Playoffs

 Its that time of year again. The NHL playoffs are upon us. While the regular season still has a couple games left, Most of the first round matchups have been set and we are ready to go. The Bruins baring anything crazy and unforeseen will face the Hurricanes in the first round. Some might think this is not a good match up for Boston. I can see that point. Carolina went 3-0 against them outscoring the bruins 16-1 in those 3 games. Some might say that is a bad omen for a playoff series but you have to take into account a few factors. First, In one of those games the Tuukka experiment was still in full swing and he let in 5 goals. Second, The teams haven't met since the trade deadline. In one of the game Boston was with out Bergeron and Marchand. I am not saying all these things mean that Boston is primed to just steam roll the hurricanes but these things should be considered. Now you also have to add in the fact that Carolina's Starting goalie and the only netminder on their roster with playoff experience is hurt and not sue to return until at least mid series if at all in round 1. That would leave the hurricanes with career back up Antti Rannta and young rookie Pyotr Kochetkov the latter of which has only played in 3 NHL games in his short stint. All these things point to good news for the Bruins. Right? Well before we start gassing up the duck boats you need to remember that Carolina still has a very dangerous offence. Powered by Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov. They can move the puck very well as a team and will take a deficit and turn it in to a lead in the blink of an eye. Should Boston make it past the first round it would almost certainly mean a matchup with the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers.

One other first round matchup in the east i wanted to talk about is the potential series of the Leafs and Lightning. Why is this one note worthy? For the simple fact that It will further prove that Toronto is either cursed or just plain not good. They have all this noise around them about being the best and this is their year. Matthews scored 60 this year. Their powerplay is deadly good. Guess what? Tampa Bay is the 2 time defending champs. They are not some team who just snuck into the playoffs by stroke of luck. They belong in the post season. If Leafs fans think they will just breeze into the next round then oh man they are more delusional then i give them credit for.

I know this was short post but i just wanted to get some early thoughts out there. Once the playoff matchups are official I will have a post that breaks down what i think about each match up in both the east and west. 

Thanks for reading.