The 10 best player matchups for Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs

There are several factors that can determine the winner of a best-of-seven series in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Sometimes it is the health of a particular team. Other times it might come down to a couple of good breaks or an outstanding goaltending performance. Then there are the individual matchups that can swing a series in a completely different direction.

The latter factor is what we are looking at here.

Head-to-head matchups are always a factor in games, as coaches look to match lines to get their players into favorable positions to succeed. They take on even more importance in the playoffs because if you can eliminate another team's top player for the length of the series, your chances of winning greatly improve.

With that in mind, let us take a look at 10 of the best player matchups for Round 1 of the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs.

1. Patrice Bergeron (Boston Bruins) vs. John Tavares and Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs)

The pressure is on for the Toronto Maple Leafs to make some noise in the playoffs. A third consecutive first-round exit would not be good for anyone in Toronto and would only crank up the heat on a roster and coaching staff that are expected to deliver a championship to the city.

Soon.

Standing in their way in the first round, for the second year in a row, are the Boston Bruins. The key matchup to watch here is going to be Bergeron going up against Toronto's top centers,  Tavares and Matthews.

Bergeron is one of the NHL's elite shutdown centers and has a history of rendering the opposition's top player useless in a best-of-seven series. How coach Bruce Cassidy deploys him is the thing to watch here, because with Tavares and Matthews the Leafs have two No. 1 centers who can take over a game. The smart money is that he goes head to head against Tavares as much as possible. Bergeron is perfectly capable of shutting down Tavares over a seven-game series, which would shift a ton of pressure to Matthews to win his matchup against David Krejci for the Maple Leafs to have a chance.

2. Roman Josi (Nashville Predators) vs. Tyler Seguin (Dallas Stars) 

Dallas is perhaps the most top-heavy team in the Stanley Cup playoffs with its top line of Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alexander Radulov doing almost all of the heavy lifting offensively. Seguin has been the most dangerous of the three, especially in the second half, and is going to be the player the Predators have to contain if they are going to avoid being upset.

Look for Josi, the Predators' captain and minutes leader during the regular season, to draw most of the assignments against the Stars' top line.

The season series between the two teams was incredibly close, with the Stars owning a 2-1-2 record in the five games. Seguin scored three goals and recorded four points in the matchup.

3. Erik Karlsson (San Jose Sharks) vs. Mark Stone (Vegas Golden Knights)

Two years ago these two were teammates for a surprising Ottawa Senators team that was a Game 7, double-overtime loss (against the eventual back-to-back Stanley Cup champions) from reaching the Stanley Cup Final.

Since then they were two of the key pieces to be shipped out of Ottawa as part of a massive rebuild over the past year. Now they will be meeting on opposite sides in this Round 1 matchup between the San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights.

Karlsson was the Sharks' biggest offseason acquisition and immediately made them a Stanley Cup contender. But he has missed a significant chunk of the season and may not be 100 percent as the playoffs begin. When he has played, he has been brilliant. The Sharks are going to need more of that from him, as their defense attempts to mask what has become a glaring weakness in net.

Vegas, meanwhile, is hoping Stone can be its missing piece as it tries to get back to the Stanley Cup Final for the second year in a row. He has already proved to be a huge addition and helps give the Golden Knights two outstanding scoring lines as he teams up with Max Pacioretty and Paul Stastny. That line has perfectly complemented the Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith line.

This is already developing into a fierce Western Conference rivalry, and the two former Senators will play a big role in determining which team moves on.

4. Mark Giordano (Calgary Flames) vs. Colorado Avalanche's top line

This is a similar situation to the one in the Dallas-Nashville matchup.

The Avalanche have one great who can beat teams and if the line led by Nathan MacKinnon doesn't dominate, they are not going to have a great chance of pulling off the upset.

The Flames have the Norris Trophy front-runner, Giordano, on their team and have to make sure he gets as much ice time against MacKinnon's line as possible.

5. Nikita Kucherov (Tampa Bay Lightning) vs. Artemi Panarin (Columbus Blue Jackets)

Two of the three best Russian-born wingers in the NHL right now (obviously Alex Ovechkin is the other) get to meet in the first round with the Tampa Bay Lightning going against the Columbus Blue Jackets. There are not enough superlatives to describe the season Kucherov had for the Lightning, as he put together one of the most dominant offensive seasons in league history.

Panarin has been one of the NHL's most productive wingers from the moment he arrived in the NHL and has shown that he can not only carry a line of his own but also can be the top player on a playoff team. Now, just months away from free agency and what will certainly be a massive contract, he has a chance to show he can carry a team deep into the playoffs if he can help orchestrate one of the biggest upsets in recent history.

6. Alex Ovechkin (Washington Capitals) vs. Jaccob Slavin and Brett Pesce (Carolina Hurricanes)

This is mostly a special teams matchup, as Slavin and Pesce are the Hurricanes' top two penalty-killing defenders, and Ovechkin is the NHL's most lethal power play weapon. Carolina's PK has been one of the better ones in the league this season, finishing eighth in overall success rate and second at preventing shot attempts. It's a good unit and is perfectly capable of stopping the Capitals power play.

In a series that figures to be closer than some might expect, the difference could come down to a key penalty kill or two. This is one of the matchups that could decide it

7. Ryan O'Reilly (St. Louis Blues) vs. Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg Jets)

The St. Louis Blues' trade for O'Reilly over the summer has proved to be one of the biggest steals of the year. Giving up only a collection of spare parts and what will be a late first-round draft pick, the Blues picked up one of the NHL's best two-way centers. He is a 70-point scorer and a shutdown defender and is able to play a tough, defensive-minded game against the other team's best players every night without taking penalties. He is an extremely valuable asset.

This Round 1 series against the Winnipeg Jets is just the type of matchup he was acquired for, as he will have to go up against a dynamic offensive player in Scheifele.

These two teams are entering the playoffs trending in two very different directions, and the Blues, led by O'Reilly, are starting to emerge as a formidable contender in the Western Conference.

8. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin (Pittsburgh Penguins) vs. the Islanders' centers

On paper this is a big mismatch because the New York Islanders do not really have anyone who can match up against Crosby and Malkin.

The problem is that when opposing teams load up to stop Crosby on the top line, the Penguins roll out a second line that includes Malkin and Phil Kessel, a duo that would probably be the first line on almost any other team in the league. Their third line, now centered by Nick Bjugstad, is nothing to take lightly either.

The Islanders have been one of the NHL's biggest surprises this year, defying the odds and consistently exceeding the expectations placed on them. Getting through this matchup is going to be their biggest test yet.

9. Sergei Bobrovsky (Columbus Blue Jackets) vs. Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning)

On one side we have one of the league's best goalies in Vasilevskiy, whose best days are still ahead of him. On the other side, we have a two-time Vezina Trophy winner in Bobrovsky. 

Both goalies are facing a lot of pressure this postseason. Vasilevskiy and the Lightning have to show they can finish the job and win the Stanley Cup after so many near-misses over the past four years. Bobrovsky and the Blue Jackets have to prove they can actually win a playoff series.

For that to happen, Bobrovsky must shake off the postseason demons that have plagued him for his entire career. If the Blue Jackets are going to slow down the NHL's best offense and knock off one of the best teams ever, they are going to need Bobrovsky to play the series of his life. If he does, it would easily be the defining moment of his career.

10. Marc-Andre Fleury (Vegas Golden Knights) vs. Martin Jones (San Jose Sharks)

For as important as the Karlsson-Stone matchup is going to be, the goaltending might make everything else meaningless.

This is the one true weaknesses on the Sharks roster, and it might be enough to completely derail a potential championship season if Jones' play does not improve...quickly.

Fleury has had his moments of brilliance this season but has also been fairly inconsistent and prone to the occasional clunker of a game. He is also just coming back from an injury that forced him to miss most of the final month of the regular season. His health, and ability to avoid the meltdown performance, might be the determining factor in how far the Golden Knights are able to go because they do not have a legitimate backup option.