Originally posted on Daily Faceoff
The first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs is in the books — and, a little unusually, the second round started before it even ended.
The New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes played Game 1 of their Round 2 series on Sunday afternoon before we even knew whether it’d be the Dallas Stars or the Vegas Golden Knights advancing to face the Colorado Avalanche.
Well, everything is now fully official. Eight teams are out; the eight others have moved on. And with that comes a slew of storylines, predictions, and anticipation for what the second round might hold.
Sure, it might be a little early to predict who might win the Conn Smythe Trophy as this year’s playoff MVP … but, then again, this business is all about way-too-early reactions and trying to guess what will happen next. It’s the oldest trick in the book.
With that in mind, here’s a wildly premature look at the Top 10 candidates for the Conn Smythe as we enter Round 2.
Good luck getting past Boston if you can’t beat Swayman, who posted a ridiculous .950 save percentage over six games in the Bruins’ Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. With all due respect to Linus Ullmark, that series could’ve ended very differently had the Bruins not stuck with Swayman after their Game 2 loss. At just 25 years of age, he’s clearly Boston’s goaltender of the future. If this team wants to stand even the slightest chance of getting past the juggernaut Florida Panthers in Round 2, they’ll need Swayman to stand on his head again — but the North Pole, AK product has shown time and again that he deserves to be regarded alongside the likes of Igor Shesterkin and Jake Oettinger as one of the top up-and-coming goaltenders in the league.
Death, taxes, and the Oilers beating the L.A. Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After vanquishing their Pacific Division rivals for the third consecutive year, it’s time for these Oilers to show they have what it takes to go deep — particularly after bowing out to the eventual champs in back-to-back years. Draisaitl is coming off his fifth career 100-point season and improved upon that pace against L.A. in Round 1, scoring five goals and 10 points in just five games. But the Oilers have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they can handle the Kings in the playoffs. Draisaitl could very easily challenge Swayman for the top spot on this list if he puts himself at the forefront of a convincing series win over the Vancouver Canucks.
Over the past few years, the Stars have become one of the NHL’s model franchises that everyone else is actively trying to emulate. Getting Johnston at No. 23 overall in the 2021 NHL Draft required an enviable mix of skill and fair fortune that is in short supply around the league. The 20-year-old center exploded onto the scene with the Stars in 2022 and appears to be on the verge of blossoming into a full-on superstar after scoring 32 goals in the 2023–24 regular season and adding four more against Vegas in Round 1. You have to be able to come up clutch to win the Conn Smythe — and Johnston is more than a little clutch. He might just be the Stars’ top forward right now.
WYATT JOHNSTON AND GAME 7 GOALS: A TALE AS OLD AS TIME! pic.twitter.com/05p58ddZ7q
— z – Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) May 6, 2024
McDavid had more assists (11) in Round 1 than any other player had points, but he only managed one goal for himself in five games against the Kings. That’s not really a cause for any concern — McDavid is the kind of player who is capable of going off for eight goals in a single series — but it’s enough to put him below Draisaitl on this list for the time being. At this point, it’s not really an accomplishment for the Oilers to beat the Kings in the playoffs. They do it every year! McDavid and Draisaitl could end up in the 1/2 spots on this list if they keep their momentum through the Oilers’ upcoming series against the Canucks. Beating the Pacific Division champs, who have been riding a wave of momentum (and luck) all year long, would be no small feat for an Oilers team with plenty to prove.
Here’s a crazy stat: Verhaeghe is the Panthers’ all-time leader in playoff goals, with 20. Not bad for someone you probably hadn’t heard of two or three years ago. It also goes to show how little playoff success the Panthers had experienced before this current Aleksander Barkov/Sergei Bobrovsky window opened. Verhaeghe has blossomed into a star in every sense of the word over his last few seasons in Florida and is likely going to command a ton of money when his current contract expires in 2025. For now, he has five goals and nine points through just five games in these playoffs and will likely be one of Jeremy Swayman’s greatest enemies as the Panthers take on the Bruins in Round 2.
The Hurricanes are already down 1-0 in their Round 2 series against the New York Rangers, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a shot at coming back. Far from it, actually. Much like Johnston, Jarvis is a blossoming young center who has proven himself capable of performing in big moments over the last couple of seasons. He racked up seven points in five games during the Hurricanes’ convincing win over the New York Islanders in the first round and tacked on another goal in Game 1 against the Rangers on Sunday. The Hurricanes are a bit more of an ‘offense by committee’ team than their fellow Eastern Conference contenders, but Jarvis has differentiated himself from the pack in the early stages of these playoffs.
SETH JARVIS MAKES IT A ONE-GOAL GAME 👀
— BarDown (@BarDown) May 5, 2024
(🎥: @BR_OpenIce) pic.twitter.com/TX2DvM0Zvm
It’s hard to pick just one Avalanche player who belongs on this list, particularly when Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen are all tied for the team lead with nine points apiece. But at this point, it’s probably worth deferring to Nichushkin, who potted seven goals in five games against the Jets in the first round (including a hat trick in Game 4). When he’s in the lineup, Nichushkin is more than capable of taking over games all by himself — in a lot of ways, he’s Colorado’s answer to Leon Draisaitl. As a player, he’s come a long way from the time he went an entire season without a goal during his tenure with the Dallas Stars. Now, he’ll get a chance to stick it to his former team in what should be an incredible Round 2 series between the Stars and Avs.
Sure, it’s a little odd to have the first Rangers player on this list this low considering that they’re technically the closest team to winning the Stanley Cup — they’ve already won five games! — but it’s not intended as a slight against Shesterkin, who has a perfect 5-0-0 record with a .921 save percentage through parts of two series this spring. The only real knock against Igor (and the rest of the Rangers) is that they didn’t really have much to prove in their Round 1 series against the middling Washington Capitals, who snuck into the eighth and final Eastern Conference playoff spot on what basically ended up being a technicality. The Carolina Hurricanes are a completely different animal. If Igor is able to keep shutting the door against Jarvis, Sebastian Aho, Jake Guentzel, and the like, he’ll skyrocket up this list.
It’s been a bit of a weird year for Tkachuk, who didn’t look quite like himself in the early stages of the season while still working to overcome the fractured sternum that kept him out of Game 5 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final. He’s back to his old ways now, collecting nine points in five games during the Panthers’ Round 1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning — and taking a characteristic jab at the Leafs after the series, saying “we all knew it was probably going to be Boston” facing off against his Panthers in the second round. The only other player in the league as skilled as getting under his opponents’ skin might just be Bruins winger Brad Marchand, who will be looking for revenge after Florida eliminated Boston in the first round last year. Tkachuk will have his hands full.
“Without this coming out too badly, I think we all knew it was probably going to be Boston the way that series was going.”
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 5, 2024
If Matthew Tkachuk was a betting man … he would have bet on the Bruins 😅 pic.twitter.com/5LX09BRuIE
You’d be forgiven if you still don’t know exactly who Arturs Silovs is, but the reality is the Latvian goaltender probably saved the Canucks’ season after Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith both went down at various points against the Nashville Predators in Round 1. Silovs was brilliant in relief, posting a 2-1 record with a .938 save percentage in three games and capping off the series with a 28-save shutout in Game 6. Not bad for a guy who had just nine games of NHL experience before these playoffs. Silovs first put himself on the radar at last year’s IIHF World Championship, being named the tournament’s top goaltender and MVP after posting a 7-3-0 record and a .921 save percentage in 10 games as Latvia won bronze — its first-ever medal. He has the goods to give the Edmonton Oilers a real fright in Round 2.
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Originally posted on Daily Faceoff
Published: 6 months ago
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