NHL Playoffs: First Round Analysis & Second Round Predictions

The first round of the NHL playoffs gave us a lot of great hockey. There were not a lot of upsets, with all the higher seed teams wining with the exception of the St. Louis Blues who lost against the Vancouver Canucks and thus will not be back-to-back champions. The second round looks promising with a lot of exciting matchups, here are my predictions.

Las Vegas Golden Knights vs Vancouver Canucks

The Golden knights played incredible hockey against the Blackhawks winning the series in five games. The Canucks, fo their part, also won an upset victory against the defending champs, the Blues. You have to go with the Knights for this one, however. They are a strong physical team and have good players all around. The Canucks will have a tough time surviving and will probably end Canada's hope for a Stanley Cup.

Philadelphia Flyers vs. New York Islanders

This is a very interesting matchup. The New York Islanders are on fire, upsetting the Capitals in a commanding 5 game series win. The Philadelphia Flyers had a tougher time against a young and surprisingly gritty Montreal Canadiens team. Nevertheless, I predict the Flyers will take this one. They have a lot of veteran physical players, and an amazing goaltender in young Carter Hart.

Dallas Stars vs Colorado Avalanche

This should be a very good series. Both teams have a lot of talented and speedy players. The Stars have Tyler Seguin, Joe Pavelski, and 21 year old Miro Heiskanen who's been incredible. The Avalanche, for their part have Nathan Mackinnon, Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog. This is a very tough matchup to predict, it could go either way. I'll give a slight edge to the Avalanche however. Nathan Mackinon has been on fire with 16 points in this postseason, he could definitely make the difference in this series.

Boston Bruins vs Tampa Bay Lightning

The Bruins seek to make the Stanely Cup Final for the second year in a row after beating the Carolina Hurricanes as they face a strong Lightning team. The Lightning also won their series in five games against a good Columbus Blue Jackets team. I’ve got the Lightning winning this one. They finished higher in the round robin schedule and have just been more consistent this postseason.