The second round of the NHL playoffs begins on Monday night, after there are no sweeps and two series that go to the distance to reach this point.
Dallas emerged from a Seven Games Series against Colorado, and Edmonton recovered from below 2-0 To eliminate angels And keep going The glove that is The West Conference. Neither of them will have an easy time, with the stars face Winnipeg or St. Louis and Connor McDavid and the league oilers, who face Las Vegas, which has an advantage of ice at home.
In the east, defending Stanley Florida Cup champion He faces Toronto, trying to reach his first final conference since 2002, while Alex Ovechkin and Washington He plays Carolina in a series that does not attract the attention of Panthers-Maple Leafs, but has the potential to be the unmissable entertainment.
Everything could be a bit different from Fast and affectionate, shocking First round
“I think it sits a bit (after) everyone is so expanded at the beginning of the playoffs.” Capitals coach Spencer Carbertry saying. “It will be ultracompetitive, and it will be physical and is playoff hockey. But I think they will be equipment that is established and focused a lot on what they need to do to win the advantage against their opponent.”
After sending to the rival between the state, Tampa Bay in five games, the Panthers are favorite To repeat with just over 4-1 in Betmgm Sportsbook, followed by the Oilers, Hurricanes and Stars. Edmonton is favored to win the West and establish a final rematch of the Cup in June, but there is a lot of hockey to play first.
It is expected that this will begin on Wednesday night, either in Texas or Manitoba, waiting for the result of Blues-Jets set 7 Later on Sunday night. It is not surprising that the central division group has produced the two longer series, given the depth of the legitimate contestants.
The stars obtained a storybook, Historical performance Of the former avalanche highlighted Mikko Rantanen To defeat The avalanche. Rantanen became the first player in the history of the league with a hat trick of the third period in a game 7.
“When you go through a game like that, you’re numb,” said coach Peter I should. “It’s hard to process what really happened.”
They are now ready to get their maximum defense, Miro Heiskanen, and goals leader Jason Robertson, back at some point in the second round after not having Colorado. Heiskanen has been out since he had Surgery on your left knee In early February, while Robertson was injured in the final game of the regular season and was immediately considered from week by week.
Dallas also has the goalkeeper Jake Oettinger in the form of the term in the mid -games. He stopped 25 of 27 shots in game 7 and believes that he and his teammates may already have survived his most difficult test.
“I find it hard to believe that there is a team that is much better than red,” Oettinger said. “Maybe try to win the game 1.”
Starting Tuesday night in the “fortress” right next to the strip, the Oilers and Golden Knights are in the playoffs for the second time in three years. Vegas won that series on the way to Capturing the Stanley Cup in the seventh season of existence of the franchise.
Much has changed since then, including Edmonton Shooting Jay Woodcroft and hiring Kris Knoblauch as coach and arrival at game 7 of the final Before losing Florida last year. The Oilers still have McDavid and MVP Leon Draisaitl.
“They changed their chief coach and use their depth players more,” said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. “They still trust their two greats, obviously, but won games with depth against Los Angeles.”
The Golden Knights found great success in putting the Jack Eichel and William Karlsson centers in the upper line with Captain Mark Stone to beat Minnesota 4-2 in the first round. They will wait more against Edmonton.
“Both teams have a high -end talent,” Eichel said. “We know it will be a difficult series.”
Upon entering his series from Monday night in Toronto, the Panthers and the Leafs have largely the same nuclei as when they met in the second round in 2023, although neither of them really plays in the same way. And Toronto has three players, the Oliver Ekman-Larsson defense, striker Steven Lorentz and goalkeeper Anthony Stolarz, who were with Florida for his Cup race last year.
The strength of the Leafs is a discouraging power unit of five strikers of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares. The Panthers emphasized stronger and strong Brad march came out and got and Nico Sturm.
“You have the opportunity to play hockey at the end of April, May, with luck of June,” said Sturm. “I want to play significant games. And these are as significant as it is, against the best players in the world.”
He Capitals-Hurricanes Game April 2 He presented two fights, eight misconduct and a total of 142 minutes of penalty. The demolition of Jalen Chatfield by Connor McMichael at the end of his fight did not please Carbery and his players, and Brandon Duhaime fought against Chatfield When they played Nine nights later.
These teams have not gathered in the playoffs since 2019, but playing twice in the last weeks of the season accumulated a lot of animosity among the division rivals that are well known and do not want them so much.
“We are going to have to dictate the game and worry about our game and make sure we are really focused and marked, because there will be not much time and space,” said the end of the capitals, Tom Wilson. “You’re going to have two fast and large teams in the East Yeando.
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AP Stephen Hawkins sports writers in Dallas, Mark Anderson in Las Vegas and Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed.
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AP NHL Playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
