2018 Western Conference Playoff Preview

The Western Conference playoffs will be without both the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues for the first time since 2008. With both of them fishing, golfing or undergoing offseason surgery, some new heavy hitters in the Western Conference have emerged. The Predators will be looking to get back to the Finals for the second straight year. The Jets look to cement themselves as a legit Stanley Cup contender for the next few years. And the Golden Knights will try to continue to shock the hockey world.

[C1] Nashville Predators vs. Colorado Avalanche [WC2]

The Predators snuck in the backdoor to make the playoffs last season and made a run to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins. This season, they come into the Playoffs as the President’s Trophy winners and heavy first-round favourites.

The Avalanche were on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They were dead last in the NHL a season ago, winning just 22 of 82 games. This year they got off to a slow start but finished the year 35-24-9 in 68 games after trading Matt Duchene to the Ottawa Senators. Nathan MacKinnon carried the Avalanche and has made a strong case for the Hart Trophy.

Despite their shocking campaign, the Avalanche come into the playoffs without top-2 defenseman Erik Johnson and starting goalie Semyon Varlamov. To make matters worse, the Predators were one of the best teams in the NHL on home-ice and should have their way with the Avalanche, who were 15-19-7 on the road.

During their playoff run last year, the Predators were led by Filip Forsberg, who had 16 points (9G / 7A) in 22 postseason games and he will be a popular pick in Playoff pools because the Predators should make a deep run. They have the best blueline in the NHL and Roman Josi, P.K. Subban and Ryan Ellis are all capable of posting double-digit points in the first few rounds.

The Predators won the season series 4-0, outscoring Colorado 17-to-8. If the Predators can build off that regular season success, they could rack up a ton of points in the first round, making them premier targets in postseason drafts.

[C2] Winnipeg Jets vs. Minnesota Wild [C3]

The Jets are back in the playoffs for the first time since 2015 and are looking to win their first playoff series in franchise history (Atlanta Thrashers). The Wild are back in the playoffs for the sixth straight season, but haven’t made it out of the first round in the last two seasons and haven’t made it passed the second round since 2003.

These two teams had completely different finishes to the season. The Jets ended the campaign having won 11 of their last 12, while Minnesota went 6-5-3 in their final 14 contests. The Jets come in relatively healthy, with Jacob Trouba expected to be ready for Game 1 and only Dmitry Kulikov, Toby Enstrom and Matt Hendricks hurting. The Wild will definitely be without their top D-man Ryan Suter, who underwent ankle surgery in late-March, but could get Jared Spurgeon back for Game 1.

The Wild rode a terrible possession game to success this year while the Jets had the puck a ton and scored the second most goals in the NHL. Winnipeg possesses possibly the deepest group of forwards in the game and when their top two lines are scoring, the Jets are as dangerous of a team as there is in hockey. Patrik Laine, who fired home 44 goals this year, will be looking to stay hot in his first taste of NHL playoff hockey.

The Jets won the season series 3-1, outscoring the Wild 14-to-10.

[P1] Vegas Golden Knights vs. Los Angeles Kings [WC1]

Back in October the only way I thought I would be writing about the Golden Knights in April would be a Draft Lottery piece, but here we are. The Golden Knights won 51 games and won the Pacific Division in the best expansion season in sports history.

Somehow a team full of players that other teams didn’t want, had:

• (1) 40-plus goal scorer
• (6) 20-plus goal scorers
• (4) 60-plus point getters.
• (2) 75-plus point getters
• (1) Goalie with a sub-2.30 GAA

Now they will meet the Kings in the first round, in what might be the most unexpected playoff series in NHL history. The Kings were not really expected to be in this situation either, but Anze Kopitar put the team on his back and dragged them to the postseason for the seventh time in nine years.

This will be an interesting series because the Golden Knights were top-5 in the NHL in scoring and the Kings won the Jennings Trophy for the best team GAA in the NHL (2.46). Home-ice was an obvious advantage for the Golden Knights this season and winning their division ensures they will have home-ice for the first two rounds.

These two teams split their season series, with each team winning at home and on the road. This series could be destined to go the distance. A lot of people will count the Golden Knights off like they have all season, but maybe regression doesn’t kick in until 2019.

[P2] Anaheim Ducks vs. San Jose Sharks [P3]

The Ducks and Sharks have been on a collision course to meet in the second-round of the playoffs in three of the last four years but one of them has been knocked out in the first round each year.

The Ducks are in the postseason for the sixth straight season, and have reached the Western Conference Finals in two of the last three seasons . The Sharks are back for the third consecutive season and 13th time in 14 years.

Both come into the playoffs with big injury concerns. Joe Thornton has not played since January 23rd and won’t be ready for the start of the series on the Sharks side. And on the Ducks side, Cam Fowler will miss 1-to-5 weeks with shoulder injury and John Gibson is questionable for Game 1.

With Thornton out, Joe Pavelski has been forced to play centre and the addition of Evander Kane has filled that first-line wing spot. Kane is an extremely streaky scorer, but has the kind of game breaking talent that could wreck this series for the Ducks. The 26-year-old has picked up 14 points (9G / 5A) in 17 games since being acquired from Buffalo.

Replacing Fowler won’t be as easy. Fowler averaged 24:51 TOI/GM this season and anchors their top power-play unit. Brandon Montour will be forced to play top-pair minutes with Hampus Lindholm and has taken over on the top PP as well. Rookie Andy Welinski will be in the lineup for Game 1 and will be looked upon to help out the second unit. The 24-year-old, former third round pick has two assists in seven games with the Ducks and had 34 points (10G / 24A) in 51 games in the AHL.

The Sharks won the season series 3-1, but two of their three wins came via the shootout. There isn’t much between these two teams and this looks like another series that could go seven, but the health of Gibson in the Anaheim crease will be paramount to the Ducks’ success.