With a memorable and bone-crunching opening round in the rearview mirror, the National Hockey League turns to the second round as eight teams went home with their dreams dashed while eight teams are a little more bruised and battered than they were when the playoffs began over two weeks ago, but are each 12 wins away from their dreams of hoisting the Stanley Cup coming to fruition.
In the Eastern Conference, the Atlantic Division bracket boils down to the top-seeded Boston Bruins and the No. 3 seed Montreal Canadiens while still standing in the Metropolitan Division bracket are the top-seeded Pittsburgh Penguins and No. 2 New York Rangers.
A quick look back at the first round, Sports World News picked the Bruins to top the Red Wings in five (Result: Bruins in five), Canadiens over Lightning in six (Canadiens in four), Penguins over Blue Jackets in five (Penguins in six) and Rangers over Flyers in seven (Rangers in seven).
Atlantic Division Finals: Boston Bruins (No. 1) vs. Montreal Canadiens (No. 3):
There is no love lost between these two teams as they once again renew their rivalry in the playoffs. The Bruins were able to knock off the Detroit Red Wings with relative ease, roaring back from a 1-0 Game 1 loss on home ice to win four straight and take the series in five games while the Canadiens cruised to a sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning to earn a matchup with the 2013-14 Presidents' Trophy winners.
Heading into the 34th meeting between these two Original Six teams in the playoffs, Montreal will hope that they didn't get rusty after completing their opening series on April 22 while Boston hopes to remain dominant after finishing off Detroit on Saturday.
The Canadiens won three of the four regular season meetings this year --including two in Boston -- and six of the last seven meetings overall, so the team has a reason to feel confident coming into the series.
Patrice Bergeron, who centers the second line for the Bruins, tied for the team lead with defenseman Torey Krug with five points against the Red Wings off of a goal and four assists apiece while Milan Lucic notched a team-best three tallies and one helper for four points and Jarome Iginla (2-2--4) and Dougie Hamilton (1-3--4) each also have four points.
The Bruins ranked first out of all 16 playoff teams by allowing 1.20 goals per game while Montreal scored an average of four goals a game to lead the first round. Boston was also first in power play percentage with a 37.5 percent conversion rate while Montreal finished eighth (15.4 percent). Boston's' penalty kill (90%) finished second in the first round while Montreal (71.4%) ranked 14th.
Though their series lasted just four games, the Canadiens had three players tied atop the score sheet with five points as Brendan Gallagher (three goals, two assists), Lars Eller (two tallies, three helpers) and P.K. Subban (five assists) all contributed against the Lightning. Montreal has four players who notched three points in the series, including Rene Bourque, who tied the team lead with three goals in Round 1.
In net, Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask ranks first in the postseason with a 1.16 goals-against average and a .961 save percentage while posting a 4-1 record with a shutout in Round 1 while Carey Price was the only goaltender to go 4-0 through the first round and has been fantastic, posting a 2.33 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
Final Thoughts: This should be a physical and highly competitive series. The Bruins roll four deep lines while the Canadiens have proven they can stand up to the best team the league. In the end, the Bruins will have a slight goaltending edge while their power play will continue to thrive and propel them back to the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Pick: Bruins over Canadiens in six games
Metropolitan Division Finals: Pittsburgh Penguins (No. 1) vs. New York Rangers (No. 2):
Much like the other Eastern Conference series, there is no love lost between these division foes. The Penguins skate in after the Columbus Blue Jackets gave them more than they can handle, forcing a Game 6 before Pittsburgh was able to put them away while the Rangers are coming off of a series where they never trailed the Philadelphia Flyers but also failed to put them away until winning their fourth Game 7 in three years.
The Penguins cruised to the Metropolitan Division crown with 108 points, 12 more than the Rangers 96, but they have failed to control leads this postseason and blew a few of their games against Columbus in Round 1. The Rangers, meanwhile, were mostly the better team than the Flyers in Round 1 but failed to convert many of their chances and come in on an 0-for-21 clip on the power play.
These teams split the regular-season meetings with each one nabbing a decisive home victory in the regular season and winning a tight road game in a shootout. Pittsburgh has won 16 of 20 postseason games against the Blueshirts in playoff history, knocking them out in 1989, 1992, 1996 and 2008.
Matt Niskanen and Paul Martin are tied for second in the playoffs with eight points each while Niskanen has two goals and his six assists tie him for third in the playoffs and Martin's eight points all come off of eight helpers, tying him for the playoff lead. Martin's plus-seven rating also ranks him tied for first in the postseason.
Evgeni Malkin had no goals heading into the decisive Game 6 for the Penguins, but he netted a hat trick to eliminate Columbus and give him three goals and four assists for seven points after Round 1. The team hopes captain and Hart Trophy finalist Sidney Crosby will get going as he failed to put a puck in the net in Round 1, though he finished with six assists for six points.
Pittsburgh finished third in the first round by averaging 3.50 goals-per-game while New York was 12th with just 2.71. The Rangers were second in goals allowed with an average of 2.29 while the Penguins were eighth with an average of three.
The Blueshirts' power play is converting at just 10.3 percent, the worst mark among the eight teams still in the playoffs while the Pens ranked seventh (20.7 percent) overall and fourth out of teams that are left standing. The Rangers penalty kill (71.4) is worst among the remaining teams and was second-worst overall in Round 1 while the Penguins (74.1) ranked 12th overall and sixth of the eight remaining teams.
The Rangers will look to top defenseman Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh to shut down Crosby and Malkin as the Blue Jackets were able to do for the most part. Two of the Rangers' veterans with championship pedigrees sparked the team in Round 1 with Martin St. Louis and Brad Richards each netting six points by finding the twine twice each and adding four assists apiece, but Rick Nash (four assists) has just one goal in 19 playoff games as a Ranger and will need to step up in this series.
In net, Pittsburgh turns to Marc-Andre Fleury, who was up-and-down in the postseason and made some questionable gaffes in Round 1, one which eventually cost the team Game 4 against Columbus. Fleury is inconsistent in the postseason in his career and is 4-2 in the 2014 playoffs with a 2.81 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
For New York to win this series, Henrik Lundqvist will have to be his former Vezina Trophy and gold medal-winning self as he too wasn't up to his usual standard of excellence in Round 1, though he finished fifth in the first round with a 2.11 GAA and fourth with a .919 save percentage while going 4-3.
Final Thoughts: The Penguins have a deeper team that can score more goals when they need to while the Rangers have some solid defense and have a significant edge in goaltending. Still despite Pittsburgh's struggles against Columbus, the Rangers failure to put the puck in the net -- especially on the man-advantage -- and their inability to have a killer instinct by failing to take a 2-0, 3-1, and 4-2 series edge during Round 1 with the Flyers forcing an ultimate Game 7 means that the Blueshirts will likely succumb to a better Pittsburgh team that can score when it absolutely has to and the Pens will get a chance to redeem last year's sweep in an Eastern Conference Finals rematch with the Bruins.
The Pick: Penguins over the Rangers in six.
Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs commences Thursday night as teams continue to vie towards the ultimate goal of hoisting the Stanley Cup.
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