The delicacies of the second round of the NHL playoffs are Toronto-Florida and Dallas-Seattle. Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä created a quick overview of the starting points of the series.
DALLAS – SEATTLE
The Dallas machine still coughed a little in the first few games of the first round, but they finally got their machine going and ended the series against Minnesota with three straight wins. Joe Pavelski despite the injury, the first chain delivered Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen leading convincingly both with equal fives and with superiority. Goal-scoring power was also found well behind the top chain. The goalkeeper’s game also improved as the series progressed.
Seattle surprised the dominant and heavily wounded Colorado with above all a quality team game. There weren’t really any great individual successes in the team, but Colorado fell precisely with a strong four-chain mill – and of course with a quality goalie game.
Dallas starts the series as a big favorite. Seattle is still a well-coached, disciplined, wide four-string team, but so is Dallas. Dallas is also clearly deeper than Colorado and a better combination in terms of goaltending. Dallas needs a maximum of six games for a conference finals spot.
VEGAS – EDMONTON
Vegas gets home advantage in the West’s second, extremely interesting semifinal. The Knights lost the first part of the opening round to Winnipeg, but then rolled unstoppably to four straight wins. Winnipeg was still honestly no measure for Vegas and doesn’t say much about its level. Kärki delivered, but there were not many successes.
Edmonton played a hard and even series against Los Angeles and decided it in their favor largely thanks to the superior play with tremendous power. Connor McDavid’s and Leon Draisaitl in the lead, the Oilers’ top scored the required hits in important places, even though its defense was not particularly high-quality yet.
There is an unpredictable series ahead, where the weights are fairly even in advance. Edmonton has top class talent and shockingly strong overpowers, but their defensive play was torn apart in the first round. Vegas has cutting edge expertise by Jack Eichel I agree, but the whole is still a mystery, as is the goalkeeper game for both. Edmonton continues in seven games. CAROLINA—NEW JERSEY
Carolina has been tested. Important players have fallen from right and left, but the team has pushed forward in a convincing way. The first round series against the New York Islanders ended up being six games long. Especially Sebastian Aho showed in the series what leadership means. The overpowering game improved, Alivoima was excellent and the veskars held their ground.
New Jersey played a fantastic series against the local rival Rangers after losing the first two games. After that, the fast-footed, fresh and hungry Devils sat, the driver and the Rangers in the passenger seat. The character of the first round was a 22-year-old yellow-billed weasel Akira Schmidtwho played two clean sheets in five matches.
There will be no shortage of momentum in this series. Both have foot speed and a desire to play at full throttle, which in itself guarantees entertainment value. Carolina has more experience in these moments, but due to injuries, it is still very narrow in terms of scoring. The Devils are going hard, but will it hold up against disciplined Carolina? Carolina is the early favorite, but the Devils have all the tools to operate themselves further.
TORONTO – FLORIDA
Did Toronto, who reached the second round after a 19-year hiatus, get the champion (Tampa) after knocking off the champion? Thus, one could easily imagine that Toronto is now on the other side of the worst pressure cooker. Toronto didn’t shine game-wise against Tampa, but delivered dully in important moments. There is still room for growth and the blanks for growth are there.
Florida did what no one thought it could do: rally from a 1-3 deficit to put on a regular-season showdown against beat-it-all, see-it-all Boston. The number one chain rolled the result on the board and Alexander Barkov did everything in their power to stop Boston’s famed streak of No. 1s. You could also imagine that Florida only got more hunger and faith from the win.
Toronto starts the series as early favorites. It has home advantage, a sharper tip, wider material and better defensive equipment when it comes to defending specifically. Florida has leverage after a difficult season, but it still relies too much on its first chain and its defense will struggle with the Toronto forwards. The Leafs advance to the conference finals.
In the most recent episode of Ika änär, we talked about prison rules and the referee’s line, goalkeepers and the Finns of Dallas. You can find all episodes of Ika änäri in this link.