The first round of the playoffs is over, and eight of the 16 teams that aspired to the Stanley Cup have been forced to endure an early end to their respective seasons.
That's good news for the eight surviving teams.
In the Metropolitan, it's a battle between Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, but it's also so much more than that. The Washington Capitals were the league's best regular-season team, looking to put years of playoff anguish firmly behind them. The Pittsburgh Penguins are the dynasty that never was—a team that finally got on-track in the latter half of the season.
John Tavares' first-round performance compared favourably with that of Crosby, Ovechkin and for that matter, anyone else in the game. His New York Islanders have crossed over to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning—a team racked by injuries and a lackluster regular season, but also a club that handily dispatched its first-round opponent and won the conference just last spring.
The Dallas Stars and St. Louis Blues meet in the Central Division final, with the giant of the division having been knocked off in seven games after years of dominance. Ken Hitchcock, w ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Jonathan Willis
NHL Playoff Odds 2016: Handicapping Every 2nd-Round Team’s Stanley Cup Chances
April 27th, 2016 by Jonathan Willis Leave a reply »
Advertisement