Panthers-Maple Laffs
The Panthers are the same defensive dynamo we saw in the Cup finals last season, but as the old saying goes, it's harder to repeat than it is to win one.
That being said, even with the danger of Florida being too tired to put up a fight, I still think winning breeds winning.
Both of these teams beat their regional rivals in round one, albeit for different reasons. The Tampa Bay Lightning now has a core that is largely aging and ineffective, so the reigning Cup champs easily handled them 4-1 in the first round. The Lightning still have some good pieces at forward but their two best blueliners are now 34 and 35 respectively, and while Ryan Mcdonagh's contract is mercifully up after next season, Victor Hedman, who is now long past the age of being one of the NHL's best all around blueliners, is getting a slight raise next season and will be 37 by the time his contract ends. That is an albatross around the Lightnings' necks. The booby prize, though, goes to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who is being paid $9.5 million a season for three more seasons after this one to lead the Lightning to perennial first round defeats.
Meanwhile there isn't much to say about the Maple Laffs. Their playoff rookie opponents were the Ottawa Senators, whom they handled 4-2 in the first round. Just goes to show you even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. They're the same team they've been for almost a decade now - foolishly spending more than 40% of their cap on four forwards. Good forwards, mind you, but if they'd had the stones to trade at least one of them years ago they'd be in a much better position today, thus rendering them largely unable to fill out the rest of the roster with anything other than bargain basement signings with glaring flaws - although the foundation of their team may change after this season as the contracts of both Mitch Marner and John Tavares are up and they've been unable to sign either guy prior to July 1 at this point. Notwithstanding some last minute signing(s), they just might have to sign somebody cheaper to take their place and redistribute cap space around the rest of the roster - and they'll have almost $22 million in cap space from those two former contracts to do it.
So, with both of these teams with flaws to their game - Florida potentially being too cup hungover to play their best and Toronto perpetually unable to improve their team due to their cap situation, how do I pick a winner? Well, I have a credo when it comes to the Maple Laffs, and it goes in the form of the following acronym - ABAT - Always Bet Against Toronto. Until they can prove to me otherwise, they'll never win anything. Toronto will be facing a REAL opponent in Florida and thus they will fold faster than Donald Trump on "liberation day."
My prediction - Florida wins 4-2