Playoff Predictions From An Edmonton Oilers Fan Perspective
By Phil Gretzky
Winnipeg vs. St. Louis
St. Louis made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth, in part because they rode a hot goaltender to go 8-1-1 in their last ten games and in part because Minnesota fell apart at the worst possible time.
St. Louis might be the 3rd “poser” team in the playoffs to round out the trifecta from Calgary and Colorado. They may have made it, but they don’t really belong there.
The Jets are a highly balanced team from top to bottom and boast more firepower – both up front and from the point – that the Blues do.
Jordan Binnington will steal a couple of games for the Blues, but a hot goaltender won’t be enough to overcome the deficiencies of the rest of the team as the Jets only have to focus on a few key guys, and the Blues will shut down.
My verdict: Jets in 6
Nashville vs. Dallas
This series will be a relatively evenly matched one, but this is the one series in which I’m predicting an upset and Dallas will emerge victoriously.
The reason why is the Predators have two huge red flags against them: 1 is their anemic offense up front – it certainly didn’t help that Filip Forsberg saw his point total decrease by 14 from last season. Move past Ryan Johanson, and Viktor Arvidsson and you have the struggling Craig Smith, who saw his goal-scoring totals dip by 4 and his points dip by 13. No more 20 goal scorers after that. Ouch.
Their D, of course, is the same stellar corps it always has been with the same players that have been around for a while.
The other red flag for Nashville, though, is the fact that starter goalie Pekka Rinne is 36 years old. He may have won the Vezina trophy last season, but at 36 can he withstand the rigors of the playoffs with over 700 games on his resume between regular season and playoffs? I’d be worried if that was my starter.
The Stars, meanwhile, boasted one of the best 1-2 punches in the league up front with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin and supplemented them with great pieces like Alex Radulov and Mats Zuccarrello. Their depth scoring isn’t great, but it’ll be good enough to overcome the Predators.
Meanwhile in net Ben Bishop has revitalized his career, and while he isn’t too battled tested in the playoffs, he’s got a great chance to outduel the 36-year-old Rinne, and on the off chance Bishop falters they can toss in a fresh body in Anton Khudobin who’s tag teamed with Bishop and also had a great season this year.
My verdict: Dallas in 7