My goal here isn’t to assert that this is the best NHL postseason we’ve ever seen. That would require a more encyclopedic knowledge of the league’s history than I have. It would also be a colossal waste of time, because such a statement is subjective and eras can be very challenging, if not impossible to compare.
Perhaps the best Stanley Cup Playoffs would be the one that featured the most overtime games. Or maybe it would be the spring that featured the most series going the full seven games.
If you’re interested, there have already been six series in 2022 that have gone the distance. Three times in history - 1994, 2011 and 2014 - there were seven series in a single playoff year that went the full seven games. There have never been more than that.
I don’t really know how you’d determine it, and maybe I should stop trying to figure out something that I’ve already stated that I’m not trying to figure out.
There, now that we’ve got that settled…
The 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs have produced for us a great pair of matchups in the Conference Finals.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are going for a three-peat, so that’s compelling on its own. They are matched up against the New York Rangers, who, generally speaking, get outplayed most nights but boast the season’s best goalie in Igor Shesterkin, and have made it through a pair of Game 7s already this spring.
Fortunate matchups have played a part in that, as the Rangers have only faced their opponents' regular season starting goalie once in 14 games this postseason. That was in a Game 7 overtime win over the Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 1 that saw Tristan Jarry return from injury after missing a month with, what was believed to be, a broken bone in his foot.
Game 1 between the Rangers and Lightning was in for a tough time matching Game 1 of the Western Conference Final between the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers. That series opened with an 8-6 Colorado win.
New York won the first game of the Eastern Conference Final, 6-2, scoring the last four goals in, what was, a fairly evenly played game most of the night.
As for the Oilers and Avalanche, yes, there are numerous players on both teams capable of making series defining plays, but the undisputed headliners are Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for Edmonton and Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar for Colorado.
The first game of the series featured flashes from all four that has set the table for an all-time matchup. McDavid, in particular, has been lost to an American television audience playing in Edmonton since entering the league, and fans getting to see what he is capable of every other night should be awesome.The sheer speed at which McDavid attacks is unprecedented in the NHL.
Draisaitl has been hindered by injury in these playoffs, but is still capable of using his combination of size, vision and skill to make plays.
MacKinnon is close to McDavid on the attack, and has a bit more of a power element to his game.
Makar is my personal favorite. His ability to turn in tight spaces and attack with speed has been at the top of my list of things to watch in the NHL almost since he got to the league. Multiple times per-game Makar will swiftly turn defending into attacking, controlling the puck deep into the opposition end of the ice, and yet still be back in time to defend again if things don’t work out.
Many NHL fans for years have complained about the stars of the league not being able to shine, say, the way Lebron James or Steph Curry can be counted on to do something remarkable in an NBA game. NHL stars have had to wade through a sea of cross-checks, hooks and worse, and probably too often were blamed if they couldn’t rise above the constant interference and elevate their team to a championship.
I’m not here to assert that this problem has entirely been eradicated, but in the case of McDavid, in particular, it feels like the closest thing the NHL will ever get to having their version of Michael Jordan. A guy the most casual of fans can tune in to watch on the sport's biggest stage and go, “Oh yeah, I get it now. This McDavid guy is just different.”
I’ve been saying for a few years that there has never been more talent in the NHL than there is now. The emphasis on skating, controlling the puck and skill at the developmental levels of the sport has continued to produce more and more players arriving in the league every year with tool kits bursting with variety.
Maybe this will all fizzle out here, and Colorado will truck the Oilers in five, while the Rangers' bubble will burst because they’re playing against Andrei Vasilevsky now and not Louis Domingue. Though that certainly was not a problem for New York in their emphatic Game 1 win.
Anyways, I hope you’re enjoying these NHL Playoffs as much as I am. The talent is bursting off our TV screens.
