Which second-round series is most likely to go to seven games?
With the Montreal Canadiens pulling out a 2-1 Game 7 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday, we now know all four of the second-round matchups in the Stanley Cup playoffs. In the Eastern Conference, the Carolina Hurricanes already have a 1-0 lead on the Philadelphia Flyers, while the Canadiens will take on the Buffalo Sabres. In the West, the Colorado Avalanche went up 1-0 over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, while the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks begin their series on Monday.
The first round delivered less drama than we’re used to from the Stanley Cup playoffs, as it gave us two sweeps and just one seven-game series. The second round has half as many series’ as the first, so by that logic, it should be even less likely to have a series go seven games, but with the weaker playoff teams (ahem, Los Angeles Kings) out of the picture, the remaining teams shoud be more competitive with each other, which could lead to longer series’.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed which of the four second-round series’ is likeliest to go seven games.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The series that is most likely to go seven is what?
Carter Hutton: I’m going to go with the Habs and the Sabres. I think this is going to be a big battle. I think these two teams match up pretty well, I think the youth, the offense, and the pace of play will be good, so I’m going to go with that one. That would be my pick to go seven, Ty.
Tyler Yaremchuk: This year was the first year since 2018 that we had more first-round sweeps than first-round Game 7s, so the numbers maybe not quite pointing to there being a seventh game in this round two. But I’ll go sneaky and say Anaheim-Vegas. I think there might be some chaotic games with those two. Montreal-Buffalo would probably be a pretty good pick as well, but I like Anaheim and Vegas as the one to go seven.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…