NHL Playoffs Roundtable: Second-round predictions, who’s the Stanley Cup favourite, and more

The first round of the playoffs is over, and eight teams remain in the race for the Stanley Cup.

For the first time in the salary cap era,  three Canadian teams are in the second round of the playoffs, as the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, and Toronto Maple Leafs all advanced.

Let’s get set for the second round of the playoffs, the Oilers and their rematch with the Vegas Golden Knights, and discuss who looks like the team to beat.

How did your first-round predictions go? Any major surprises?

Cam Lewis: I was wrong about the Avalanche, Senators, and Lightning. The Colorado and Dallas series came down to the wire, but Florida hammered Tampa in the first round, which I didn’t see coming at all. The Sens gave the Leafs a good run, but Toronto probably deserved more credit as a veteran playoff team going up against a lot of first-timers. Again, the biggest surprise for me was the Panthers looking as good as they did.

Baggedmilk: Given the Stars’ injuries to key players, I was surprised by the Avalanche’s loss to Dallas. I was also surprised by how quietly Tampa Bay went out in the playoffs. I thought they would ultimately lose to Florida, but I was surprised it only happened in five games.

Zach Laing: Oh, terribly. My bracket is an absolute mess. What I got right: Edmonton over L.A., Winnipeg over St. Louis, Washington over Montreal and Carolina over New Jersey. I only went 50 percent, and had the Lightning going to the finals this year, which uh… yeah. Yikes. The biggest surprise for me was Dallas over Colorado despite not having Jason Robertson or Miro Heiskanen.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I went a nice even 4-4. I regretted taking the Habs basically the second that series started. That was dumb and I was trying to get a little too cute. I was legit stunned by both the Avalanche and Lightning losing. The Avs looked so good through two games and I thought they were going to roll even though the series was tied 1-1. They should be very worried about their future, considering their lack of assets and their cap issues. The Lightning getting rolled was the most unpredictable result. The Panthers looked very, very impressive. I’m proud of myself for not buying into the Senators hype and for staying true to the Oilers when a lot of the public and a lot of national media members were fading them.

What will it take for the Oilers to get past the Golden Knights?

Cam Lewis: They absolutely need to have a better start to this series against the Golden Knights than they did against the Kings. Coming back to Edmonton down two games against a team with killer instinct like the Golden Knights would be a massive challenge to overcome. The defence and goaltending also need to be better for the Oilers than it was back in 2023 when they lost to Vegas in six games. Not having Mattias Ekholm makes life more difficult for Edmonton, so the Oilers need depth players to step up.

Baggedmilk: If the Oilers are going to avenge the second-round loss from two years ago, the boys need to do a better job of maintaining their defensive structure and avoiding the turnovers that result in secondary scoring chances. Edmonton got lucky that Los Angeles wasn’t able to convert on more of their 0dd-man rushes because the boys gave up a ton of them. They can’t let that happen against a Golden Knights team that feeds off rush chances.

Zach Laing: A lot of elbow grease. The Oilers know their opponent well and the biggest thing is going to be cleaning things up defensively especially — as Bruce Curlock highlighted earlier Monday in his tactical preview of the series — the rush chances against. The Oilers can hang offensively with anyone and Adin Hill has struggled throughout the season and the playoffs so far, posting a .880 save percentage in the first round. Shaking his confidence earlier could play to the Oilers’ benefit.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Good depth scoring and average goaltending. If Calvin Pickard can keep making the saves that he’s supposed to and the Oilers can keep getting timely scoring from their “bottom-nine,” then they will absolutely win this series. The last time that they played the Golden Knights in the playoffs, McDavid and Draisaitl combined for 11 goals, they scored another three on the power play from Bouchard and Hyman, and then the rest of their roster produced just five goals. They need more help when McDavid and Draisaitl are off the ice.