NHL Playoff Predictions: The Boston Bruins' Ideal Matchup for Every Round

The NHL’s Eastern Conference playoff picture is looking exponentially rigid by the day. Other than the seventh, eighth and ninth seeds from Ottawa, Buffalo and Washington, all teams are separated by no fewer than four points.

In turn, barring a startling surge or massive meltdown in the final five or six games on any one team’s schedule, the opening round figures to present the following matchups: No. 4 Pittsburgh vs. No. 5 Philadelphia, third-seeded Florida against sixth-seeded New Jersey, and the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers facing either Ottawa, Buffalo or Washington.

From a Boston standpoint, the best-case scenario and a nearly likely scenario is no positional change between this Thursday morning and next Saturday night. Although the defending champion Bruins could be realistically favored in a series with any conference cohabitant other than the Rangers or Penguins, the Senators are the most beatable option in the quarterfinals.

Now is the time for Bruins fans to start swiveling their heads and spend up to two months rooting for specific outcomes in virtually every active NHL arena. If they want their team to face the four adversaries they measure up with most favorably en route to a potential championship repeat, they should hope to land the following four playoff matchups.

Conference Quarterfinal: Ottawa

This matchup is all but a lock anyway—unless the sixth-place New Jersey Devils slip or the eighth-place Buffalo Sabres or ninth-place Washington Capitals lasso the Senators.

Of those possibilities, Buffalo ascending to the seventh seed is the most likely and could pose a worrisome scenario to Boston buffs with goaltender Ryan Miller spearheading a high-wave ride into the playoffs.

Of the four prospective first-round opponents in question, the Devils and Capitals are in the middle of the ideal scale. But with its inferiority on offense, defense, even-strength, penalty killing and goaltending, the Senators are one team the Bruins have no business losing to in the playoffs.

Conference Semifinal: Florida

In all likelihood, assuming the Bruins surmount the first round, the only options for the conference semifinals are to hope the Panthers knock off the Devils or be prepared for a dogfight with the winner of the Battle of Pennsylvania.

Although there is a historical Boston nemesis in Jose Theodore tending the Florida cage, the Panthers rely too much on him and their power play to win. They have tallied 26.8 percent of their goals with the man advantage, have a cumulative minus-19 scoring differential through 76 regular-season games and are tied with Calgary for the league’s sixth-to-worst offensive output.

In this situation, one might be inclined to recall 2009, when the Carolina Hurricanes stunned New Jersey in the first round and then pulled off another seven-game triumph over the Bruins.

But even if knocking off the Devils, a part of that four-headed monster that is the Atlantic Division, sends them on a healthy wave of emotion, the Panthers can expect to crash into a more talented and learned Boston team.

The prospect of Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg stifling top Florida guns Tomas Fleischmann and Stephen Weiss gives the Bruins a decisive edge all on its own.

Conference Final: Philadelphia

This would promise to be a classic arm-wrestling bout with nothing assured to either side. But in terms of favorable matchups for the Bruins, the Flyers just happen to rate higher than the Penguins or Rangers.

Ilya Bryzagalov, though seeming to find his game in the homestretch, is not Henrik Lundqvist. And though Philadelphia’s offense is deep, it does not have the same explosive assortment as Pittsburgh does with the likes of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and James Neal.

Yes, the Flyers would likely need to surmount the Penguins and the Rangers to reach the third round, which would make them supremely battle-tested. But by the same token, it could make them battle-weary and therefore ripe to receive a knockout blow once they encounter the Bruins.

Cup Final: Nashville

Of the prime suspects to emerge from the Western Conference, basically the Central Division bigwigs and the Vancouver Canucks, the Predators are Boston’s best bet to be the favorites in the finals.

Granted, Nashville could probably match Boston’s physicality, and Pekka Rinne could wage a decent series of arm-wrestling matches with Tim Thomas. And the Predators do boast the league’s best power play with a 21.7 percent connectivity rate.

But unlike their divisional rivals from St. Louis and Detroit, the Predators are not quite otherworldly on home ice. And while the Bruins rank immediately behind the Blues and the Red Wings in five-on-five success, the Preds trail a total of 12 other teams, including Vancouver, in that department.

With five games left on their regular-season schedule, the Predators have relied on the man advantage to collect 24.2 percent of their goals. There is even a power-play caveat for Nashville in that it has only drawn itself 240 opportunities, fewer than what 21 other teams have collected.

So as long as Boston was to stay reasonably disciplined, pounce on its even-strength chances and flex its depth on offense and defense, it ought to win a hypothetical championship round with Nashville.