Two dark-horse teams to win Stanley Cup in NHL's return

When the NHL’s Return to Play Committee finalized and voted on the 24-team tournament, it was largely met with an overwhelming seal of approval. The plan was approved by the NHLPA by a vote of 29-2, with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Carolina Hurricanes as the dissenting votes.

Essentially, the top four teams in each conference receive a bye and will play each other in a three-game, round-robin tournament for seeding. The bottom eight teams will face off in a best-of-five, play-in round to qualify for the traditional 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs.

Here are two teams playing in the qualifiers that could make a whole lot of noise and even be dark horse contenders to win Lord Stanley’s Cup. 

Chicago Blackhawks

In the Western Conference, the Blackhawks are the team no one wants to face. They come in as the 12th seed and will face off against the fifth seeded Edmonton Oilers. The Blackhawks are led by two players with loads of Stanley Cup playoff success in Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. In addition, they have nasty, hard-hitting defensemen led by Duncan Keith and two-time Cup winner Corey Crawford still in net.

Now don’t get us wrong, the Oilers have this era’s version of Mario Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. The latter is this season’s scoring champ and the only NHL player to eclipse 100 points when play was suspended. 

However, they have had little to no success in the postseason and enter the tournament with an inexperienced defense. Between the pipes, they have 37-year-old Mike Smith, who has played just 24 playoff games in 14 seasons.

This will probably be the most high-scoring and fun play-in match to watch. It will likely go the distance. If the Blackhawks get by the Oilers, the rest of the West must be put on notice. While Kane and Toews are both 31, they are well-rested and could put a serious hurt on any team they face.

New York Rangers

The Rangers are coming in as the 11th seed in the East. They were also one of the hottest teams down the stretch, coming within a point of the wild card before played was halted. Head coach David Quinn got his young team to turn the corner on Jan. 31 and they went 14-7-1 when play was suspended. 

This team has all the makings of a dark horse, with Artemi Panarin (95 points) leading the way in scoring. His play has put him in the MVP discussion, along with Draisaitl. New York also had the hottest goalie in the NHL down the stretch in phenom Igor Shesterkin. The 24-year-old “Czar of NY” had a 10-2 record in 12 games with a 2.52 GAA and a whopping .932 save percentage. He had a seven-game winning streak that included a 5-2 win against Carolina. Shesterkin also faced more than 40 shots in five of the 12 starts, winning every game.

Let’s talk about the Carolina Hurricanes, the team that voted against the plan. Coach Rod Brind’Amour complained about fairness. Carolina is an extremely talented team, led by Sebastian Aho and Andrei Svechnikov, and play with a disciplined approach that emphasizes puck possession. That’s important because the Hurricanes don’t have good goaltending. 

Why did they vote no? Was it really about fairness? Or could it be that they lost all four games to the Rangers this year and have gone 2-10 against them in the last three seasons?

This is another series that could go the all the way. But it is more likely to be a sweep for the Rangers if the Canes' goaltending issues continue. If the Rangers get by the Hurricanes, as we expect, they stand a great chance of hoisting the Stanley Cup. Aside from Panarin and Shesterkin, the Rangers are very talented on defense with Tony DeAngelo finishing as the NHL’s fourth-leading scorer among blue-liners. 

But the big name to watch for the Rangers is center Mika Zibanejad, who scored a remarkable 41 goals in 57 games, including 14 in the team’s last 10 contests.