the new year. In the playoffs he really took over,
amassing 10 points in seven games—all of which came in three multi-point
binges.
Pittsburgh is in trouble
The Pens'
lack of depth is a real problem, as any time Sidney Crosby or Evgeni
Malkin aren't carrying the team there is a very real chance anyone
can dominate Pittsburgh. The Blue Jackets don't have a lot of high-end
talent, but there is enough decent players on every line that the
Penguins looked at one point like they were going to add another team to
the list of playoff chokers. Against teams with both depth and high-end
talent—I'd say New York qualifies, and Boston definitely does—the
Penguins are ripe for an upset. That isn't even considering Marc-Andre
Fleury's penchant for a meltdown.
The Conference Final could be a Gary Bettman dream
The heavy favourites in the second round are Chicago and Boston, and you should probably give LA the edge over Anaheim, especially because the Ducks are so banged up and have questionable goaltending. That's three huge US markets poised to make the Conference Finals, and then you get either New York (huge US market) or Pittsburgh (highlighted by the league's poster boy). Gary Bettman is happy right now.
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