Here we go. The final 8. Although, Montreal has decided to keep that number at 9 for the moment, but that could change by the end of the night. For now, we’re just going to look at these 2 series, Boston vs New York and Carolina vs Tampa Bay. Will the big bad Bruins be able to eliminate the snoozefest Barry Trotz-led Islanders? Or will the reigning Stanley Cup Champions be able to continue their back-to-back dreams into the final 4 against the first seeded Hurricanes?
I think that this is the least interested I am with any second-round matchup. That’s nothing against the Bruins, who had a very entertaining and impressive series against the Washington Capitals. The New York Islanders are probably going to kill their fun. Not by being the better team, but by trying to play their very slow and boring style of play. They were able to defeat the Penguins in 6 games with some help from Tristan Jarry, but I have a feeling that they won’t be able to do the same thing against the Bruins and Rask.
Despite me thinking that Pastrnak looked injured in the first few games against the Capitals, in that game 5 he looked as good as he ever has. The line of him, Bergeron, and Marchand is going to be very difficult to stop for the Islanders. The Bruins added depth up-front only helps them in that department. Speaking of that depth, Craig Smith has had an impressive postseason so far. The line of him, Krejci, and Hall is a very good second line and I think it puts the Bruins forward core ahead of the Islanders in this series. Charlie McAvoy is still extremely underrated. To be fair, all 5 of his points were on the powerplay, but that doesn’t mean that he played bad 5-on-5 whatsoever. McAvoy played a huge role in shutting down the offensive firepower of the Capitals at even-strength. Only 1 even-strength point in total from Ovechkin, Backstrom, Kuznetsov, and Carlson show that. Tuukka Rask is still not liked by a bunch of Boston fans. I don’t know what they have against him, because he has only been fantastic in the playoffs for Boston. He is going to play much better against the Islanders than Jarry did, and I wouldn't be surprised if he dragged Boston through this series.
Matt Barzal was not very good in the series against the Penguins. 3 points in 6 games aren’t necessarily bad, but I don’t think he looked noticeable at all. Besides 3 or 4 rushes across all 6 games, in which he didn’t convert, he just didn’t look good at all. He was completely shut down, and if the Bruins do the same thing I think that they’ll have a more positive outcome than Pittsburgh did. Pulock and Pelech were once again bright spots for the Islanders. Besides Pulocks' bad game 2, he was solid all series. He even produced more offensively in this series than he did in the regular season, and the Isles will need more of that from him against Boston. Beauvillier was the second-best player for the Islanders against Pittsburgh. We’ll get to the best in a second, but Beauvillier was fantastic. He was a lot more opportunistic and consistent on the rush compared to Barzal, and I think that he’ll keep that up against Boston. Sorokin is the key here for Long Island. If he can shut down Boston as he did the Penguins, the Bruins will have some trouble. Goaltending will be ket for the Islanders, but luckily for them, they have Varlamov backing up Sorokin in case he starts to struggle.
This is a tough look for the Isles. For a Penguins team who wasn’t very good when it came to the penalty kill during the season, they were able to shut down New York's powerplay. They were also not impressive on the penalty kill, and I think the Bruins are absolutely going to own the Islanders when it comes to special teams. The Bruins were able to be that good on the penalty kill against the very impressive powerplay that the Capitals have, just imagine how they’ll do against the Isles. I don’t think how much either team shoots will matter as much in this series, especially if Sorokin keeps playing as good as he did against Pittsburgh. This series won’t come down to quantity, it’ll be about quality. New York scoring at a 3.50 GFPG rate is very impressive, but considering how abysmal Jarry was I wouldn’t read much into it. With how well the Bruins defended Washington in the first round, I don’t think the Islanders will be able to much better, if better at all.
I’d like the think that the Bruins are better across the board against New York, but they have a trap card. If Barry Trotz and his system can frustrate the Bruins enough, they may end up getting into their own heads to the point where they throw the series away. However, a team lead by Bergeron with a lot of playoff experience isn’t going to get frustrated easily. Because of this, I’m taking Boston in 6, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s 5 at all.
I think this series will be amazing. The Carolina Hurricanes played very well against the Predators, but they were nearly shut down by Saros. Now they have to go up against Vasilevskiy, which isn’t an easier task whatsoever. The defending champs have more pressure on them than the Hurricanes do, but I think that they have shown that they play better under said pressure. If Nedeljkovic’s play cracks this series will be a breeze for Tampa, but if the Lightning underrates Carolina too much they could dig themselves their own grave in this series.
Sebastian Aho will have a true test here. He had one last season against Bergeron and failed it, but this time he has the joy of playing against either Brayden Point or Anthony Cirelli down the middle. He’s going to have his hands full, but I think at this point in his career he has as good of a chance as ever to pull this off. Hamilton was once again very good for Carolina in the first round. He arguably outplayed Roman Josi in their matchup against the Predators, but he’ll be up against Victor Hedman in this series. I think he can be the better defenseman since Hedman still isn’t 100% healthy, and Carolina will need him to be better. Brett Pesce isn’t a bad supporting playing either. With Tampa Bay’s impressive defensive core, Pesce is going to have to at least match the play of a McDonough or a Sergachev. Pesce now has his chance to emerge as the great defenceman he is in the mainstream media, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he does it. Nedeljkovic has a true test here. Nashville was a good team, but they weren’t the defending Stanley Cup Champions were they. He, like many players on the Hurricanes, has a chance to prove themselves to the mainstream media in this series. If he plays as well as he has shown that he can, he’ll have proven himself to me.
Despite being injured all season, Kucherov came in on fire for the Lightning in their series against Florida. Now, neither of their netminders had a good series, but the reason for that partially lies on the fantastic play from Kucherov. If he somehow manages to keep up a near 2 points per game pace against Nedeljkovic and the Hurricanes I don’t think the Hurricanes will have a standing chance in this series. Hedman was solid for Tampa, but I do think he has more to give. That mostly comes from him not looking 100% healthy heading into the playoffs, so I can cut him some slack. But, if he is outplayed by Hamilton by a solid margin Tampa Bay will have a lot of problems keeping the puck out of their net. Yanni Gourde didn’t look as good against Florida that I thought he would, but I still have the same expectations of him heading into this series against the Canes. I would not be surprised to see him score a lot in this series, especially in Tampa Bay. If he’s matched up against the third defensive pairing of Carolina, I think he will dominate as much as he did last season in the playoffs. Vasilevskiy will have to play well in this series. Normally you say this about the starting goalie in every playoff series, but especially in this one. You saw how well Saros was able to play against Carolina, and they still lost. Vasilevskiy is going to have to cut those bad games he had against Florida out of his game if Tampa Bay wants to calm the Hurricane.
Despite some of the Lightning’s numbers not looking great here, you have to consider that they played against one of the best teams that were eliminated in the first round. The Lightning’s powerplay was on fire against Florida, and although I don’t expect it to stay at that number against the Canes, I still expect it to be very good. Now the Hurricanes have proven to be very good on the penalty kill, but they were against the Predators who have a notoriously horrible powerplay. I think the special teams will be fairly even in this one. If I was the Lightning, I’d be fine with them allowing that many shots per game if they shoot more themselves. If their amount of shots in this series look like they did in round 1, Nedeljkovic could easily steal a game or two if he stays composed.
When you look up and down the rosters I don’t think it’s as big of a difference as other people do. I think that the Lightning has the far better offence, but when it comes to these teams' blue line I’d say it’s very close. If I had to pick one, I would honestly say that the Hurricanes have the Lightning beat here. If Hedman was 100% I’d prefer the Lightning’s defensive core, but with that in mind, I think Carolina will be the better defensive team. I really think that Vasilevskiy will take over this series, but the biggest question mark is Nedeljkovic. If he cracks, it’s over for the Canes. I’m going to go with Tampa Bay in 6, but I can see this series going either way. It all rides on Nedeljkovic for me.