As the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs readies to kick into full gear, it is time to pull out the old Upset-O-Meter.
Now that the NHL is (almost) down to its elite eight, the championship chase hits another gear.
We have seen some trends already. All four division champions advanced, with the Buffalo Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche handily dispatching all four wild-card squads.
Curiously, three — and possibly four — of the third-place finishers knocked out the second-place squads. The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild eliminated the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks beat the Edmonton Oilers. Plus, the Montreal Canadiens are taking their best swing at the Tampa Bay Lightning, with Sunday’s Game 7 to decide that extremely tight, and exciting series.
So who will reach the final four?
The underdog with the best chance is the Anaheim Ducks. As well as the Golden Knights finished the regular season and pushed out the Utah Mammoth, do not simply award them the title from the Pillow Fight … sorry … Pacific Division.
Sure, Vegas has looked more like the club we all expected, but there are some cracks for the Ducks to expose, namely, the Vegas goaltending. The Golden Knights are a better defensive team than the Oilers, but Carter Hart’s sub-.900 save percentage will not scare a talented Anaheim team that lit up Edmonton’s netminders, especially when on the power play.
Throw into the mix Anaheim’s speed and size, and the Golden Knights will have their hands full, even with their experience.
On the other side of the spectrum in terms of upset potential, we have the Hurricanes-Flyers series, which opened with a 3-0 Carolina victory on Saturday.
Full credit to the Flyers for beating their state rivals in the opening round, but the Hurricanes showed in the opener why they finished atop the Eastern Conference.
By no means would it be fair to expect Carolina to sweep Philly, but the Hurricanes are poised to have this series done and dusted in five.
Looking at the other Eastern Conference semifinal, we do not know yet who the Sabres will meet, but whether it is the Canadiens or Lightning, it will be a tight series.
The Sabres will deservedly be the favorites, but not by much. No matter the opponents, Buffalo’s goaltending will be considered second best, even with Alex Lyon having a lights-out run upon taking the net in Game 2 of their series against the Boston Bruins. Also of concern is Buffalo’s power play, which scored only one goal on 24 chances against Boston.
In Buffalo’s favor will be the fatigue factor of whatever club advances.
Which brings us to the series that could top them all: Colorado versus Minnesota.
The marquee matchup within the marquee matchup will be the battle of the two best defensemen in the game, Colorado’s Cale Makar and Minnesota’s Quinn Hughes.
And that’s only the beginning of the cavalcade of stars. Colorado was the league’s highest scoring team in the regular season thanks to Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Makar, but showed its ability to defend against the Los Angeles Kings in its first-round sweep.
Granted, it will not be as easy for the Avalanche against a Wild team with far more firepower than the Kings, led by Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy and Hughes.
Unfortunately for the Wild, injuries to shutdown center Joel Eriksson Ek and defenseman Jonas Brodin put them on the back foot before the puck even drops.
Minnesota will put up a fight, but expect Colorado to be too much.
