(1(1)    Montreal Canadiens vs (WC1) Carolina Hurricanes

The Canadiens have been strong from start to finish this year while the Hurricanes regressed as the season went on. It was a good start for Carolina but after the halfway point they allowed both Tampa Bay and Pittsburgh to pass them in the standings. This is how they ended up playing a Montreal team that improved a lot leading up to Deadline week. On paper, the Canadiens are the better team top to bottom. They also have a bunch of depth with guys such as Cirelli, Richardson and Killorn all on the 4^th line. Rich is going to need a lot of puck luck going his way to win this series. The top line of Malkin, Niederreiter and Kreider will have to outwork the top line on the Habs. Starting goaltender Thomas Greiss will need to be sharp and his backup, Laurent Brossoit is most likely going to get a game or 2 this series if the Hurricanes have trouble playing defense. I don’t see any way this goes the Hurricanes way.

Prediction: Montreal Canadiens in 5

(( (2)    Ottawa Senators vs (3) Tampa Bay Lightning

I don’t like the idea of predicting my own series, so I won’t. What I will do is point out the obvious here. The Ottawa Senators have a top 5 offense in the league. The Tampa Bay Lightning have a top 5 defense in the league. It really comes down to which strength of each team will come out on top. As displayed in the first 2 games of the series, the Senators were able to score 8 goals on Anton Khudobin. Shutting down the likes of Crosby, Marchand and Seguin will be no easy task. Even if that line is shut down, there is another one to worry about in O’Reilly, Pacioretty and Stone. While the majority of the top players in this series are on Ottawa’s end, the strength the Tampa Bay Lightning bring to the table is in overall team depth. Their bottom 6 is stronger, and that is where they will need to win games. On the back end, both teams play a different type of defense but Tampa has proven it’s backend is one of the best in the league. During the regular season their defense ranked in the top 10 in overall points, while the team allowed the 4^th least goals against. In net, Kuemper gets the edge over Khudobin, but it’s tight. This series has 7 games written all over it.. for the second straight season.

Prediction: Anyone’s Guess in 7

(1(1)    New York Islanders vs (WC2) Boston Bruins

You can never count out the Bruins. Despite Greg trading off a bunch of his good players, the Bruins kept winning. They were eventually passed by the Lightning, Penguins and Hurricanes, which is what got them stuck in the sticky situation of having to play Blue Balls. Had Greg matched up with a team such as the Canadiens instead, or even the Senators.. I would have more faith that they could win, or steal the series, but unfortunately that is going to be next to impossible to do here. With the best offense in the league, the Islanders are surely going to send shot after shot to the net which will inevitably wear down both Lundqvist and Domingue. Not only are the Islanders deep and talented up front, but they got possible the best goaltender duo in Vasilveskiy and Halak. If the Islanders are going to lose a series at all, it’s going to come down to their defense, which is just average.

Prediction: New York Islanders in 5

(2(2)    Columbus Blue Jackets vs (3) Pittsburgh Penguins

It sucks to have to type this out.. the Jackets are already up 3 games on the Penguins based off of when this is being written, but I am sticking to all my original predictions. I had Toby winning this series. Not because the Penguins are better, they aren’t. It has more to do with what happened in last seasons playoffs. It seems like Toby has Jessie’s number, but apparently not. The Blue Jackets are making up for the debacle of last playoffs losing to Toby’s Penguins in the first round. The Jackets are a different team with Claude Giroux in the lineup. They also have some great goaltending depth that should give them a long playoff run. With all that said, my original prediction was the Penguins..

Prediction: Pittsburgh Penguins in 7