The Stanley Cup Playoffs have arrived. I’ve been teasing this on Twitter for a little while, but now it is time. The fear rankings. The teams I fear the most in the NHL from 1-16 with their chances of winning the Stanley Cup. Plus some blurbs. Enjoy!
Fear Rankings
- Dallas Stars
- Vegas Golden Knights
- Florida Panthers
- Edmonton Oilers
- New York Rangers
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Vancouver Canucks
- New York Islanders
- Colorado Avalanche
- Winnipeg Jets
- Nashville Predators
- Boston Bruins
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Los Angeles Kings
- Washington Capitals
Fear Blurbs
Dallas Stars: The Stars have everything needed to win the Stanley Cup. Depth and goaltending. They have over six 20-goal scorers on the team. The one thing that could potentially hold them back is their lack of one true star player. Hockey is a team sport though and the Stars are the best team in hockey, hands down no question about it.
Playoff Prediction: The issue the Stars face is the Vegas Golden Knights, who get Mark Stone back on the eve of the playoffs and now have the deepest back-to-front center ice and defensive core in the league, pair that with two-star playoff goalies and the Stars have trouble. It’s a toss-up first-round series but I have the Stars losing in 7 to the Knights in round 1, they just got unlucky.
Vegas Golden Knights: The Knights as mentioned previously have the deepest center ice group in the entire NHL. The best way to win the Stanley Cup is to have the center of the ice-locked down. The Knights group also boasts tremendous playoff experience. Aidin Hill and Logan Thompson are the strongest goalie tandem in these playoffs with the most combined playoff experience. Jack Eichel, the number 1 star center for the Knights remarked after the cup run that they could have kept playing, that’s how deep they were. That’s what gives me ultimate fear and pencils in the Knights as a top-tier team in the fear rankings. This group is poised to go on another run.
Playoff prediction: The Knights go on another run but ultimately fall short in the conference finals. Their goals are good.
Florida Panthers: Another deep, heavy, experienced team up the middle. They are the villains and for that, I love them deeply, if I had to choose an East Coast team it would be them. Matthew Tkachuk is the player to watch on this squad, fast, heavy, and extremely skilled the perfect modern hockey player and a playoff favorite of mine.
Playoff Prediction: The Lightning are low on the fear rankings, but they are no easy out. The Panthers take out the Lightning in round one and go on a run all the way to the Stanley Cup finals, a new challenge has emerged for this group to win Lord Stanley’s Cup, and guess what they have a chance to do it.
Edmonton Oilers: This pains me to write as an Avs fan, but this team houses the best player in the world and that player is Connor McDavid. The only thing missing from McJesu’s trophy case is in fact the Stanley Cup. The Oilers are the deepest they have ever been under McDavid and playing at the highest clip. It is however a franchise known for playoff heartbreak in recent years. The Oilers need a Cup, Canada needs a Cup, and they are the great white north’s greatest hope.
Playoff prediction: This is it, this is the year. The Edmonton Oilers come out of the west on the back of McDavid and goalie Stuart Skinner with help from star scorer Leon Draisaital, this is the time, the time is now. The Edmonton Oilers are going to win the Stanley Cup.
Fear Rankings Tier 2
New York Rangers: If Igor Shersterkin, widely considered one of the best goalies in the league gets hot, it might be over for the East. I am not sure that happens though. Artemi Panarin has had an excellent year, the Rangers have a great D core and depth up front but they aren’t a heavy team. They can be bullied, I don’t know how they stack up in playoff hockey, I don’t know if they have the physicality outside of young Matt Rempe who was a huge story in the league this year. Just difficult to pick them to make a deep run with how they play. That said, they have the recipes to make a cup run, interested to see how it goes.
Playoff Predictions: The Caps force 6 games but ultimately the Rangers get through easily. If they run into the Islanders round 2 though and I think they will, it’s a bad matchup and the Rangers lose in the second round in seven games.
Carolina Hurricanes: The Hurricanes have been here so many times before with this core, they’ve just never made it over the hump in the playoffs. The addition of Jake Guentzel has upped Sebastian Aho’s game. The goaltending in Carolina has been elite, if Frederick Andersen can stay healthy the Canes have a good shot.
Playoff Predictions: The Stanley Cup first round is known for one thing, CHAOS, that is what Islanders Hurricanes will bring. I think the Islanders get revenge for an embarrassment last season in round 1. The Hurricanes lose in 7.
Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks are young and talented, that’s the MO of the club going into the playoffs. JT Miller, Elias Petterson, Quinn Hughes and Brock Boeser all are near point per game players. The Canucks are a great young team with a bright future but lack of playoff experience is a concern for them. Thatcher Demkos health is also a concern in net, going into the playoffs with a banged up number one goalie is not something you want.
Playoff Prediction: The Canucks get through round 1 before running into an Oilers buzz saw in round 2.
New York Islanders: The Isles are built for playoff hockey, that’s why they get this spot on the list. They are a gritty, defensive-minded, heavy team that is going to make the playoffs hell for whoever they play. People act like the Islanders don’t have point scorers. That is just not true, the Isles have five 50-plus goal scorers. All those point scorers come up the middle in centers Brock Nelson, Bo Horvath, Matthew Barzal, and Kyle Palmieri. The Isles have a good recipe in place to pull some upsets this playoffs.
Playoff Predictions: The Isles pull the biggest upset of round 1 and knock out the Hurricanes. They then knock out the Rangers and after that, who knows.
Tier 3
Colorado Avalanche: The Avs have been there, and done that. The team is full of playoff vets. Two 100-point scorers in Mikko Rantanen and MVP candidate Nathan Mackinnon lead the way. That’s not the whole team though, this team does have some depth. Six other players have scored 30 plus points, the Avs are a front to back solid roster that has a high of making it all the way to the Cup finals. The issue, goaltending, Alexander Georgiev has given up 3 GAA this year, that is brutally bad for an NHL goalie on a team of this magnitude. If he cannot be league average the Avs Cup hopes are already dashed.
Playoff Predictions: The hopes are already dashed, AG is bad, their is no hope of beating the team with the best goalie for the team with the worst goalie. Jets in 6.
Winnipeg Jets: The Jets have the best goalie in the NHL in Connor Hellebuyck. He’s the best the game has to offer, the team around him is defensively sound and deep. This team can make a run. They fly under the radar but the Jets can make noise.
Playoff Prediction: The Jets knock off the Avs and give the Golden Knights a scare.
Nashville Predators: Juse Saros, another top goalie that can lead this team to a playoff victory. The Preds have been incredible for a month but have a tough matchup in the Canucks. Roman Josi is a Norris level defenseman and the Preds have a fun young core.
Playoff Predictions: The Preds give the Canucks a series but ultimately fall in 7.
Tier 4
Boston Bruins: This feels disrespectful, it would not shock me at all if they win the Cup, one thing I can guarantee, they will beat the Leafs in 7 games.
Tampa Bay Lightning: Another team that has incredible playoff experience and depth and perhaps the unquestioned MVP in Nikita Kucherov. Not to mention Big Cat, Andrei Vasilevski a top goalie, they run into the buzzsaw of the Panthers but this is the NHL playoffs anything can happen.
Los Angeles Kings: It’s a good team. But they play the Oilers in round 1 and the goaltending in shaky.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Until they win a cup, I will never take them seriously in this exercise.
Washington Capitals: Thanks for coming out. It will be fun to see Alexander Ovechkin a long-time face of the league.