Buffalo, N.Y. (WGR 550) – Four more Stanley Cup Playoffs series get started on Sunday, with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers kicking things off at 12:30 p.m. ET.
The Panthers are ranked fifth overall in the NHL, while Tampa Bay is 13th.
Last season, the Panthers got into the playoffs by one point over the Buffalo Sabres.
In their first round series with the Boston Bruins, they got behind 3-1 in games until goalie Sergei Bobrovsky took over the crease. Bobrovsky had been a regular season sensation and playoff flop in his career, but he caught fire and before it was over, Florida was in the Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights.
This season, Bobrovsky went 36-17-4 with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage. Anthony Stolarz has even better numbers, leading Florida to the best goals-against average in the NHL at 2.41.
The Atlantic Division champions were 2-1-0 this year against Tampa Bay, and will play the Lightning in the playoffs for the third time in four years.
Former Sabres defenseman Brandon Montour had his career season last year. Before last season, Montour’s career-high had been 11 goals and 26 assists for 37 points. Then all of a sudden, he had 16 goals and 57 assists for 73 points.
This year, he came back to Earth with eight goals and 25 assists for 33 points in 66 games.
However, it was former Sabres forward Sam Reinhart breaking out this year in Sunrise with 57 goals and 37 assists for 94 points. Reinhart’s previous career-highs were 33 goals and 82 points.
Florida got 34 goals from Carter Verhaeghe, and 88 points from Matthew Tkachuk.
The Panthers clinched the division by winning their last four games, and going 5-0-1 in their last six.
Florida is in the top-8 in both special teams units, and can play the game anyway you want to. They can be tough and physical, or they can play a fast game.
The Panthers were able to acquire Vladimir Tarasenko from the Ottawa Senators before the NHL Trade Deadline on March 6. In 19 games with Florida, he had six goals and eight assists for 14 points.
Tarasenko brings some Stanley Cup pedigree with him to Florida, as he won the Cup with the St. Louis Blues back in 2019.
The Panthers also acquired Sabres captain Kyle Okposo for roster depth. In six games played to close the regular season, Okposo had no points.
Florida is going to have to contend with the NHL’s leading scorer in Round 1.
Nikita Kucherov had 44 goals and 100 assists for 144 points this season. He was the second player this season to register 100 or more assists in a single season, joining Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
Brayden Point was eighth in the NHL with 46 goals, while Steven Stamkos netted 40.
Tampa Bay was fifth in the NHL, scoring 3.51 goals per-game. The Lightning also have the best power play at 28.6%, and their penalty killing isn’t bad either at 83.3%, which is good for fifth place.
If the Lightning want to pull the upset, Andrei Vasilevskiy is going to have to be better and return to the goalie he was when Tampa Bay won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles. This season, Vasilevskiy was 30-20-2 with a 2.90 goals-against average and .900 save percentage.
Tampa Bay finished the season with just two wins in six games.
All the series in the Eastern Conference will have started before the Western Conference even plays one game on Sunday.
The New York Rangers finished the 2023-24 regular season No. 1 in the NHL, earning them the Presidents' Trophy with the most points for the season. They’ll face the 17th-ranked team in the league in the opening round, the Washington Capitals.
This will be the 10th time these two teams meet in the playoffs, with New York winning five of those series.
The Rangers can beat you with offense or defense, as they were seventh in both categories. New York also features the third-best power play in the league, and the third-best penalty killing unit.
Artemi Panarin was fourth in league scoring this year with 49 goals and 71 assists for 120 points.
The Rangers also got 39 goals from Chris Kreider.
For a while this season, it looked like Igor Shesterkin had lost his job to Jonathan Quick, but once he got back in net, you couldn’t get him out. Shesterkin was 36-17-2 this season with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage.
New York finished the season strong, going 10-3-0.
Both teams were 2-2-0 against each other in the regular season.
It was unbelievable the New York Islanders made the playoffs with a goal differential of minus-17, but it’s more amazing the Capitals made the postseason with a goal differential of minus-37.
The Sabres finished the 2023-24 season with a plus-2 goal differential.
The Capitals made a huge blunder when they signed goalie Darcy Kuemper after he won the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche. Somehow, they missed the fact that Colorado won in spite of Kuemper, not because of him.
A relatively unknown goalie saved the day for them in Charlie Lindgren. He went 25-16-7 this season with a 2.67 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.
The other thing that got Washington in was Alex Ovechkin getting red-hot at the right time. After scoring just eight goals in his first 43 games, the captain netted 23 in his last 36 games, finishing the season with 31 goals.
Washington is 28th in goal scoring, 16th in defense, 18th on the power play and 19th on the penalty kill. This is going to be quite an uphill battle for the Capitals.
The Caps had to finish the season 4-0-1 to claim the Eastern Conference’s final playoff spot in the Wild Card chase.
When that game is over, the Western Conference finally gets going when the No. 8 overall Colorado Avalanche visit the fourth-ranked Winnipeg Jets.
Winnipeg does get the best goaltending out of Connor Hellebuyck, as he won the William M. Jennings Trophy this season. He was 37-19-4 with a 2.39 goals-against and .921 save percentage this season.
Winnipeg won all three games against the Avalanche this season, outscoring them 17-4. Defenseman Josh Morrissey had seven points in the three games for the Jets.
The Jets aren't great on special teams or scoring, but Hellebuyck keeps them in every game.
Winnipeg finished the season on an eight-game winning streak, which included a 7-0 pasting of the Avalanche.
Mark Scheifele led the Jets in scoring this year with 25 goals and 47 assists for 72 points in 74 games.
Kyle Connor missed 17 games, and still scored 34 goals for Winnipeg.
The Jets acquired Tyler Toffoli from the New Jersey Devils at the NHL Trade Deadline, and he had seven goals and 11 points in 18 games. Overall this season, he had 33 goals.
Sean Monahan was a really good addition from the Montreal Canadiens. In 34 games played with the Jets, he had 13 goals and 11 assists for 24 points.
This is the first time these two teams have met in the playoffs.
As for Colorado, the team limped into the playoffs, winning just four of 11 games.
After 357 regular season games, former Sabres forward Casey Mittelstadt will play in his first playoff game.
Mittelstadt didn’t score in his last eight games, picking up just three assists. In 18 games with Colorado, he had four goals and six assists for 10 points. In seven games near the end of the season, Mittelstadt was a minus-9 before going plus-2 in his final two games.
Nate MacKinnon was second in scoring in the NHL with 51 goals and 89 assists for 140 points. Mikko Rantanen was eighth with 42 goals and 62 assists for 104 points.
Colorado just doesn’t get the goaltending, as they gave up seven goals twice in their last five games, and also had a game where they gave up six. They had two games this season where they gave up eight, three games where they allowed seven, and three others where they gave up six.
That’s eight games this year where they gave up six or more goals.
With that kind of defense, the Avalanche had to lead the league in goal scoring.
Getting Alexandar Georgiev from the Rangers hasn’t work out, as he was 38-18-5 this seasonwith a 3.02 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage.
The final game of the night has the No. 11 overall Nashville Predators in Vancouver taking on the sixth-ranked Canucks.
Vancouver always had the star power, and general manager Patrik Allvin did a terrific job of filling in around them. The Canucks added guys this past offseason like Teddy Blueger, Sam Lafferty and Pius Suter to complement some of the top talent on the roster.
J.T. Miller scored 37 goals and 66 assists for 103 points this season, Brock Boeser finished his season with 40 goals, while Elias Pettersson managed to net 34 goals.
Meanwhile, Quinn Hughes was a machine from the blue line this year with 92 points. He's also Vancouver’s captain, and was the seventh overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft when Buffalo took Rasmus Dahlin first overall.
The Sabres, Carolina Hurricanes, Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Arizona Coyotes and Detroit Red Wings all passed on Hughes. Hindsight tells us that was a huge mistake on all six teams' part.
Thatcher Demko became an All-Star goalie, going 35-14-2 this season with a 2.45 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage. That helped Vancouver to be fifth in NHL team defense.
The Canucks are sixth in the league this season in team offense.
Vancouver won all three games against the Preds. This is the second time these two teams will meet in the playoffs, with Vancouver winning the first macthup in six games back in 2011.
The Canucks won four of its last six games.
Andrew Brunette did a fantastic job behind the bench for Nashville in his first season as head coach. The Predators had an eight-game winning streak, and also won 16-of-18 games.
Nashville did a pretty good job of scoring goals this season. Filip Forsberg had 48 goals, while former Sabres center Ryan O’Reilly had 26.
Juuse Saros wasn’t quite as good in goal this season, but he wasn’t bad. He went 35-24-5 with a 2.86 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage.
Since Nov. 24, Nashville was 22-8-3 on the road. They, of course, don’t have home ice advantage in this series, so that could help.
