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Real Kyper and Bourne<\/p>\nFor as long as I can remember, I\u2019ve been writing wrap-up articles on NHL free agency and trade deadline with my trademark \u201ctwo sentences\u201d pieces. It\u2019s a useful model when there\u2019s a volume of action, and people don\u2019t have the time to read a “War and Peace”-length breakdown.<\/p>\n
Well, 16 teams are set to embark on a two-month battle for the Stanley Cup, and I\u2019ve got thoughts. Let’s get through every team\u2019s forecast, just days before the best round of playoffs of the best sport in the world gets underway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Eastern Conference champs are perennially disrespected, and this year they\u2019re as fast and deep as they\u2019ve ever been, with a D-corps that can skate and make plays just like the rest of the team. The questions are \u201cCan the goaltending hold up?\u201d and \u201cAre they big enough?\u201d but when your smaller lines drive people crazy like Taylor Hall-Logan Stankoven-Jackson Blake can, you\u2019re gonna be a handful.<\/p>\n
The Sabres have perhaps the best D-corps in the NHL, and in a world where we\u2019ve accepted “defence wins championships,” that\u2019s probably a good thing. When Josh Norris is healthy, it feels like they\u2019ve got enough up front too, so if their inexperienced goaltending can hold up (something they share with many teams), they\u2019ll have a shot against anyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been working on my NHL awards ballot, and the Canadiens have viable contenders for the Selke, Norris and Calder, and even Cole Caufield should get slotted in on one of the NHL end-of-year all-star teams at his position (and while I don\u2019t vote for Jack Adams, Martin St. Louis deserves love, too). I think they\u2019re fast and dangerous, with young goalies who can be great, and have as good a chance as any team in the East to go to the Cup Final.<\/p>\n
Tampa will provide us the answer to \u201cHow much does experience matter?\u201d because with Florida out of the picture, the Lightning seem to represent the greatness of this past decade\u2019s memorable playoff runs. With proven players Andrei Vasilevskiy, Victor Hedman, Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov, Brandon Hagel, Jake Guentzel, Anthony Cirelli and Ryan McDonagh, it\u2019s just really hard to bet against them.<\/p>\n
Can Stuart Skinner be the guy they need after so many playoff runs with the Oilers? The Penguins will still be relying on proven superstar names, but they\u2019re going to need young guns Egor Chinakhov and Ben Kindel to surprise if they want to make any post-season noise.<\/p>\n
The Flyers are a couple things to me, including being headed in the right direction (which makes them dangerous), and they\u2019re annoying to play. Travis Sanheim and Rasmus Ristolainen have poke-check length on the back end, Travis Konecny is scrappy, Noah Cates is going to get Selke votes, Dan Vladar is solid in net, they\u2019re well-coached … so, overall, it just feels like they\u2019re not going to go away easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Bruins highlight the extreme parity in the NHL, because they\u2019re not awesome, but they\u2019ve got an awesome player on forward (David Pastrnak), on D (Charlie McAvoy) and in net (Jeremy Swayman), which is often enough to beat anyone on any night. Not to mention that they\u2019re tough with Nikita Zadorov, Sean Kuraly and Tanner Jeannot, so they\u2019re going to make life hard on the Sabres in Round 1.<\/p>\n
The Sens have been very good all season but have had to fight tooth and nail to get into the post-season (because of bad goaltending), so we\u2019ve got a No. 8 seed that\u2019s as good as any team in the conference, which also has a Vezina-winning goaltender, but again, they\u2019re somehow the No. 8 seed. But all their injuries seem to be clearing up at the right time, which gives them an elite D-corps with which to protect their goalie, and a scrappy, physical group up front.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s crazy how much of this excellent team has been built via trade up front, from Marty Necas to Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri and Nick Roy, Artturi Lehkonen and Ross Colton, and Jack Drury and on and on. They\u2019ve got them loaded for another run, so as long as they\u2019re healthy, it\u2019s hard to see anyone taking them down.<\/p>\n
The Stars are the same team they\u2019ve always been to me, with a few elite talents, as they graduate from their old core to the new, and a good chance to beat 25 teams in the league pretty handily. But we\u2019ll see how they hold up in series against back-to-back elite teams, where Jake Oettinger will be tested and the depth of their D-corp really put to the test.<\/p>\n
The Wild are, for the first year in a long time, truly fun to watch. They create offence like crazy, have stars who can score, they\u2019ve got grit and edge throughout the lineup, and all put together, are going to give the Stars all they can handle \u2014 they\u2019ve just got a tough make it out of the Central.<\/p>\n
The Oilers seem like one of the few teams who genuinely don\u2019t care about the regular season, but that mindset has worked great for the Florida Panthers and the 2012\/2014 L.A. Kings. They know it\u2019s about the grind that\u2019s about to start, and they\u2019re as loaded as ever, so if they can get average goaltending, it\u2019s hard for me to believe they won\u2019t find themselves back in a conference final.<\/p>\n
Vegas is the only team that makes me doubt the \u201cOilers back in the conference final\u201d prediction, as they seem to be figuring it out at the right time. If Carter Hart takes over and suddenly finds his form in net, there\u2019s too much talent up front to believe they couldn\u2019t put together a deep playoff run of their own.<\/p>\n
The Ducks are a bright-future team with lots of young talent that I love, all of Leo Carlsson, Cutter Gauthier and Beckett Sennecke are legit-legit. I just think they give up way too many goals against to hold up in long playoff series against deeper teams.<\/p>\n
Real Kyper and Bourne<\/p>\n
Nick Kypreos and Justin Bourne talk all things hockey with some of the biggest names in the game. Watch live every weekday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ \u2014 or listen live on Sportsnet 590 The FAN \u2014 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n