Which potential East eighth-seed could pull off a first-round upset?
With a week remaining in the regular season, fans are gearing up for a variety of first-round matchups in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
We’re starting to see very intriguing battles for Wild Card spots in both the Eastern and Western Conferences. In the East, two teams that, at one point, looked like they had a better chance of scoring great odds in the NHL Draft Lottery than a playoff spot. The Ottawa Senators and Columbus Blue Jackets have been rolling over the past couple of months, leading many to believe a tough matchup could be on the horizon for whoever they face in the first round of the postseason.
As of Wednesday, the Senators (41-27-10) hold the second Wild Card spot in the conference, with the Blue Jackets (39-27-12) sitting just two points back.
On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton give their picks on the “best” eighth seed coming out of the East.
Carter Hutton: I like the Ottawa Senators. I truly do. I think the Columbus Blue Jackets are deep and play well. I just don’t think it’s their time yet. I think they’re still going to keep growing, and they have some, but I think with the Ottawa Senators, I think Brady Tkachuk and some of their high-end skill players can be a big difference-maker. You look at Tim Stutzle, you look at Sanderson on the back end. I think that the x-factor of Linus Ullmark can be good too. He’s a guy that they can build off of last year’s series against Toronto, where even that series wasn’t a cakewalk for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Ottawa pretty much gave them everything they could handle in six games. I think the Sens could potentially do that.
That being said, when you’re going into a matchup, if they draw, obviously, it looks like they’re going to draw the Carolina Hurricanes for that series if it is the Sens. Now you look at, like, game-breaking players. I think I tilt the scale a bit more in Ottawa’s favor when I talk about Stutzle and Tkachuk, even Batherson for that matter. I think those guys can be game-changing players in big moments against a team like Carolina. Yes, they’re going to grind you down and make it so hard, but there’s going to be key moments in the series where can somebody find the back of the net and I kind of give that favor to Ottawa in this sense.
You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…