Stanley Cup Playoffs Power Rankings: On to the next

What a Round 1. That was one of the more chaotic opening rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs that I can remember. The individual games weren’t always super close, but the overall series were fantastic.

Plenty of interesting storylines, and some great matchups set up in Round 2, here’s where I see every team that’s still standing.

1. Tampa Bay Lightning (Series Win: 4-3)

1st Round Rank: 1

I said it before the first round started, and I’ll say it again now. This is the team to beat in the playoffs. Sure they aren’t as deep as they once were, and Andrei Vasilevskiy didn’t have the best opening round, but Games 6 and 7 against Toronto show exactly why this team is still the Gold Standard of the NHL.

There’s confidence, and a calmness to the way they play. No situation seems to rattle them, no deficit makes them uncomfortable, and their ability to respond after a loss seems almost unbeatable at this point. They’ll have their work cut out for them in the battle of Florida, but after coming back on one of the best teams in the NHL in Round 1, I ain’t betting against them. 

2. Colorado Avalanche (Series Win 4-0)

1st Round Rank: 3

It wasn’t the most entertaining series of Round 1, but in my opinion it was the most impressive. 

Coming into the postseason, everybody talked about the Nashville Predators being a team that many wouldn’t want to face. Multiple 40-goal scorers, a Norris finalist, and several other career years littered the lineup (them losing Juuse Saros definitely threw a wrench in all of this), and the Avs just swallowed them up. Completely buried them from the first puck drop in Game 1 to the final horn of Game 4. No other team flexed such dominating muscle en route to Round 2. A much tougher test coming up, but their execution has the looking prepared for it. 

3. St Louis Blues (Series Win 4-2)

1st Round Rank: 8

Speaking of a tougher test for the Avalanche, what a first-round from the St Louis Blues. Other than Toronto/Tampa, the Blues’ series with Minnesota was widely regarded as the most evenly matched. The Wild with their high-end offensive talent, and the Blues coming at you in waves with a ridiculous amount of depth. Ultimately though, the Blues really looked like they were in control for the vast majority of the series. 

I thought they really showed a ton of maturity, they didn’t get consumed by the extracurriculars that Minnesota was trying to bait them into, and showed a good ability to limit the looks for the Wild’s top producers. 

Still some question marks in goal, but honestly they got really good performances out of both guys at different points in the series. 

4. Florida Panthers (Series Win 4-2)

1st Round Rank: 2

They looked just uncomfortable enough in that first round to make you wonder how this group will handle the pressure and expectations for the first time. They won their first series since 1996, and it was much harder for them to do than many thought it would be. 

A lot of that came from the fact that Sergei Bobrovsky just didn’t look very good. He was really up and down and gave you the feeling of not knowing what you were going to get on any given night. They got a matchup that helped them ease into the playoffs, but now they’ve gotta go against the team they’ve had in their crosshairs all season. 

5. Carolina Hurricanes (Series Win 4-3)

1st Round Rank: 4

My DNVR colleague AJ Haefele pointed it out, and now it’s all I can notice. This team doesn’t have *the* guy. Their depth is ridiculous, and they’ve gotten really good goaltending from multiple guys all season long, but who is it on this team that steps up and makes the big play when it’s needed? I guess Jacob Slavin? Which like, may not be a good thing. 

So many really good players and they handled themselves well against a very veteran Boston Bruins team, but the longer you go in the playoffs, the deeper EVERY team becomes. The Canes need someone to emerge as their go-to guy when they need a big goal, or a big play if they want to make a real deep run. 

6. Calgary Flames (Series Win 4-3)

1st Round Rank: 7

As impressive as Dallas’ Jake Oettinger was in Game 7, not enough credit has been given to the Calgary Flames, who just poured it on for almost 80 minutes. 

It was good to see Calgary get over that hump. A loss to that version of the Dallas Stars would’ve really started to raise some questions about the core that’s in place there, and almost certainly would’ve set Johnny Gaudreau down the road to free agency this summer. They showed good resilience against a team that tried to slow them down and make them uncomfortable, but their play is going to have to ramp up significantly if they plan to make a run to the finals. 

7. New York Rangers (Series Win 4-3

1st Round Rank: 9

Credit to the Rangers, they found a way to get out of that first-round matchup despite being pretty thoroughly outplayed for most of it. It looked like the tank had hit E for Igor Shesterkin early on, but he rebounded well. 

I don’t know if the Rangers make it out of Round 1 if Pittsburgh had Tristan Jarry for more than one game, and had Sidney Crosby not been forced to miss (most of) Game 5 and Game 6, but thankfully for New York, that’s a reality they don’t have to live in. I’ll be anxious to see how they stack up against a team as deep as Carolina. 

8. Edmonton Oilers (Series Win 4-3

1st Round Rank: 13

I said it on an episode of the DNVR Avalanche Podcast, any other team in the first round and the Oilers are setting tee-times right now. No Viktor Arvidsson, no Drew Doughty for the LA Kings, and they still had the Oilers on the ropes. 

Connor McDavid dragged his team, kicking and screaming, to wins in the last two games of the series and gave us all the gift of a playoff Battle of Alberta. I just don’t think you can win anything significant on the back of one individual player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs though. Leon Driasaitl’s health is in question as the second round gets underway, so Edmonton has to have someone else step up and be a difference-maker.