The NHL playoffs are well underway, and I’d like to go over the round 2 match-ups and give a little insight to the teams and their strengths/weaknesses and predict the results of each. The first match-up I’m going to go over is the first match-up in the Western Conference, the Dallas Stars vs. St. Louis Blues.
Both teams are absolute powerhouses that have a good shot at taking the series and possibly the cup. Players to look out for are Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin, Jason Spezza and the goaltender tandem of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi for the Dallas Stars and Vladimir Tarasenko, David Backes, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo and their goaltender Brian Elliott.
For the Stars, their offensive prowess is the reason they’re where they are: the second round. Having the second and fifth league-leading scorers in the regular season in Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, backed by great team chemistry, absolutely rolls through most teams (which is why they had the best record in the Western Conference.) Where they fall short is their defense and goaltending. Despite a few key defensive players in Johnny Oduya, Kris Russell, Alex Goligoski and John Klingberg, their lower-end defense leaves quite a bit to be desired, leading the Stars to getting outscored in two games in the first round of the playoffs against the Minnesota Wild, dragging out what should have been an easy series to 6 (almost 7, were it not for a lucky bounce) games. Their goaltending is in a similar state. Their starting goalie, Kari Lehtonen is, for the most part, a consistent goaltender. Despite this, his bad games are really, unfortunately, quite bad. Their backup goaltender, Antti Niemi is much the same but with a lower skill ceiling than Kari Lehtonen. A Kari Lehtonen on a good day will always beat out an Antti Niemi on a great day.
For the Blues, it’s the opposite. Their young, tight defensive core and incredibly consistent goaltender Brian Elliott leaves them with low-scoring games, but more often than not, with them leading in scoring thanks to their key offensive players such as Vladimir Tarasenko and David Backes. Brian Elliott had a great regular season showing but an even better, enough to be considered fantastic, showing in the post-season so far. Their defensemen do a great job of paving the way and opening up the lane for their few leading scorers to get quality shots on net. Despite a hard fought first round match-up against the Chicago Blackhawks, the Blues eventually took the series in 7 tightly contested games, leaving them battered and drained.
Unfortunately, regardless of my blatant favoritism, I have to give this series to the Blues in 6 games. The Stars tend to fall short against defensively minded teams, which is what the Blues do best.
