(upbeat music) - Knocks Central Friday, it's Dan Reicho, Satyarsha here in the Kintec Studio. Knocks Central is for enzyme-specific Vancouver Spremer Chrysler.Wendman Jeep Superstore on second avenue between Canby and Maine, or at enzyme-specific-crisler.ca. The weather is impeccable, and we are 48, 51 hours away from huck-drop between the Canucks and predators in game one of the Stanley Cup playoffs at. - It's playoff weather, like legitimately, it's playoff weather, 'cause playoffs happen in spring when the weather gets better when we finally have a Canucks playoff to talk about in the spring, isn't that grand? - It's pretty great. Now, Sunday, I don't know, the weather forecast might be a little bit different, more spring-like. (laughs) From what we're used to, April showers may be in the forecast, but nonetheless, it's a good time of year. It's the best time of year. It's time for the Stanley Cup playoffs to kick off. We got a busy first tower we're gonna really go into, the Canucks and Predators match up, and also take a look at the other seven series that are about to kick off with two games going tomorrow on Saturday to get the party started. Alright, let's get to it. It's the open. (dramatic music) - Welcome to the open. - Oh, that's your home. Are you too good for your home? Answer me. - The Canucks and Predators, we are getting ready for this one, and everybody's starting to have their takes and throw out their predictions. We'll give you hours, but first a little bit of the tale of the tape, and what to expect in this series between these two clubs. But I do wanna start with something that Elliot Friedman mentioned on the Jeff Merrick show today, sad as I guess maybe a bit of a caution flag was sent out by Friedman when he mentioned Vancouver's got some injuries. They're a little bit banged up here as the series is about to begin. So what do we make of this from Elliot Friedman? - Well, it's one of the things where obviously it's a concern, but every single team, and I think Elliot mentioned this too, they're all going through some level of, hey guys, they're a little bit banged up, but it's clear Brock Bester, who we talked about the other night, has some sort of an ailment that almost kept them out of the gap of a game before the final game against the Winnipeg Jets last night. So there's something going on that's a bit deeper there. The question is, the other guys who sat out game, which was Philoparonic, J.T. Miller, you're hoping J.T. is okay. I wouldn't be surprised of her own it 'cause dealing with something. I think we spoke to Irff about that too, that there might be something he's dealing with. The good thing is, none of those injuries were bad enough to keep those guys out of games outside of the last game of the season, but it's something to keep an eye on on track as the postseason goes on. Can they get to full strength or are they gonna have to play hobbled for the rest of the way? - Yeah, you only get more hobbled as it goes along. Sometimes the Stanley Cup playoffs is a little bit of last man standing. We saw that somewhat last year when Florida was just battered, beaten and bruised by the time they got to the Stanley Cup final and it was a cakewalk for the Vegas Golden Knights in that final, but that's the reality of the situation. Everybody is going to go through it a little bit and your pain tolerance, how you're able to still execute through that pain through whatever injuries you have is ultimately what's going to decide a series and the Canucks are very much the favorite in this series, right? It's very obvious. We talked about this yesterday on the round table and the more you look around and see how other people are feeling about this series. Yeah, the Canucks are favored. There's not too many people picking the Nashville Predators on this side and that puts the Canucks in a bit of a different spot than they've been in for much of this year's set where the Canucks are the favorites and not the underdog punching above their weight. Now that script is flipped and it's the Canucks that are the favorite and it's Nashville playing the underdog role. Yeah, and it's interesting because when you look around a lot of the prognosticators and people get handicapping a lot of these series, the common theme you're getting is Vancouver is being faded somewhat, right? We'll get into this a bit more later, and also a lot of people are picking Nashville through Upset Vancouver, but it is the one or two series in which the Canucks will be favored in the first round. And I do think that's somewhat disrespectful to the season they've had, but at the same time, there's pass history that comes into this, but I do think it's fascinating that the discussion outside of Vancouver, where people are very excited and think the Canucks are gonna win, is that people are very primed to pick the Predators to upset the Vancouver Canucks heading into this series. Yeah, and look, I've looked at this a lot of different ways and just to be upfront about it before we even get to our series prediction, I found it really hard, and maybe I'm a little bit biased, maybe I've watched the Canucks too closely, and I've really liked a lot of what they've done this year, but I found it hard to find ways to pick Nashville. Like, I was more, I found myself asking, how does Nashville win this series? You know, what do they have to do to pull the Upset because I look at the forward group in totality. I like Vancouver's more than I like Nashville's. On defense, I mean, Hughes and Yossi call it a wash, but beyond that, I still like the Canucks decor over the Nashville Predators and in goal, like, there's no question, Thatcher Demko has been better than Yossi Sorrows, who by his standards has had a bit of a down year and has been closer to average than he has been an elite goalie over the course of the 82 games this season. So the more I looked at it, that was my question to myself, Sat, how do the Nashville Predators win this series? And, you know, it kind of comes down to the old tale of, it's gotta be hockey. You gotta get a little bit of puck luck. They have their power play run hot for a little bit. Sorrow starts to make some saves. It has a really big series. All of these are realistic outcomes, but that's the way it feels Nashville's going to have to play or have to have some luck go their way to win this series over the Vancouver Canucks. - Yeah, I mean, you need some luck, of course. I mean, you're going deep into playoffs, winning a round. Obviously, you need some things to go your way. The other thing for me is, Vancouver just can't score. I think the great equalizer for Nashville would be if the Canucks struggle to score five on five. And they, for the totality of the season, have done a fantastic job scoring five on five. The struggle has been a bit more pronounced, I'd say, since the All-Star break, they've generated more chances, but their actual goals per 60 have gone down since the All-Star break. That to me is the key for Nashville being in the series, is it is a low scoring series, and the Canucks struggle to score three goals a game. And that's what would give, and I don't want to say Nashville the edge, but that would really give them a chance to win this series. - Yeah, five on five scoring is an interesting one. So, look, the two teams they played each other a lot early in the season, well, all three games came before, like by the time December rolled around. So, the Canucks won all three of them. Nashville didn't really get into their hot streak until Post All-Star break, the U2 thing that happened, and they went on their 18-game point streak, 16.0 and two. And then, you know, the end of the season after that, when they were pretty much clinched after that long, run of success, you know, they started to level out a little bit, but Post All-Star break. Nashville, 21, seven and three, third best point percentage in the league. They had 115 goals for, which was fifth in the league, and just 88 goals against, which was sixth best in the league. As for Vancouver, they had 93 goals for, which was 25th, and 96 goals against, which was middle of the pack, 13th best in the league. So, that's where, you know, if you want to be pessimistic about where things are going and hey, what have you done for me lately, then you would say Nashville has the edge in this, and it just, it depends on, look, I know the Canucks can go cold offensively, I know not everyone loves the way that they generate offense at five on five, but they were able to do it for much of the early part of the season, and as the season went on by the underlying metrics, they started to generate more chances, but scored less at five on five. So, it really depends on how you want to look at this and feel about it, but I do think Vancouver has more to give offensively than what their results show recently. - I would totally agree with that. I do think they've generated a bit more quality chances than they're getting credit for. So, it's the all-star break, it's just it hasn't quite gone in as much. Now, especially the last few games, they have done a better job of scoring a little bit, where this kind of come along. A lot of it comes back again to number 40, Leah's Patterson, can you find that gear again? 'Cause JT's been productive all year. The last five games here, you're seeing production come from Eli's Lindholm, he's on a three-game point streak, he's picked up five points in his last six games, he looks to be getting going a little bit. So, if you look at outside their first line, where it's Forsberg, Nyquist, and Ryan O'Reilly, hey, hey, you want to say that line is going to play at a high level, so it can match the top line with JT? Okay, sure, but there's no way that the second line the Canucks have, that includes Patterson and Hoaglander, should be out-produced by Tommy Novak, and Jason Zucker and Luke Evangelista. I mean, there's, I like Noobak, we talked about him, I like Evangelista too, but they should not be out-producing that line, and then Bevillaier, Scissons, and Glass, or Jan Kalski, whoever ends up playing on the right wing, they're alongside Scissons and Bevillaier, are they really going to be out-scoring, Lindholm, Garland, and Joshua with how they played? I mean, it might happen, of course, but if you're projecting and trying to match them up head-to-head, I like that line better. And the fourth line, that's where Nashville would have the edge, I suppose, to some degree, McCarran, Smith, and Sherwood, but it's not like Teddy Blueger hasn't scored almost 30 points, it's not like Sam Lafford doesn't have a career-high end goals with 13, and that's kind of the same type of production that fourth line has. So, if you match up their lines, even if the Canucks have had some struggles offensively, they have the edge in the forward group. Again, having the edge doesn't mean you'll win the series, or it's going to turn out for you, but if you're projecting and comparing the two, there's no question the Canucks forward group is significantly deeper. - There is, I'm surprised none of our textures brought this up. What about the revenge game narrative? Anthony Beauvilla, he goes off and has a series for the natural predators. I don't know if I see it happening. - Yeah. - But we'll see, you know, he did a couple of years ago scored a couple of big goals for the New York Islanders in an Eastern Conference final against the Tampa Bay Lightning. So he has had playoff success in the past. Just wanted to throw out that storyline, but you're right, there isn't a lot about this forward group on paper that does worry you, and it's not so much about what they are on paper that I think is what's impressive about Nashville, it's more how they execute as a team, right? They found their mojo after the U2 concert was taken away from them. They got grounded and they were disciplined, and all of a sudden they picked themselves up and said, okay, no more of this, we want to have a good summer and we want to have a good spring. So let's figure this out, and they did, and they started to play Andrew Brunette Hockey, which is super north south. They really transition the puck quickly. If you get over-aggressive on the forecheck and are unable to turn over pucks in the offensive zone, if you're Vancouver, Nashville's going to try and really put it back on you the other way. So if you get caught three men below the puck, you could be in trouble and have some on-man rushes going back the other way, because they do transition defense into offense very quickly. Now that's the kind of thing where it can go both ways. I think this is a huge key for the series for me, is how the Canucks deal with Nashville's transition offense. If they're able to create some turnovers and be able to make it a problem for Nashville, that they like to add a man into the rush, create turnovers, and then turn it back the other way. This is something the Canucks were very good at for much of this season. They didn't get a ton of rush chances, but when they did, they converted on a lot of them. And Nashville, what they do is they try to add men into the rush, especially when Yossi's on the ice, they'll add him into the rush, get a fourth man in, and really try to create a numbers advantage going back the other way. But if you can create or get some turnovers through the neutral zone, or however, then you could put Nashville on their heels going back the other way. And I think that's a huge key to this series is, can you use Nashville's speed or want to have speed in transition against them and use it as something that could be an advantage for you. And that's gonna come down to how the Canucks play their team defense, which has been their best value all season long. - And as good as Nashville has been for the totality of the season, and if you look again, I think some of their public data metrics are misleading, and we spoke to Kevin Woodley about this the other day about when they dig into clear sites analytics and where they are in terms of those numbers, they're very much middle of the pack, very mid-table as far as all the things that they do well. But then the issue oftentimes ends up being you look at the public data, and they're one of the top 10 teams and some of these differentials. So you're like, man, this is probably a very good team. But even through those analytics and everything, they still give up a fair amount of high danger chances per 60 minutes, and I do think one thing they have done ever since they got on the run, I wouldn't say they've thrown caution to the win necessarily where they don't care at all, but they will take some chances to generate some rush opportunities, and they're not gonna be afraid of going for some 50/50s at times to try to create some opportunities for themselves. They played carefree hockey, essentially, right? Where they're stout defensively for the most part, but they were willing to take some risks. If that risk aversion comes in at the playoffs, then their chance generation is going to come down, which makes them better defensively, but they're gonna generate less. But if they're gonna be playing as aggressive as they have during their win streak, that might play into Vancouver's hands as well. Like if they're trying to push and trying to create odd man chances and the Canucks play well through the neutral zone, creates some turnovers, they keep you the team that takes advantage of a team being overly aggressive. - Yeah, that's, can Vancouver slow down Nashville's transition offense? I think that's a big key for the Canucks in this series. And the other part about Nashville that has been red hot during their big streak towards the end of the season here is the power play. Second best by percentage in the league since the All-Star break, running at a 27% clip. And the Canucks, I mean, they finished the year just under 78% on the PK. I liked what we saw towards the end here. These last couple of games, the PK looked pretty strong after they got Lindholm back in there. So, you know, there is some positives here for Vancouver as far as the penalty kill goes. But we know this team was undisciplined, called out by their coach on a couple of occasions here in post All-Star break, living, Rick Tockett, did not love the stick penalties and these things that the Canucks were getting themselves into. Staying out of the box is a major key. I mean, it's the most cliche thing of all time. But I think with the way Nashville's power play is going and how Vancouver's power play has been up and down to be positive about it, it's, you know, that could be an area where Nashville has a little bit more success in this series. And special teams can always be something that tilts a series in one team's favor. Yeah, they're better on the power play, but their PK is very, very average. And the Canucks, PK is stronger than the Nashville Predators, PK on the season. The Canucks ended the campaign. I think it was 17th in the league. Yeah, 17th in PK efficiency coming at 79.1%, which is leagues better than where they were last year where they had the dead last power play clicking at just, you know, just at about 70%. They were under 60% even for much of the season last year. So it's taking a big step forward, but the press finished 22nd, 76.9%. So neither PK is overly formidable in this series. No, and I just wonder, you know, Lindholm scored the power play goal last night in the rather meaningless game between the Canucks and Winnipeg Jets, but you hope that maybe he gets some confidence going. I don't think he'll be a fixture on power play one starting in this playoff series, but do we have more confidence in the Canucks power play with the way they finished in the last couple of weeks? They were at least generating more opportunities, looked like they got back to some of the things that saw them be a success earlier in the season, but it still generally wasn't as dangerous as what we saw in October and November. No, no, no, not at all. And I think it's gotten better, like you said, they have the moments where it's shown a little bit of progress, but we're still waiting for it to truly arrive. And right now they've had Garland on the first unit. Is it going to be Lindholm? Ultimately, when the playoffs do begin, is he going to get on the power play a bit more? That's going to be the question. Can they really round into form on their man advantage in the playoffs? And that's kind of what we're a best-case scenario kind of hoping for. And now the Canucks have been formidable enough offense for this year, 5 on 5, even scoring short-handed. That it's not like they can find other ways to generate offense, but it's going to be hard to go deep in the playoffs unless your power play is one of the top power plays in the postseason. - Yeah, you got to have it going. And I know there's a lot of people that think the whistles go away in the playoffs. I think it is very much situational. Late in third periods, overtime. Yes, whistles do tend to go away in those spots, but actually, if you run the numbers on it, and I don't have them ready with me right now, but I know I've seen it when people have looked into this, and all these actually go up in the first round of the playoffs compared to what they were in the regular season. So and talking to some refs, former refs, about this, there's no like mandate or anything, but it's kind of like we see at the beginning of every single regular season. They crack down, they try to maybe over call, call some softies, make sure guys stay in line early in the playoffs, and then as the playoffs go on, the whistles gradually go more and more away. And in a referee's mind, guys sort of learn what they can get away with and what they won't get away with as the playoffs go along. So that's why the whistles go away. But don't expect that there's no penalties called here early in the postseason. I don't think that'll be the case. And usually the first round is the most energetic round that every team is just playing with so much fire and primstone. I mean, the first like five minutes of a game are just insane and then the ebbs and flows are really heavy each game and the physicality ramps up. And I find almost the first series, everyone's just getting all that energy out. So I think that leads to more infractions, more penalties and stuff like that. And things settle down. I mean, everybody starts getting injured, banged up, it's a lot harder to go through the playoffs. So it does tail down a bit, but you're right. And the first round, especially, is where your special teams are gonna be relied on more heavily, most likely. So you have to be ready for it. And you know, I know people are asking us who before we get to our ultimate predictions here is, like from the national side of things, like what are they looking at? And I think a lot of it comes down to, can they use their speed against Vancouver? Vancouver can play fast, they're not the fastest team. Can they get the Canucks out of their structure and get them going back and forth and gun run and gun a little bit? That's something that I think they would like to see happen. So their speed advantage would be a true advantage in their matchup. If the Canucks can stay within their structure and not let it become a run and gun north-south game, they should be able to be in control of it. And the other thing, and I mentioned this to Bic on the post-game show last night, is the Canucks just can't shoot themselves in the foot. And his response, and I think it's a good one, is, hey, I don't care who you're playing, you can't shoot yourself in the foot in the playoffs. That's true, but it's especially more so against an opponent that you're better than. You can't just give them cheapies and freebies, especially if they play tight, overall conservative hockey, if they do kind of shift towards that in the playoffs. So no more too many men penalties. I see people texting that back in, the Canucks have been one of the worst teams in the league. It was 40 games ago, Rick Talk had called out the team and said we've met our quota for the entire season. I don't wanna see any more, and they've doubled them since then, and they had a couple of the other night as well against Winnipeg. They just can't be giving away cheap penalties in the postseason, you just simply can't be doing that. - Yeah, and Nashville, like their focus is gonna have to be limiting Quinn Hughes, right? Like I think that is such a big part of the series. Like who wins the minutes when Yossi and Hughes isn't on the ice? And for Nashville, how much can you limit Quinn Hughes? How much can you limit his effectiveness? Now it's very difficult, but we're gonna see how hard they try to play against Quinn Hughes and maybe they take the odd penalty, but they're gonna make life as difficult as they possibly can for Quinn Hughes. Because I know, and I appreciate the way the Canucks built out the rest of their defense and part of it was with the mind toward the playoffs, like hey, if we have size and a little bit of mobility, that's gonna help us in the playoffs. And I actually like what Tyler Myers did in the bubble playoff, so we'll see if he amps up his game and his physicality in this series, but for Nashville, we have to win the minutes when Quinn Hughes isn't on the ice. Like we have to take advantage of the rest of the Canucks Decor when we have those opportunities, and ultimately I think any team that plays Vancouver sees that as their biggest weakness. - Yeah, I would be inclined to kind of agree with you on that one too. - Yeah, so that is first and foremost, I think what Nashville is going to be targeting against the Vancouver Canucks. All right, let's get to predictions here for the series, Sat. How are you feeling about the Canucks chances in this round against the Nashville Predators? - Moderation is for Cowards, so I'm going big, I'm going Canucks in five. I don't wanna do the Canucks in six, or maybe seven and hedge a little bit, just 'cause you wanna give respect to the opponent. Canucks should win this series, I got them winning in five. - Five. Okay, I like the boldness of it. They win it on home ice in five games. I think it's gonna take them a little bit longer. I have a little bit of doubt about this game one here, I think Nashville might get a leg up early in the series, so I think six games is more likely for me, but this is one of the few series in the first round where I would consider it a pretty major upset if the favorite doesn't win. - Yeah, I mean, I would agree, and I do think in general too, if you look at the matchups, it might be hard to pull out some, throughout the playoffs, it's hard to kind of come up with some of the upsets unless you see something there, and there's always gonna be upsets, there's never a playoff where all eight favorites win. Now, maybe it's happened, I can't think of recent history where in the first round, all eight favorite teams won, so you are gonna see an upset or two. Yeah, of course, Nashville can win, it can happen, and I think what you just mentioned in game one, so to me, the way Nashville would get a foothold in this series is if the Canucks are a bit banged up, they're a bit fatigued, the coach seems worried about game one, they haven't had enough time, they still game one, this ends up being a long series. To me, the key to Nashville, being able to push this one is stealing one game, one of the first two games, and especially that first game, I don't know if they're gonna win a game two, Nashville, to me, game one is the one that they have to steal if they wanna make this a long series. So, that is the selections. Sad's got the Canucks in five, I've got the Canucks in six. Josh, do you have a pick here, or? Yeah, I put it out on Twitter, but I'm also on the Canucks in five, train. All right. I just feel like they're gonna outmatch the predators. Both of you are less bullish on the Canucks in this series than EA Sports is. The local product, the homers that they are, have picked the Canucks to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup over the Boston Bruins, but also they have the Canucks sweeping away the Nashville Predators in the first round. So, yes, NHL 24 simulated the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Canucks winning over the Bruins in a rematch of the 2011 Stanley Cup final. And of course, they have a sweep for the Canucks over the Nashville Predators. I know some of our listeners were asking, so that's why I did want to point it out. Quickly on the Canucks Central Roundup, Jon Shorthouse and Dave Tomlinson to call the Canucks Round One series. I heard Shorty on the Morning Show today. I can't believe it's his first series calling Canucks on television. I guess it usually goes to the folks in Toronto and that's why it hasn't happened. - Yeah, and before Jim Hewson used to call a lot of games to a legend in these parts. And the Canucks had just not been a relevant team. I mean, Shorty's called playoff games, but the Canucks had just haven't made the playoffs the past nine years. Last time they did was 2015. So there haven't been a ton of opportunities and the bubble playoffs were a lot different 'cause they only had a couple broadcast crews doing all the games, you know, set up in Toronto and in Edmonton with how that was set up last time around. So it was really different and strange the time the Canucks made the postseason. So we're all hyped to hear Shorty call playoff game for real on TV. - Canucks given a 6% chance to win the cup at the athletic. That's by Dom's model. So pretty good. I think they were sixth best by that estimation, which is pretty strong compared to, yeah, sort of in line with how we feel about the team, right? Like there's a few very clear contenders and the Canucks kind of end up in that second tier of contender. - The most promising thing about that is the Canucks have outperformed Dom's model this year and Quinn Hughes also outperformed the projections they had as well. So if you wanna, if you can look at that very positively, you're right, it's not a bad one, 6% it shows that they're still considered one of the top contenders. But if you think that they're underselling the Canucks, you have recent evidence to point to. - Also the athletic did a poll of some executives in there. They're not quite as bullish on the Canucks as maybe some others are. This executive saying anonymous, of course, getting Nashville does help the Canucks. I think they get the right matchup for the first round, but I don't see them winning more than a round. The first year in the playoffs is just hard. This is how I look at it. Do you like Vancouver as a favorite against Dallas? No, do you like Vancouver as a favorite against Winnipeg? Probably not. Do you like Vancouver as a favorite against Vegas? No, do you like Vancouver as a favorite against Edmonton? Well, the goalie difference makes it pretty even, but I like McDavid and Dreycidal and think they find a way. And this one, do you find Vancouver? Do you like Vancouver against LA? The Kings are as flawed a team as there is, and I'm not sure I like Vancouver against LA. I don't think Vancouver is a clear favorite against anybody but Nashville. I'm not a believer yet. Shots fired. - Hey, that's fine. Listen, the Canucks haven't earned the benefit of the doubt in terms of having years of success, right? It's been a failure to launch a year after year. And we talked about how some players around the league aren't sold on the Canucks, so are you surprised some executives aren't sold? Hey, listen, I think EA Sports has a better grasp of things than these guys do anyways. (laughing) - So that's it for the Canucks Central Roundup. We'll get to more of your texts and start to preview the rest of the series coming up as we get to round one of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Jan Pro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial, if your workplace demands clean environment contact Jan Pro for a free no obligation quote visit janpro.ca. You are listening to Canucks Central. - Hey, it's Big Nizar. Have your say and join me on The People's Show with big takes and even bigger bets, weekdays three to four on Sportsnet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - We're back on Canucks Central. Dan Richeaux, Satyar Shah. Canucks Central is for Enzahn Pacific Bank. Cooper's Premier Chrysler, Dodd Ram and Jeep Superstore on Second Avenue between Canby and Maine or at Enzahn Pacific Chrysler.ca. And we're in the KinTech Studio Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soarfeet, what are you waiting for? It's KinTech. A couple of great texts came in thinking about the executive comment that we read. Anonymous executive, Rager texts in, Alveen trying to motivate his team again, master motivator. - Yeah, that's not a bad one. - Another one, I think that was Jim Rutherford's tweet just so he could get the Canucks riled up. So the Canucks fans think their front office is anonymously cutting up their team so that they get some whiteboard material. - And honestly, I love it. I think it's great. I think it's great that people outside of Vancouver are counting out. The Canucks is great fodder for them too. It'd be like, hey, you know what? Nobody's betting on us to win. Nolan important Moody says, let there be naysayers. If we got nobody believing in the Canucks, then that should make the pressure less, not more. So it's going to be interesting to see how this goes. Another says, Canucks and four, you cowards. - Not like that. Knuck in the six also is going bold. Has a Canucks sweeping the Nashville Predators. I mean, I got five. I think five's pretty, pretty bold, but that's okay. - Sweeps are just so, so difficult. Like, I don't even know if we'll see a sweep in the Rangers capital series. - I don't know. (laughing) I don't know. - Sashes a talk about the second. - Pretty bad. - Yeah. - Cats are not good, even though I picked them to make the playoffs. - At least they made the playoffs. - Hey, I didn't say they're going to do anything in the playoffs. All I said was they're getting to the playoffs. - Well, you were correct on that. All right, so let's get into our playoff preview and predictions. We'll start in the Western Conference. The one seed, the Dallas Stars taking on the Vegas Golden Knights as both Vegas and LA were deciding, well, who really wants to win this final game of the season? LA came back to win in overtime to finish third in the Pacific Vegas, lost four-one to the Ducks and finish in the second wild card. Their prize is facing the Dallas Stars. Like, the idea of like them tanking in order to face Dallas rather than Edmonton, like, I don't know. I'd at least, as vaunted as Conor McDavid and Leon Dreyseidel are, like, I'd still say playing Edmonton is the easier task than Dallas. Maybe I'm just too bullish on Dallas. - Yeah, I mean, it's not a bad take based on how the season has gone. And I mean, Dallas, to what an incredible campaign for them is here. Now you get to play the Vegas Golden Knights to trade it for hurdle, Hanifin. It looked like Mark Stone's going to be back for game one, too, at least based on everything we've seen with his availability and getting back to practicing with the team. So, man, like, I think Dallas is the most complete team in the league overall. I don't know if their high-end matches the absolute high-end of Vegas. Like, I think defensively, they have the best defenseman in the eighth series. High-skinned is incredible. Now, I think Patrangelo, Hanifin, and the depth they have in the blue line for Vegas might be when they're healthy, slightly better than Dallas. But I think they have the best defenseman. The best forward though on this series belongs to the Vegas Golden Knights. The second best forward, you can make an argument, also belongs to the Vegas Golden Knights. And I think Jason Roberts is incredible. I think Rupa Hintz is fantastic. But if I had to choose the two best forwards, and when healthy, probably Mark Stone and Jack Eichol. So, man, like, I don't want to pick Vegas to win, but if we're looking at upsets, and here's an eight-seat playing a one-seat, isn't this one of the easy ones to pick, so you get one of your upsets out of the way? - Yeah, it feels as though like this one wouldn't be considered as big of an upset as say like the Islanders over Carolina, but it's still an eight-seat over a one-seat. You know, and Vegas, we've talked about this so much with Vegas, you know, they've just, they've kind of been really mediocre going all the way back to December. Now, I know there's a lot of injuries, and they added a couple of big pieces at the deadline, so it changes the conversation a little bit. Does it all come together here in this first round? Like, I think Dallas just has too many things going for them, so I'm still picking Dallas, but I'm picking Dallas in six. - All right, so I'm going with the Vegas Golden Knights in six. - Whoo! - Yeah. - Spicy for as much as we've talked about Dallas this year. - I know, I mean, I would have probably picked them if they played anybody but Vegas in the first round, man. - Anybody but Vegas. All right, Josh, you got to pick here or? - Stars in six. - All right, stars in six for producer Josh Elliott-Wolf. Edmonton and the LA Kings. It feels like for as much as we talk about Leafs, Bruins always meeting up with each other. I mean, Edmonton and LA is just, it seems like a foregone conclusion every single season now. See, unlike that coward executive who was anonymous in the athletic article, I actually aren't, I'm not quite as scared of the LA Kings. Like, I know some people don't want the connects to play the Kings, how the Kings have had the connects number and everything, but they do not worry me, not even in the slight list. Like, I think that team is complete for Gazy. I don't think the LA Kings stand much of a chance against the Oilers. - Yeah, Oilers are too good. I'm taking Oilers actually in five in this one. Like, Oilers have everything going for them. It really, the only thing I can see maybe happening is Stuart Skinner sinking them in a series. And even that, I don't know if LA's good enough to really take advantage of that here in this series. - I mean, the goalie they're going up against is Camp Talbot. Like, is Camp Talbot any better than Stuart Skinner? - No, he's not. - No, like not even close. And Camp Talbot once played for the Edmonton Oilers. So it's like, you know, and he actually had a decent year for them the year they made the playoffs and got through a couple rounds back in 2017 or whatever it was. But like, I just, it's one of those things where I'm just not overly fast enough, overly enamored with how the LA Kings have played. And I think they're one through one is so passive. And I think they're offensively, they're not even as good as people make them out to be in their own zone at times. And their goal-tending is average. They don't generate nearly enough offense. Like, this is not the 2012 LA Kings. Like, I keep hearing like, oh, they remind me of the 2012 Kings. Did you watch the 2012 Kings? Did you see how they used to grind? The teams in the offensive zone, man? Like, that team generated scoring chances. They punch you in the face. They made life difficult for your neutral zone. They were great defensively. This LA Kings team is nothing like that 2012 LA Kings team, nothing. - And this series will show that. So how many games do you think Edmonton takes? - I got them in five too. - All right. - I'm going Oilers in seven. I feel like LA just grinds out some ugly wins. And by the end, we're like, Edmonton definitely deserved to win the series, but it took seven games. All right, so there's your selections for Edmonton and the LA Kings. Final series in the West. It's the Colorado Avalanche against the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg having home ice advantage in this one between the two and three seeds out of the central. This one's really tight, you know? And it could be sneakily one of the better series to watch here in this first round, because Winnipeg's a really good team. You know, they showed for much of the season that they've got a really strong defensive acumen as a team for all of, you know, I know Murph talked to Rick Bowness yesterday and they played that interview during the second intermission and Bowness said, you know, like I felt we needed the tough love after our playoff loss last year. And the team really came around. It was some tough love, but guys didn't like to hear it. But at the end, I think it's made us a better team for this year. And I 100% agree with that. Very similar to how Rick Talkett got a lot of buy-in away from the puck. I think Rick Bowness has done that with Winnipeg and this is going to be a really close series, but it's hard to beat Nathan McKinnon and Kale McCar. So I got Colorado in seven. - Yeah, and the thing about the Jets too, like they do have some firepower, but they're not nearly as physical as their size kind of suggests. And I think that as much as they defend fairly well, I think there are areas of their game that can be exploited. I think the overall speed and pace that Colorado can have can create a lot of problems for them. So I understand everything people are saying about the Jets and I love to see them perhaps beat the Colorado Avalanche, but I just don't know if they're going to be able to knock off Nick McKinnon and McKar, especially after those guys struggled against the Seattle crack in last year. There's going to be a lot of motivation to not go out on the first round this time for the Colorado Avalanche. - How many games? - I got the Abs winning in six. - All right, Abs in six. I got them in seven, Josh. - Abs in four. - Oh, wow. - Wow. - I think it's sweet. I just feel like Kate McKinnon and Kill McCar, they're going to run stuff in Winnipeg and it's going to be too much. I don't think they have an answer for them. - That's a pretty bold call. I like it, I like bold calls. All right, in the Eastern Conference, let's start with Boston and Toronto, the two three in the Atlantic Division Boston with home ice advantage for this series. I, you know, we've seen this series in the past, not so much recently, but obviously, I mean, we get so much Leaf content. We know Leaf fans are scared about playing the Bruins. - Yes. - But I think if there's ever a year to play the Bruins, it would certainly be this one. For as much as they've been a really good regular season team, I think they started to show their cracks towards the end of the year and in a playoff series, I think they'll miss not having Patrice Bergeron in a playoff series more so than they were able to mask it during the regular season. I think, you know, Leafs might be considered a dog in this series, but it should be, I think it's going to be a pretty close series. - Yeah, I'm with you on this. So I've been going back and forth on it, like my natural inclination has been, hey, the Boston Bruins, they always seem to beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, had the far better regular season squad and they've had back-to-back years with success they've had. They bailed out on the first round last year, there'd be lots of motivation, but in the playoffs, you really look at the top end players. And you can make the case that the best offensive player in the series is David Pasternak. However, the way Austin Matthews scores goals, you wouldn't be wrong saying he's the best offensive player. But once you get past Pasternak, like Brad Marchand is still really good. He's not the same Brad Marchand he was a few years ago. Does he elevate in the playoffs perhaps? Like he's older now, right? Like he's still really good, but it's not the same prime guy who was one of the top five or six wingers, left wingers in the National Hockey League. Like he's not quite there with his overall game, I don't think. I think the overall forward edge goes to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The defense clearly is a Bruins advantage and so is the goal-tending, but are they so strong that it's a huge advantage over Toronto? Goal-tending it is. Goal-tending for sure is a massive advantage. Is the defense as big an advantage? - I think the goal-tending has to steal the series for the Bruins. Like to me, that's the way that it's got to happen. And that's a tough thing to sort of gauge, but I like the way the Leafs finish the season for the most part. I think they have a lot more snarl to them than they've shown in past years. I think the addition of guys like Bertuzzi and some of those things while it didn't look good early in the year, he found himself going on later on. So I just, I don't think the Bruins have enough high-end to win this series. I think the Leafs finally get over the hump of the Bruins. I don't think it's going to be a long run for the Leafs, but I think they beat the Bruins here in seven games. - Yeah, so I've gone back and forth on this. I'm going with the Leafs in seven as well. - Whoo! - Yeah, I wanted to pick the Bruhmin. I don't like the Bruins all that much anyways, but like, I've really gone back and forth on this. And last minute, I'm making the change, going to Leafs in seven. - Which of the two evils do you want to choose from? That's the way this series is. - Well, the one thing I will say, at least at least when there are more Canadian teams going past the first round, it's good for the Rogers brand. - Yeah. - So I'll say that. - And the stocks. - Yeah, exactly, that's what I was saying. - What stocks? - What stocks? - Josh. - At least in seven. - Oh, we all got Leafs in seven. Surely this will be the wrong mistake we ever had. - Everybody's manifesting the stock prices to go up next month. - Man, could use a few shares to be sold to make some money for the summer. What about, what did I say? - What about? - Wife's birthday's coming up. - What, all right, Florida and Tampa Bay, let's go to this series, the Battle of Florida, and it should be a barn burner. I'm really excited to watch this series. It begins on Sunday, and the lightning came on at the end of the year, but they were very mid for a lot of the season. Some of it, though, was Andre Vasilevsky after a pretty invasive surgery that delayed his start to the season, and he took some time to get going. Vasile was great towards the end of the year, and he found his game. - He found his game. - He found his game, and they started to click. As much as I like Florida, I don't see this as the layup, I might've seen it as two months ago. - Yeah, and honestly, I'm not too concerned about late season trends or whatever, and I think that Florida Panthers are a really good hockey team, but every time I watch them and they do a lot of things really well, I'm not sure if their individual defenders have been quite as good as the overall make-up of the team does suggest. Like, I see Ekblad at times now. He's been really good, but he's has some moments. Montore has some moments at a time. I mean, all of Rec Marlarsen, he did a fantastic job stepping in, playing bigger minutes earlier this season. When you see him along the board to certain situations, he still loses a lot of map battles. I don't know if they're as good as their overall record, truly indicated, and they are the better team than Tampa Bay Lightning, but I just don't feel very comfortable picking the Panthers to win the series. - Does that mean Kuchar has been going to you? Like, Kuchar has been an absolute monster. Brayden Point has 46 goals. Stankel's has 40 goals. Hedman's been an absolute monster in his own end as well, and Vasaleski is clearly the best goalie in the series if he's on his game. - Well, and Florida is the most penalized team in the league. You just can't, you can't give Stankel's and Kuchar off and Brayden Point too many opportunities on the power play. That could really be an Achilles heel for them in this series. - Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that could really cause problems for them. So I'm going with the Tampa Bay Lightning in seven. - Whew, as much as I've been tempted by the Lightning, I'm still picking Florida in six for me. They still have too much good things happening at the top of their lineup for this to be a one and done for the first place in the Atlantic Division. - I'm a Panthers in seven. - All right, so that's that. And two more series to go. We've only got a couple of minutes to do it, but I shouldn't have to spend too much time on Carolina and the New York Islanders. This Bo Horvat and Matt Barzal in company have an upset in store against the Carolina hurricanes. - Not an upset, but I do think UC Sorrows and just Cal Pesci that either team can be at time. I think they'll be annoying. They'll win two games, but ultimately go out in six. So the Islanders, like the way they finished, they only dropped like one point in all of April or one game in all of April. It was pretty good. I like the way they finished the season, but yeah, this team is not nearly as good as Carolina. Carolina finally made the big plays at the deadline. I think it's had the desired effect, getting Jake Genssel over there. So I don't see them losing this series. They're too good, too well-rounded. Not the series that you would pick an upset in. Carolina in six for me. - I'm going to sweep Carolina in four. - Nice. - And final series, New York Rangers, the New York arranges and the Washington Capitals. Is Alex Ovechkin have a surprise up his sleeve? Is he gonna score 30 goals in this first round series? - He might score a few goals. I'm not sure it's gonna be enough of them to win a single game. So not every single first round has a sweep, but there usually is a sweep. So I'm gonna have one sweep pick and it's gonna be the Rangers sweeping the capitals. - All right. Well, you did have the Canucks to sweep as well. - No, five, Canucks in five. - Oh, you had Canucks in five, sorry. - People were texting in and saying they were cowards for not picking them to sweep. - That's right. Josh had the Canucks in four, no? - No, I had Canucks in five. I had the absence. - It's the NHL thing that had the Canucks in four. Sorry, I was getting all mixed up. - EA Sports. - It's in the game. - It's in the game. Like, I don't know, like this might be the most lopsided series on paper that we've seen in the Stanley Cup playoffs for a while. - Yeah, I mean, so defensively, the Capitals have been pretty atrocious. For much of the season, their goal differential is really bad. They've been getting, they're either get blown out or win close games. That's kind of been their season in a nutshell. And I'm just not sure that they have enough to squeeze out more than maybe. I can see them winning a game or something, right? It can happen. I picked them to get swept, but I can see them winning a game. I just don't see enough there for them to win two or three games in this series. - Penguins would have been a much more formidable opponent. I'll say Rangers in five for this series. - That's why I'm going Rangers in five. - All right, so there is your first round predictions from us here on Canucks Central. We'll have lots more to get into. Yannick Hanson, who's gonna join us for pre-games on all of our playoff games here on SportsNet 650. He's our Friday analyst and will join us next here on Canucks Central. It's Dan Richel, Satyar Shah on SportsNet 650.
