This year’s playoffs will not feature the Kraken, so the official DJLR position on this year’s playoffs, like any playoffs that don’t feature the Kraken, is “boo hiss terrible”.
But! That’s no reason to avoid the playoffs. The Playoffs are where some of the most fun hockey all year is played!
Western Conference
Manitoba vs. Monty – Winnipeg vs. St. Louis
The Winnipeg Jets are the President’s Trophy winners, and there isn’t really much behind it that can’t be seen on the surface; they have great goaltending, a strong transition game, and excellent goalscorers. They even did it in a fairly mundane manner; making shrewd picks at the Draft and getting the most out of the few Free Agents who’d be willing to brave a Manitoba winter for a paycheck. Are they the best team in the world at possession? Maybe not, but they get to the dangerous areas of the ice and quick, and have a world class goalie who’s been playing absolutely out of his mind for a ridiculous 62 game season that ended with a .924 SV%. For Winnipeg? It’s more than enough.
By all accounts, if you wanted an easy money pick for the cup, it’s Winnipeg.
Which brings us to the Blues.
The Blues probably shouldn’t be here. The problems they faced all year long felt like we were going to watch a team blow itself up for the sake of improvement…and then Boston went and fired Jim Montgomery, who did exactly what you’d expect Jim Montgomery to do after running into a team that’s been having no fun; made hockey fun for the team again, and got them on a massive winning streak. Are their underlying numbers good? No, not really, but that’s never stopped Monty teams before. He works on vibes, and so far over the last 20 games or so, so do the Blues.
The Jets should probably make short work of the Blues. There’s very little to suggest that a team that’s been cruising at their pace should struggle for much of any reason. Unfortunately for Monty, If there was a series earmarked for a potential sweep, it should be this one.
But Jordan Binnington could go on another heater. That’s always a terrifying possibility, and with how little real friction the Jets faced this year, it’s hard to say how they’ll handle it. Given Winnipeg’s luck with playoff series historically, they should try to win every game by double digits and crush his spirit before it ever starts to believe.
All Gas, No Brakes – Dallas vs. Colorado
This is a lucha libre match in the playoffs. Most will consider this matchup appointment viewing for
As a Kraken fan, I just hope both sides kill each other. For my amusement, if nothing else.
It’s weird too; both sides have some kind of cute story coming into it? Mikko Rantanen gets to prove he didn’t need to get traded twice in a year while Thomas Harley gets to show himself off to the world fully, while the Avs get to lord over the fact that they basically were a hospital ward for most of the year and somehow made it back to the playoffs, and also managed to get their captain back after what had to feel like a career ending injury. It’s good vibes if you don’t have fresh memories of these exact two squads causing your team trouble.
As for who would win? Anybody who’s watching will most likely get an absolute belter of a series of out of it, so we might as well just hope it lasts. Dallas however is without Miro Heiskanen and might be without Jason Robertson? Which might be taking this even playing field on paper and tilting it towards Colorado.
The Speedbump Series- Vegas vs. Minnesota
Vegas is running into a Minnesota Wild team who’s had their first entirely healthy game this week. 82 games, and they’ve been missing guys like Brodin, Kaprizov, Faber, Eriksson-Ek, Spurgeon, Nyquist. Johansson, Zuccarello, and Hartman on the mend throughout all of it.
Given that Minnesota’s medical team has come under scrutiny after their handling of Team USA (especially after the boondoggle with Charlie McAvoy), maybe the organization ought to look into what exactly they’re doing over there. If they see a jar of leeches they should consider a change in employment.
While parts of me are aware that Vegas, built like they are, can easily fart around in series like this until they decide to press the “we have more talent than you” button and win it (something they’ve done and do far too often), I can’t help but feel like the Wild may cause a little more trouble for the Knights than people are giving them credit for. While they can’t be at 100%, the Wild were, at least at one point, witnessing the grand revealing of an exciting, interesting hockey team before the plague doctors who run their medical staff began trying to balance humors got a hold of Kaprizov and Eriksson-Ek.
There still has to be some parts of that squad that was lighting up the Western Conference sitting in there, right? With a complete roster they’ve gotta be at least a little more dangerous than everybody’s saying right? A team that still can take over games with ease…right?
Because otherwise…This could get ugly fast. The only players the Knights could miss are Mark Stone and Noah Hanifin, both being Day-to-day, and the rest of Vegas is as you would expect a Bruce Cassidy team to be; a little unhappy that their boss is a little surly, but otherwise close-knit, extremely talented, and deep. Sure, having Stone out sucks, but they’ve got a Pavel Dorofeyev now, while not necessary a patch defensively, he’s been an absolute nightmare of goalscoring that makes up for it.
Minny better hope they stay healthy, or there’s a very short series in here.
The Pacific Proving Ground – Edmonton vs. Los Angeles
If I was a Kings fan, I’d be wondering what I did to deserve this.
The Kings have been good enough to make the playoffs, but not nearly good enough to avoid playing Connor McDavid’s Edmonton Oilers in multiple years; having shown up to get rinsed by 97 in 6 or 7 games time and time again. The scariest part is it could very easily happen again in spite of this being the best possible chance the LA Kings have to actually overcome Edmonton.
Edmonton is less entering the playoffs and more limping at them; Evander Kane is hurt. Trent Frederic is still kind of hurt. Mattias Ekholm is hurt. Darnell Nurse is hurt. John Klingberg’s on IR. Draisaitl, Hyman, and Jake Walman are all Day-to-Day. If Walman can’t go they will absolutely need to pull somebody up from Bakersfield to fill the hole. Their goaltending has only one long-term player on it who has a .900 SV%. While accepting that the Oilers still have plenty of quality options to keep the play moving; McDavid’s healthy, RNG is still doing pretty well, Jeff Skinner, Viktor Arvidsson, and Corey Perry (ugh) have been contributing decently, they are potentially walking into this series as beaten up as they have ever been.
All LA has to do is not screw this up by suddenly forgetting how to clog up the ice like they’re sometimes prone to doing.
Los Angeles has been able to get a little bit of veteran presence and youthful improvement throughout the season; Quentin Byfield, Alex Laferriere and Brandt Clarke all finding their footing as a future player to watch among Adrian Kempe, Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala having damn fine seasons. Their goaltending has even been reasonably sound under Darcy Kuemper’s watch; coming into this with a very respectable .922 SV%. They control pucks better than almost everyone in the Western Conference, they shoot better than almost anyone in the Western Conference, they attack the net better than almost anyone in the Western Conference…this should be their time!
It’s just one minor thing; the “almost anyone” out west is Edmonton.
Even with all the progress the Kings have made, the Oilers still manage to find a way to be even better. Part of it of course is Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid being a step above your average player, but they’ve managed to pull together a very, very, very good team. One that is perfectly fine trading chances if it has to (and it often does). I’m not sure LA can say the same.
But, the thing is, LA’s healthier than Edmonton by a considerable margin. That so-called juggernaut is as vulnerable as it could be.
Now’s as good a time as any to prove you can slay your dragons, right?
All that said and done, if you wanna use this as a place to idly talk about the games, or make your predictions on who gets to win it all in the West? Be my guest. We’ve got stuff regarding the draft coming soon!