The second round of the NHL playoffs is three-quarters full, with Pittsburgh and Detroit moving forward this weekend, and the final two spots will be settled tonight with Game 7s in the Eastern Conference. Boston-Toronto & Washington-NY Rangers are coming down to their final battles, and it’s there that we’ll begin the overview of the first-round series that were still ongoing over the weekend.
All four playoff teams from the NHL’s Northeast Division are playing each other in the first round of the playoffs and both series are now on the brink of ending. The Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators each got Game 4 wins that gave them 3-1 series leads. TheSportsNotebook’s review of each NHL playoff series will begin with these two matchups
Every first-round series in the NHL playoffs has completed three games and two of them are four deep, but only might end in elimination over the course of the next two nights. That’s San Jose-Vancouver, where the Canucks stand on the verge of yet another playoff flameout. The self-induced failure of Vancouver will lead our overview of all eight first-round matchups and an assessment of where they stand.
Chicago and Pittsburgh are the heavy co-favorites for the Stanley Cup and each has responded differently in its first two games. The Blackhawks are in command, the Penguins are facing a challenge and both will be in the NBC spotlight on Sunday afternoon when the postseason’s sequence of Game 3s begins at noon EST. We’ll start with these two teams and then move through the other six NHL playoff matchups.
The St. Louis-Los Angeles series, along with Anaheim-Detroit—the only other first-round pairing to have already played two games—will lead our discussion, and we’ll then sweep through the other six matchups.
The NHL playoffs get rolling on Tuesday night, and in today’s NHL analysis we’re previewing the first-round matchups. This post will focus on the four series in the Western Conference. We’ll begin with capturing each series in a soundbite and then move to fuller discussion.