Even though the NHL playoffs are quite a distance off, and the regular season isn’t even halfway through, I thought I’d try and make my picks for the Stanley Cup Final. It’s around this time of year that the future winners of the cup or the surprise packages start to emerge, and the hottest teams around late December and January tend to do well when it comes to play off time.
I’ve picked one Western conference team and one Eastern conference team of course, picking the West was much easier than the East. The factors I looked at when deciding were their full record and recent form, but most importantly I looked at which teams have past play off performers, and Goaltenders that could take a team far in the post season.
This factor of Goaltending is huge as any Hockey fan knows, and having the ‘hot hand’ and riding it can be the difference between being swept in the first round and having a deep play-off run. Look at the last few winners of the cup: two Goaltenders stick out as the inform Goalie that made the difference. In Pittsburgh, Matt Murray came from out of Marc-Andre Fleury’s shadow to power the Pens to back to back Stanley cups. Even last year, Jordan Binnington emerged from nowhere to solve St. Louis’ woes in between the pipes and provide them with a calm presence that made the difference on a great number of occasions.
This analysis of the Goaltenders has ruled out certain teams for me, as I believe that they don’t have the sturdy Goalie required. Though Sergei Bobrovsky is the ‘$10million man’, and has shown he can be a wall in the net he’s yet to show anything this season to get me excited about the Panthers’ chances, especially with a fairly inconsistent team in front of him. The same can be said of Edmonton, despite having arguably the best two players in the league, I’m not sure that Koskinen and Smith are quite good enough to carry them to the Stanley cup final if the going got tough.
Eastern Conference- Tampa Bay Lightning
After their pathetic choke in the 2019 play-offs and poor start to this season, I think the pressure has been lifted a little off Tampa Bay. Their recent form has drastically picked up, and the Lightning are beginning to look like the team they should be. In the goaltending department they are very solid. Curtis Mcilheney is a very able back up to one of the best Goalies in the league, Andrei Vasilevskiy. Vasilevskiy has 19 wins this season, with a .911 save percentage. This isn’t extraordinary, but the 6-foot 3-inch Russian has shown in the past that he can turn it on in the post season, even if the 2019 play-offs were very disappointing.
Defensively they have probably the best defenceman in the NHL in the form of Victor Hedman. 39 points in 39 games so far, this regular season is nothing to be sniffed at, particularly from a defenceman. He also has plenty of decent defencemen with him, most notably Kevin Shattenkirk and Mikhail Sergachev. Defensively Tampa have plenty of depth and talent.
They have great depth in forward areas too. Nikita Kucherov is a great performer in both the regular season and play offs, contrary to what some people would make you believe after the Lightning were swept by Columbus. Kucherov averages around a point per game in the playoffs in his career overall. Their powerplay is also terrific, in fact it’s currently second best in the NHL with a 28.8% success rate. As long as the Lightning have Kucherov, Hedman, Steven Stamkos and Brayden Point on the power play, the Lightning can blow out any team if given the opportunity. Though penalty time is reduced when it comes to play-off time, the Tampa powerplay can only assist them in going far. The lightning definitely won’t want a repeat of the sweep by Columbus, and this will give them an edge to reach the Stanley Cup final.
Western Conference- Dallas Stars
Dallas had a horrific start to the season, and looked down and out early on, with star performers not playing anywhere close to the level they should be. Gradually however, the Stars have risen through the standings, and now sit 3rd in the Central division.
In terms of Goaltending, Dallas are blessed with a brilliant tandem of Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin. Both goalies have been sensational this regular season, and the stars certainly wouldn’t have won as many games as they have if Bishop and Khudobin weren’t as hot as they are. Khudobin has a save percentage of .931 and Bishop .926, that’s ridiculous. This shows that even if one of the Dallas goalies has a cold streak or gets injured, there’ll be at least one top class goalie to take the Stars on a deep play-off run.
Despite a ropey start from the Stars best players, most notably Jamie Benn, scoring has picked up somewhat. Benn is now on 20 points in 42 games, not great but better than early in the season. Scoring overall for Dallas hasn’t been high, but they’ve still managed to win plenty of games due to their stout defence and goaltending. The emergence of Roope Hintz is certainly a welcome one for fans of the Stars, and the young Fin dragged his team through a number of games at the start of the season before others started to pick up the slack. What this does show is that if the big-name players don’t turn up, others can help out. In the off-season the Stars added some veterans in Joe Pavelski and Corey Perry, despite the fact that both aren’t quite at their peak, their experience of Stanley Cup finals and play-off runs will be invaluable.
In terms of special teams, the stars powerplay is pretty poor at 18%, but it’s their penalty killing that is really impressive, in fact it’s 6th best in the NHL. On top of this they’ve scored a handy four short handed goals. Having a good PK unit is very important when it comes to play-off runs. Just look at the Vegas Golden Knights, you can’t let in four goals in a five-minute powerplay.
The Stars great defence can only help to go deep in the play-offs, when games become tighter and scores are lower. Esa Lindell, Miro Heiskanen and John Klingberg is a great defensive core, and the Stars mean defensive stats over the past few seasons show that. If the forwards can get a few more points on the board I think a good play-off run is guaranteed. The NHL has shown in recent years that being the best team in the regular season doesn’t guarantee play-off success, I think the Dallas stars are hitting their stride at the right time, and have the right trajectory for a team that’s on their way to the Stanley cup final.
Jon Parkin Sports 