Habs by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Jeff Carter (76)
Goals Leader: Jeff Carter (39)
Goalie: Sergei Bobrovsky (51 W, 0.919 PCT, 2.21 GAA)

Canes by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Tyler Johnson (63)
Goals Leader: Eric Staal (30)
Goalie: Jake Allen (40 W, 0.911 PCT, 2.53 GAA)

Head to Head: Carolina (2-1-0-0)

Analysis:
This year’s playoff edition of the Montreal Canadiens is scary… like scary, scary.  GM Steve Vardy has gone all in to try and win the cup this year and while he’s left the cupboards relatively bare moving forward, he’s made some very shrewd moves through the season picking up some of the best offensive free agent talent in the league; including this year’s co-Rocket Richard winner Jeff Carter. 

On the other side of the rink, the Carolina Hurricanes are back in the playoffs after being screwed over last season due to some unfortunate simming and collusion circumstances.  The Canes are a team that perennially defies all logic; on paper their roster looks like it belongs with the Leafs and Flyers and the other bottom feeders of the league. But every season the Hurricanes and GM Rich Cordell seems to pull one out of their ass and this year is no different.

Prediction:
The Carolina Hurricanes won their season series against Montreal with two shoot-out wins and one loss.  That’s pretty much all we have positive left to say about the Canes.  Carolina is simply out gunned in this series and missing arguably their top two defensemen and their top defensive forward for at least the first two games of the series doesn’t help. The only blessing that the Hurricanes have is that the top scorer for the President’s Trophy winners, Jeff Carter, will be out for about the same amount of time.  Unfortunately all this means is that Atkinson, Skinner, Troechek, Tatar or any of Montreal’s other weapons can get more target practice in. Montreal in 5.

Devils by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Wayne Simmonds (81)
Goals Leader: Wayne Simmonds (39)
Goalie: Devan Dubnyk (41 W, 0.919 PCT, 2.35 GAA)

Panthers by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Brent Burns (70)
Goals Leader: Chris Krieder (27)
Goalie: Pekka Rinne (45 W, 0.918 PCT, 2.30 GAA)

Head to Head: New Jersey (3-0-0-0)

Analysis:
Last season we predicted that the worst draw that the New Jersey Devils could have gotten in the first round of last year’s playoffs was a series matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning; and we were right as the Bolts took out the top seeded Devils in 7 games.  Unfortunately for GM Tim Scholl, this year’s series matchup isn’t going to be much better for him as New Jersey faces the Florida Panthers in the first round.

Led by co-Rocket Richard trophy winner Wayne Simmonds, New Jersey has plenty of firepower; they finished only second to the Montreal Canadiens in goals for in the league with 292.  The Devils can also boast having one of the best goalies I n the league as well in Devon Dubnyk who backstopped them once again to another Metro Division title this season.  But pound for pound, the Panthers very easily match up against New Jersey with Alex Ovechkin leading the way up front and all-star goalie Pekka Rinne between the pipes.  In fact if there’s one x-factor that Florida does have over the Devils, it’s their defense with a top four comprised of Ryan Suter, PK Subban and Brent Seabrook and anchored by Brent Burns.  It’s one of the best, if not arguably the best, defensive core in the league. 

Prediction:
This is definitely a ‘Clash of the Titans’ series.  The Florida Panthers were one of the hottest teams in the league down the stretch run going on a 17-5-0-0 tear in their last 22 games to power past Pittsburgh Penguins for a wild card spot in the playoffs.  New Jersey was an almost equally impressive 14-5-1-2 over the same span.  Both teams are evenly matched and both have firepower to burn.  The main difference is that the Cats had to go full out in order to make the playoffs and have a couple of players on their top 6 on the limp to start the series.  We think, this year, the Devil gets his due; New Jersey in 7.

Red Wings by the Numbers:
Points Leader: Steven Stamkos (76)
Goals Leader: Steven Stamkos (34)
Goalie: Corey Crawford (33 W, 0.916 PCT, 2.41 GAA)

Senators by the Numbers:
Points Leader: John Tavares (83)
Goals Leader: John Tavares (33)
Goalie: Braden Holtby (40 W, 0.915 PCT, 2.50 GAA)

Head to Head: Tied (2-2-0-0)

Analysis:
The defending Stanley Cup Champion Ottawa Senators took a bit of a step back this season as they attempted to avoid losing players in the upcoming expansion draft and do a mini-rebuild of their aging and expensive roster by moving out all-star talent such as Tyson Barrie, Tyler Seguin and Alex Ovechkin. The end result was a weakened lineup that while still solid, anchored by all-star center John Taveres, it was definitely not enough to keep pace with the powerhouse teams like the Montreal Canadiens in the East this season.

The Detroit Red Wings were the hottest team out of the gate to start the season with an astounding 23-1-1-0 in their first 25 games.  To no one’s surprise, they couldn’t sustain that torrid pace and fell back to Earth going 3-9-0-1 immediately after that and were eventually overtaken for top spot in the East by the aforementioned Habs.  The Wings have a solid roster led by Steven Stamkos and Leon Draisaitl up front, Tyson Barrie and Shea Weber on the blueline and Corey Crawford behind the pipes but they’ve lacked consistency all season long with alternating winning and losing streaks in the their last 40 games.

Prediction:
This is a battle of two very evenly matched teams.  The two teams split their season series with two wins and two losses each and both teams can roll two solid lines and have Norris caliber defensemen anchoring their bluelines; as cliché as it is, which team takes this series will come down to goaltending.  Both Braden Holtby and Corey Crawford are coming off of mediocre seasons posting only average save and goals against numbers but both netminders are also capable of winning games all by themselves.  We saw this happen with Holtby last season and he carried Ottawa all the way to a cup.  We think he has enough in him to do it again, at least in this series; Ottawa in 6.

Long Island by the Numbers:

Points Leader: Brad Marchand (84)
Goals Leader: Brad Marchand (36)
Goalie: Tuukka Rask (32 W, 0.919 PCT, 2.42 GAA)

Rangers by the Numbers:
Points Leader: David Pastrnak (63)
Goals Leader: David Pastrnak (32)
Goalie: Frederik Andersen (44 W, 0.918 PCT, 2.36 GAA)

Head to Head: Islanders (3-0-0-1)

Analysis:
Both the New York Rangers and the New York Islanders had to deal with some turmoil early in the season as both teams were left scrambling looking for new GMs; GM Larry Linke left the Rangers for the greener pastures of expansion while GM Rich Epstien was fired from Long Island after a slow start to the season amid high expectations.

The new GMs for each team, Ryan Hicks for the Islanders and Greg Ripley for the Rangers, were both quick to put their stamp on their respective rosters with GM Hicks shaking up his goaltending by swapping Corey Crawford for Tuukka Rask while GM Ripley made wholesale changes to his roster by moving out big name players such as Sean Couturier, Ryan Ellis and Brandon Saad while bringing in even bigger names such as Nick Backstrom and David Pastrnak; not to mention Tyler Seguin.

Whatever the changes, it seemed to have worked for both teams as the Islanders shot up the standings and finished their season with an impressive 16-6-1-2 record over their last 25 games and the Rangers easily made the playoffs in a very tough Metropolitan division after missing the playoff last season.

Prediction:
It’s the Battle of New York as the Islanders square off against the Rangers in this first round match up.  Not to sound like a skipping record, but this is going to be another close series in the East.  The Rangers are a deep team; led by Pastrnak, the Rags can roll three solid scoring lines and a shutdown line that’s more than capable of popping in a few to the back of the net.  The Islanders as well have a dynamite top 9 that’s highlighted by Evegni Malkin and Brad Marchand and one of the top two-way players in the league in Jacob Silfverberg and both teams have solid goaltending with Rask in net for the Isles and Frederik Andersen for the Rangers.  Who takes this series will more or less come down to who gets hot and peaks at the at the right time, and considering the consistency issues that Long Island have struggled with all season long, we don’t think it will be them; Rangers in 6.