Daily Faceoff Live: Which Central Division teams could fall out of the playoffs?
The 2022–23 NHL season is nearly upon us, and — for the second year — exactly half of the league’s 32 member clubs will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Last season, five of those teams came from the Central Division. The Nashville Predators, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, and Colorado Avalanche advanced to the postseason, with the Avs ultimately capturing their third Stanley Cup.
On Monday’s edition of Daily Faceoff Live, Mike McKenna and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed which of those five playoff teams could be at risk of falling out of the mix this season. Here’s an excerpt from their conversation, which kicked off at the 4:19 mark of the show:
Mike McKenna: I’m worried about Nashville. And the reason being isn’t because there’s been a big overhaul to that roster. It’s moreso because you’ve got players like Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, all of whom had career years last season. I mean, they were unbelievable. Duchene and Forsberg both posted 40+ goals, Josi led all NHL defensemen with 96 points. So, can you really expect those players to replicate that? Like, even a very good year from two out of the three of those players, I’m not sure it gets Nashville into the playoffs, because they were this close to missing out last season. I like that they brought in Ryan McDonagh from the Tampa Bay Lightning, he’ll help on D, but I still think the D core’s a little bit thin and it’s aging, Tyler. They have four D over the age of 32, and then you look at in goal. Juuse Saros is a horse, he can play like crazy, but what happens if he’s not there, like we saw in the playoffs? There’s big question marks. Kevin Lankinen comes in from the Chicago Blackhawks, he struggled last year. Is he going to get better goaltending than David Rittich? […] To me, Tyler, there’s just not enough depth. It’s going to come down to the big guns, again, for the Nashville Predators. Can Duchene, Forsberg, Josi, even [Ryan] Johansen, can they replicate what they did last year? If they can, Nashville has a chance, but I’m worried about this club — I think they’re going to be on the outside looking in.
Tyler Yaremchuk: I think it’s fair to be worried. I mean, similar to what we talked about with Nichushkin in Colorado, when guys like Duchene and Johansen have the years that they did seemingly out of nowhere, it’s kind of like, yeah, you had a decent offseason, McDonagh, [Nino] Niederreiter, that’s all good, but are the guys who came through for you last year going to be able to have that level of production again? I’m not sold.
Catch the rest of Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live here: