Top NHL Storylines to Follow in 1st Round of 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs
It's about to begin.
For the next two weeks, we'll be treated to an all-you-can-eat buffet of hockey during the first round of the NHL playoffs. The action kicks off Wednesday night as five series get underway. The other three will start Thursday.
This mix of teams this time around is significantly different from what we saw last year. After no Canadian teams qualified for the postseason in 2016, five clubs from north of the border are back in contention this year—the Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames. The Boston Bruins and Columbus Blue Jackets are also now back in the hunt after two years each out of the picture.
A few of the matchups look familiar. We've seen a couple of hard-fought series in the past between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Nashville Predators, and Columbus' first-round battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins was terrific back in 2014. Some of the other series might not be starting with bad blood flowing, but in the playoffs, it doesn't take long for tempers to flare and emotions to rise.
Here's a look at 10 of the most interesting storylines to watch in this year's edition of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Pittsburgh Penguins Look to Repeat
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The Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to become the first team since the 1998 Detroit Red Wings to repeat as Stanley Cup champions. They kick off their title defense at PPG Paints Arena against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Wednesday night.
The Penguins have already followed in the Red Wings' footsteps in another way: With Detroit's 25-season playoff streak now at an end, Pittsburgh now holds the active record for the most consecutive playoff appearances, at 11 seasons. Their last miss came when Sidney Crosby was a rookie in 2005-06.
The Pens have made the playoffs every year since Evgeni Malkin joined the team in 2006-07, and Geno won the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP during Pittsburgh's 2009 championship run. Malkin missed 20 of Pittsburgh's last 35 games with two separate injuries but is expected back in the lineup for Game 1 on Wednesday, according to the Penguins website.
Defensemen Olli Maatta and Trevor Daley have also returned to the team after missing time with injuries, but Kris Letang's absence creates a big hole on the Penguins blue line.
There was no playoff hangover for the Penguins this year. Pittsburgh finished second overall in the league standings with a 50-21-11 record for 111 points—their best total since their lone Presidents' Trophy win, back in the heart of the Mario Lemieux era in 1992-93.
Since Mike Sullivan took over as Pittsburgh's coach in December 2015, his team has gone 83-37-16 for 182 points through 136 games. That's second only to the Washington Capitals, who collected 198 points in 137 games through over that same time frame.
The Penguins have done nothing but win since Sullivan took over. Can they ride that wave to another championship?
Friends Become Foes: John Tortorella Battles Mike Sullivan
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As a sidebar to the Penguins' first-round matchup with the Columbus Blue Jackets, longtime colleagues Mike Sullivan and John Tortorella will be squaring off behind their respective benches.
Now the head coaches of Pittsburgh and Columbus, Sullivan worked as an assistant to Tortorella for six seasons between 2007 and 2014—one year with the Tampa Bay Lightning, four with the New York Rangers and one with the Vancouver Canucks.
The pair stayed close after they were both dismissed from the Canucks at the end of the 2013-14 season. In February 2015, Tortorella told WDAE radio in Tampa Bay, via Vancitybuzz, that he and Sullivan were still working together, attempting their own take on hockey analytics.
"Myself and Mike Sullivan are analyzing every goal scored in last year's season and trying to figure out an analytics package that will help—not just with what's out there—there's a lot of information, but trying to do our own little thing."
Those studies seem to have paid dividends. Both Sullivan and Tortorella have done well since returning to coaching.
The Penguins go into the series as favorites but this year's season series was close. Pittsburgh and Columbus played four times, with each team recording one regulation win and one in overtime.
Washington Capitals Try to Break Presidents' Trophy Curse
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The Penguins have their hands full trying to repeat as champions. Meanwhile, the Washington Capitals carry the weight of trying to disprove the Presidents' Trophy curse.
For the second straight year, the Capitals finished the regular season at the top of the NHL standings. After a six-game loss to the Penguins in the second round in 2015-16, Washington hopes to become the first team since the 2012-13 Chicago Blackhawks to win a Stanley Cup after also winning the Presidents' Trophy.
The Caps are also still stinging from an earlier Presidents' Trophy trauma. In 2009-10, the franchise captured its first regular-season title with 121 points but was eliminated from the playoffs in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens.
All told, Washington has never won a Stanley Cup and has reached the Final just once in its 41 previous seasons—a four-game sweep by the Detroit Red Wings in 1998. Though the Caps have reached the playoffs in eight of 11 years since Alex Ovechkin arrived on the scene in 2005-06, so far, they've never made it farther than the second round.
Washington is surging into the postseason with an 8-2-0 record in its last 10 games. It's a team that has been impressively healthy all season and looks like it will have all hands on deck when its first-round series begins against Toronto on Thursday.
Is this the year that the curse is broken?
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Connor McDavid Makes Playoff Debut
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In his second NHL season, 20-year-old Connor McDavid ran away with the regular-season scoring title. He bested his closest challengers by 11 points and was the only player to reach the 100-point plateau.
Next, McDavid will get to show his stuff in the postseason pressure cooker, as the Edmonton Oilers return to the dance for the first time since 2006.
It'll also be the first time on the playoff stage for a couple of McDavid's long-suffering teammates, Jordan Eberle (seven seasons, 507 NHL games) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (six seasons, 395 NHL games).
Elsewhere, Auston Matthews headlines a big group of playoff rookies with the Toronto Maple Leafs and sniper David Pastrnak will get his first chance to show his scoring touch in the postseason with the Boston Bruins.
In Pittsburgh, 36-year-old defenseman Ron Hainsey will play his first-ever playoff game on Wednesday after a 907-game NHL career that started in Montreal during the 2002-03 season.
3 Teams Try to Ride Wave of Midseason Coaching Changes
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Mike Sullivan replaced Mike Johnston behind the Pittsburgh Penguins bench in December 2015. The change triggered an immediate upswing in the Penguins' fortunes and ultimately led the team straight to the Stanley Cup.
This year, three teams are in similar situations, having made the playoffs after midseason coaching changes of their own.
The St. Louis Blues were 24-21-5 and clinging to eighth place in the Western Conference standings when Ken Hitchcock was replaced by Mike Yeo on February 1. Yeo had joined the team as an associate coach at the beginning of the season and was projected to take over for Hitchcock at the beginning of the 2017-18 season, but a 1-5-0 slide in the second half of January accelerated the timeline.
Under Yeo, the Blues finished the season with an impressive 22-8-2 record for 46 points, tied with Washington for tops in the league, so their momentum is comparable to Pittsburgh's from last season. Tantalizingly, Yeo will face his old team, the Minnesota Wild, in the first round of the playoffs.
Over in Boston, the Bruins were 26-23-6 and tied for the last playoff spot in the Atlantic Division when Claude Julien was replaced by his assistant, Bruce Cassidy, on February 7. Like Yeo, Cassidy was in his first season with his current club.
Cassidy kept the ship steady, guiding the Bruins to an 18-8-1 record for 37 points the rest of the way. The Bruins finished the season right where they were when they made the coaching change—tied with Toronto for third place in the Atlantic Division—but they grabbed the higher seed thanks to a better record of regulation and overtime wins.
Meanwhile, Julien was out of work for only one week before replacing Michel Therrien behind the Montreal Canadiens bench. The Habs were leading the Atlantic Division with a 31-19-8 record but had gone 1-5-1 in the seven games before Therrien's firing.
One year earlier, Montreal had started the season with a perfect 9-0-0 record before going into a tailspin after starting goaltender Carey Price was injured, ultimately missing the playoffs by 14 points.
General manager Marc Bergevin chose to make a coaching change rather than risk a similar collapse this season. Under Julien, who also coached the Canadiens between 2003 and 2006, Montreal went 16-7-1 in its final 24 games, clinching top spot in the Atlantic by a comfortable five-point margin.
4 Other Coaches Aiming for Success in Their 1st Seasons with New Teams
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The coaching carousel spins fast in the NHL these days. In addition to the three coaches who started new jobs during the season, four others will be making their playoff debuts with new teams.
Five coaching changes took place during the 2016 offseason. Things didn't work out for Jared Bednar with the Colorado Avalanche, but the other four coaches are in the postseason mix in their first seasons on the job.
The Minnesota Wild recorded their best regular season in franchise history with 106 points under new bench boss Bruce Boudreau, climbing 19 points from their second wild-card finish last season.
Boudreau's old team, the Anaheim Ducks, logged a fifth straight Pacific Division title with a two-point improvement to 105 points. It was last year's first-round playoff loss to the Nashville Predators that led the Ducks to replace Boudreau with Randy Carlyle.
Also in the Pacific, the Calgary Flames returned to the postseason picture after a one-year absence, recording a 17-point improvement in the standings under Glen Gulutzan thanks to a 20-9-1 run after the All-Star Break.
Finally, Guy Boucher led the Ottawa Senators to a 13-point improvement in the standings on the basis of a stronger commitment to team defense.
If you're wondering, the longest-tenured coach in the playoffs this year is three-time Stanley Cup winner Joel Quenneville, who has been behind the bench in Chicago since October 2008. Alain Vigneault is second—he has been with the New York Rangers since the beginning of the 2013-14 season.
Calgary Flames Try to Snap Honda Center Losing Streak
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The Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators both landed in Western Conference wild-card spots with 94 points, but the Flames won the tiebreaker thanks to two more regulation/overtime wins.
Bad news: A date with the Western Conference champion Chicago Blackhawks would have been a less daunting challenge than the matchup they got, against the deadly-to-them Anaheim Ducks.
The Flames went 1-2-0 against Chicago this season, but that's better than the 1-4-0 record they logged against Anaheim. Even more worrisome, Calgary is cursed at the Honda Center. Their 3-1 loss on April 4 was their 27th in a row in Anaheim, according to Kirsten Odland of the Calgary Herald.
The last time the Flames left Orange County with a win was Game 3 of the Western Conference quarterfinal back on April 25, 2006, when Chuck Kobasew potted the winning goal on the way to a 5-2 victory. Calgary would go on to lose that series in seven games.
At that time, the arena was still called the Arrowhead Pond and the team was still called the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. Both names changed at the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
The Ducks and Flames last met in the playoffs in 2015, with Anaheim taking the series easily in five games.
This year's matchup should carry plenty of fireworks. Calgary and Anaheim were the two most penalized teams in the regular season, and there's plenty of bad blood between them. The Ducks were fired up over their 8-3 loss in Calgary in early December, and general manager Bob Murray didn't hold back when Mark Giordano knocked defenseman Cam Fowler to the sidelines with a sprained knee in the April 4 series finale.
"I still, as an old player, have no use for knee-on-knee hits, and especially if I think they are somewhat intentional," Murray told the media after the game, per Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Herald. "I hear how Gio is a good guy, and he's this and he's that...well, he's done this before. I have no respect for people who go after knees. I'm sorry but knees, they wreck your careers real quick. I don’t like it."
A key veteran on the Anaheim blue line, Fowler is expected to miss two to six weeks. He'll be missed, but his absence will also fire up a Ducks team that usually finds a way to get the better of the Flames, especially on home ice.
Key Players Sidelined with Injuries
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Of course, Cam Fowler and Kris Letang aren't the only key players who will be watching from the press box when the playoffs begin.
At this time of year, injury reports tend to get cryptic as teams guard information and injured players try to heal themselves from their ailments by sheer force of will.
For the first night of playoff action, Max Pacioretty is said to be good to go in Montreal after taking a stick to the face in practice on Tuesday, according to Sportsnet.
The news is not so good for Boston, who will likely be without defensemen Brandon Carlo and Torey Krug for their series opener in Ottawa. TSN's Brent Wallace thinks the Senators will be missing a key defenseman of their own, Marc Methot.
In the Western Conference, keep an eye on the status of Paul Stastny with the St. Louis Blues as well as Logan Couture and Joe Thornton of the San Jose Sharks. All three veterans missed time at the end of the regular season and have yet to be declared healthy for postseason action.
Which Goaltender Will Outduel the Rest?
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Goaltending is always a crucial aspect of the playoffs. A strong first-round performance by a netminder can set the stage for a long postseason run for his team.
Who will play hero this year? Right now, the door is wide-open. The most impressive goaltending performances of the regular season came from players who have had little or no playoff success so far in their careers.
Sergei Bobrovsky finished with a league-high .931 save percentage but will go into the playoffs as a starter for just the second time in his career. He had a 3.17 goals-against average and .908 save percentage when the Columbus Blue Jackets fell to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games in 2014.
Braden Holtby is the reigning Vezina Trophy holder and tied for the NHL lead with 42 wins this season, as well as recording a league-high nine shutouts. Holtby's career playoff numbers are great—a 1.87 goals-against average and .937 save percentage over four seasons and trending upward over the past two years. But you've probably heard—the Washington Capitals never seem to be able to get past the second round. Will that change this year?
Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers was the other goaltender to record 42 wins this year, but he's a playoff rookie. His only postseason experience came in the form of two relief appearances in place of Henrik Lundqvist when he was with the New York Rangers in 2013-14. Talbot will make his first-ever playoff start at Rogers Place on Wednesday.
Devan Dubnyk looked like a surefire Vezina winner early in the season, but he tapered off down the stretch. Dubnyk finished the year with a still-solid 40-19-5 record, .923 save percentage and 2.25 goals-against average, but his playoff numbers aren't great. In his previous two runs with Minnesota, he has posted a .896 save percentage and 2.84 goals-against average in 16 playoff games.
That brings us to Carey Price. His regular-season numbers this year are on par with Dubnyk's—37-20-5 with a .923 save percentage and 2.23 goals-against average. And his playoff record is less than spectacular—in seven seasons, he has accumulated 54 games of experience but has recorded a .912 goals-against average and 2.62 save percentage.
Price has yet to put it together in the NHL postseason, but he has proven himself multiple times in big-game situations on the international stage and has two Olympic gold medals and a World Cup of Hockey title to show for his efforts. Is this the year Price adds a Stanley Cup to his already-impressive resume?
Which Teams Will Play Spoiler?
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A big part of the fun of the playoffs' first round is the inevitable upsets that arise.
We all diligently fill out our brackets—then burn them two weeks later. Who thought the St. Louis Blues would get past the Chicago Blackhawks last year—especially after the Blues were upset by the Minnesota Wild just one year earlier?
Remember when the Arizona Coyotes took out the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round of the 2012 playoffs on their way to their first-ever Western Conference Final? Apparently local boy Auston Matthews does. According to James Mirtle of The Athletic, "Auston Matthews says his favourite playoff memory was watching the Coyotes and Kings in 2012."
Will Matthews be part of a Leafs team that upsets the Presidents' Trophy champs in the first round this year?
Will Connor McDavid's Oilers dispatch the Sharks after their appearance in the 2016 Stanley Cup Final?
Will the structurally sound Nashville Predators pull off the upset over the perennially successful Chicago Blackhawks?
Or will we see John Tortorella's Columbus Blue Jackets win their first playoff series in franchise history—by knocking off the Stanley Cup champs?
Anything's possible in the first round of the playoffs. Enjoy the ride and don't beat yourself up when your bracket gets busted.
Stats courtesy of NHL.com.
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