Dallas Stars vs. Vegas Golden Knights
Dallas Stars
Through some magnificent drafting and development over the past decade, the Dallas Stars have created a force to be reckoned with that only keeps getting better. Since missing the playoffs in 2020–21, the Stars have improved every single season leading to a division win for the first time since 2015–16. They have emerged as a legit Stanley Cup contender, but first, they must make their way through a tough Central Division playoff picture.
Luckily, they have incredible talent and depth at every position. For scoring depth, the Stars had nine 50-point scorers and eight 20-goal scorers—basically encapsulating the entirety of the top half of their lineup. And placed throughout are some gritty, physical players like Jamie Benn and Mason Marchment.
Behind Miro Heiskanen on defence is the emergence of Thomas Harley to add to an already solid group.
And even though Jake Oettinger struggled at times, he has found his game of late and was backed up by Scott Wedgewood, who was more than serviceable when called upon through the regular season.
These Dallas Stars were the third highest-scoring team in the league this season, a feat that the Stars of even three seasons ago would struggle to believe when they were the lowest-scoring playoff team in 2021–22. And on top of that, they were the eighth-best in goals against in 2023–24.
This is a formula that bodes well, and since they lost out on the Presidents’ Trophy by just a single point, they don’t have the Presidents’ Trophy curse to weigh them down as they get set for a challenging playoff run.
Vegas Golden Knights
Although their playoff chances looked to be slimming at times as they struggled down the stretch, the Vegas Golden Knights got hot again at the right time as they comfortably got back into a playoff position. Their Stanley Cup defence campaign has not ended yet.
As usual, the Golden Knights found a way to add a significant amount of talent, this season bringing in Noah Hanifin and Tomas Hertl to add to an already stacked lineup. This bodes well for the Golden Knights, who have made the playoffs in six of their seven years as an NHL franchise, including two trips to the Stanley Cup Final and the Stanley Cup victory last season.
Although they haven’t been quite as dominant as they have in previous years, the identity of the Golden Knights remains the same. They are still the same difficult team to play against that thrives in a fast-paced game that they know how to control. They can create that speed and thrive in it, keeping their opponents on their heels and doing nothing but reacting.
Vegas’ crease was split mostly between Logan Thompson and Adin Hill, who traded injuries for most of the season. They have struggled in this position as a result of that. But neither of them were bad when healthy, and after we saw what Hill can do in the playoffs after his amazing performance last season, the Golden Knights should have very little to worry about anywhere in their roster.
Series Overview
Last season, these two teams faced off in the Conference Finals, which Vegas won handily. The Stars have developed their roster just a bit more to address some of the glaring flaws, namely defensive depth, that troubled them last season. But with the way Vegas plays and dominates the game, the Golden Knights should have no trouble replicating that performance.
Prediction
Vegas Golden Knights in six games.
Winnipeg Jets vs. Colorado Avalanche
Winnipeg Jets
It seems that every time the Winnipeg Jets begin to dominate, they get stuck in an incredibly tough division. This time is no different as they have been battling the Colorado Avalanche and Stars all season and find the Golden Knights in their divisional path once again as well.
The Jets had their best season since 2017–18, the year that they went to the Conference Finals. The results of the season may come as a surprise after the core of the team was rumoured to be entirely on their way out. But out of nowhere, Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck committed long-term to Winnipeg and have gone on to lead this team to a fantastic season.
The Jets’ greatest strength is in net. When Hellebuyck is on his game, the team succeeds. With the Vezina Trophy all but his to lose at this point, his play this season has been a driving factor behind Winnipeg’s overall success.
The team (mostly Hellebuyck) took home the William Jennings Trophy for giving up the fewest goals against all season. Although their offence is average in the league, they don’t need to score as much to win when Hellebuyck leads the league with 33 goals saved above expected according to MoneyPuck.com.
Colorado Avalanche
On the back of the most dominant version of Nathan Mackinnon the world has ever seen, the Colorado Avalanche look to win their second Stanley Cup in the last three seasons. Fresh off of career highs of 51 goals and 140 points by MacKinnon, the Avalanche had been locked in a tight Central Division battle with the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets all season until finally settling on the Jets as a Round 1 matchup.
One knock against many Avalanche teams over the past five years is their forward depth. Coincidentally, the one season where that was not a concern was the one they won the Cup. That will be a huge factor at play in this playoff run.
Colorado has made many moves to try and address this with the additions of Jonathan Drouin, Ross Colton, Miles Wood, and Brandon Duhaime, but will it be enough?
Additionally, the goaltending in Colorado has left much to be desired lately as Alexandar Georgiev has struggled over the last month. Justus Annunen has been fantastic in a backup role but has very little experience if called on in relief in a high-stakes playoff game.
Series overview
Although season series results aren’t an amazing indicator of postseason results, the matchup between these two teams in the regular season is quite shocking. Winnipeg absolutely dominated the three games between these two teams, winning all three matchups by a combined score of 17–4.
That is an interesting phenomenon, given the offensive talents on the Avalanche’s roster. But could be foretelling something about this series. As long as Hellebuyck and the defence can wear down and stifle Colorado’s offence, Winnipeg should be able to take this series quite easily.
Prediction
Winnipeg Jets in six games.
Vancouver Canucks vs. Nashville Predators
Vancouver Canucks
Every season, there seems to be one underdog team that far surpasses anyone’s expectations. This season, it was the Vancouver Canucks.
Heading into the season with optimistic predictions suggesting they might compete for a wild card spot, the Canucks have found themselves at the top of the Pacific Division for most of the season, and even challenging for the Presidents’ Trophy at times right up until the final game.
This entry into the playoffs gives the organization their first postseason berth since the 2020 bubble playoffs. And it will be the first time since 2015 that the city of Vancouver will host a playoff game.
The coaching and systems implemented by Rick Tocchet seem to resonate quite well with the team. He has found a balance between letting his star players play offence and produce as much as they are capable and a full team system that lets everyone contribute.
A key to their success has been the resurgence of Thatcher Demko. He had struggled in recent years—notably the 2022–23 season—with injury. But a mostly healthy 2023–24 campaign has given the Canucks a sense of confidence in their goaltending that they have not had lately.
Although the early season underlying numbers looked like this success would be difficult to sustain, as Demko was playing Vezina-level hockey and the offence was scoring at an absurdly high shooting percentage (leading to a very high PDO).
But the Canucks have managed to sustain this level of play over the entire season, leaving no reason to think that they won’t compete in the 2024 NHL Playoffs.
Nashville Predators
So much for a rebuild, right? After appearing to commit to a rebuild era as Barry Trotz took over as general manager, the Nashville Predators said they weren’t quite ready for that as they went on to have a successful season, leading to earning a playoff berth as the first wild card seed.
The Predators may not have the most impressive roster on paper, but it is full of fantastic role players who have created a solid all-around team. Led at each position by one of the best in the game, Filip Forsberg at forward, Roman Josi on defence, and Juuse Saros in net, Nashville ultimately has an underrated but competitive team.
Surprise breakout star Gustav Nyqvist set a career-high with 75 points to be the Predators’ third-highest scorer, but behind that, the offence falls off quite a bit. Ryan O’Reilly had 69 points but only four Predators hit the 50-point mark. That is not to say the Predators are bad offensively, that is not the case at all, as the depth is full of reliable scorers.
Series overview
The high-powered Canucks swept the season series and enter this playoff series as the clear favourites. Vancouver is better at every position, but offensively it is a lot closer than one might think as the Canucks only had 10 more goals throughout the regular season.
The real difference maker in this series will be the goaltending duel. Demko is coming back from injury and has not played much in a while, but had the best season of his career regardless. Saros, on the other hand, had the worst season of his career. That did not stop the Predators though. If Saros gets hot for this series on the big stage, the Predators could get a whole lot better very quickly.
Prediction
Vancouver Canucks in five games.
Edmonton Oilers vs. Los Angeles Kings
Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers overcame a ton of adversity this season to get to this point. An atrocious start to the season, going 2–9–1, led to the firing of head coach Jay Woodcroft as the team sat tied for last place in the NHL on November 10. But starting with a 5–0 win over the Washington Capitals on November 24, the Oilers finished the season 44–15–5 and landed at second place in the Pacific Division, ninth in the league.
Despite that awful start in which no one could score and they gave up an absurd amount of goals per game, the Oilers still finished fourth in the league in goals for and gave up the tenth fewest goals against. This shows just how much talent they have on this roster and how well they performed in every facet of the game.
One glaring question mark for the Oilers still remains. Goaltending. Stuart Skinner was phenomenal at times through the regular season, but he still at times fails to be the game-changer Edmonton needs in net. And after he faltered during the playoffs last season, he does need to work to prove himself in this postseason. Working in his favour is the amount of rest that Skinner received down the stretch as Calvin Pickard played a lot more games in the final month of the season.
Los Angeles Kings
One of these years, the Los Angeles Kings are going to truly break out. They have incredible talent and depth throughout the roster. They just need a few more pieces to complete the puzzle.
In the meantime, they have found themselves consistently hovering around 100-point seasons. They even managed to exactly tie their record of 44–27–11 from the 2021–22 season.
The biggest issue on Los Angeles’ roster the past couple of seasons has been goaltending. And they have made significant improvements in this regard on the defensive side of the puck for this season. The Kings finished with the third-fewest goals against in the league. Between Cam Talbot and David Rittich, the two of them have given the Kings some reliable, above-average goaltending—the type that can be a game-changer for them.
As usual, there are very few holes throughout the rest of the roster. They may not have the high-end star power that Edmonton has, their leading scorer was Adrian Kempe with 75 points and Trevor Moore led the team with 31 goals, but their scoring is spread out very well throughout the lineup.
Series overview
For the third straight season, the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings are facing off in the first round. The Oilers have won both times thus far. But how many consecutive times can Edmonton win before it is the Kings’ turn? They have a real shot this season with the development of their roster and it would be foolish to suggest this is an easy win for the Oilers.
Edmonton won the season series three games to one but only outscored the Kings 11–9; representative of just how close this matchup is and will be.
The Oilers have the advantage in high-end talent, but Los Angeles has unmatched depth that will give the bottom half of Edmonton’s roster a ton of trouble.
Prediction
Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
