Hot goalies, cold Canucks, and the biggest storylines to watch in the second round

Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

Two weeks of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs brought with them two Game 7s, three first-round demolition jobs, saves from goalies, saves from skaters, and everything in between.

The result? A halved field and another four great series of postseason hockey, one of which began yesterday as the New York Rangers beat the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. There are hundreds of intriguing storylines to monitor during this year’s playoffs, and these are five of the most significant to watch for in the Conference Semifinal Round.

Roles are reversed in rematch between Bruins, Panthers

On one side of the ice is a juggernaut led by a superstar defensive centerman wearing the ‘C.’ Their opposite number is a talented but flawed team that surrounds its stars with a ragtag group of veterans and castaways, whose greatest weapon is a hot goaltender with an iron grip on a once-contested cage. Those descriptions fit the 65-win Boston Bruins and the defiant Florida Panthers, respectively, last postseason. This time around, it’s the Panthers who enter the matchup in cruise control, and the Bruins riding an adrenaline binge.

Where the 2023 Panthers had to go on a nuclear hot streak to make the playoffs, Boston’s adversity was a hole they dug themselves. After the B’s and captain Brad Marchand took advantage of the rival Toronto Maple Leafs’ legendary yips to seize a 3-1 lead, the Leafs valiantly drew level as Boston lost its scoring touch during a pair of 2-1 defeats. In danger of blowing consecutive 3-1 series leads, a humiliation no major North American sports franchise has ever suffered, the Bruins fell behind 1-0 to clutch scorer William Nylander late in Game 7. Just 90 seconds later, Hampus Lindholm evened the score with a seeing eye wrister before expertly springing star winger David Pastrnak to end the game in overtime. Having slayed their closeout game demons in front of the brilliant Jeremy Swayman (1.49 GAA), the Bruins won’t feel like underdogs when they fly to Sunrise, Florida to battle an ostensibly superior foe.

They are underdogs, though, and for good reason. The Panthers of 2024 have not needed to play on the razor’s edge for months to advance to the second round. Sergei Bobrovsky is no longer merely a hot goalie, just a great one; he’s a Vezina finalist for the third time in his Hall-of-Fame career. Gustav Forsling (4 P, +5 in R1) is no longer a surprise package, he’s one of the league’s best two-way defensemen. As for that dominant captain, Aleksander Barkov finally strung together the signature playoff performance (3 P, +4) that has eluded him throughout a stellar career when the Cats closed out the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 5. Playmaking power forward Matthew Tkachuk (9 P in 5 GP) and overtime king Carter Verhaeghe (9P in 5 GP) are as clutch as ever on the second line. Florida made the Lightning look easy in a way no team has since their 2020 Cup win.

The Vancouver Canucks need to wake up before it’s too late

Just over two months ago, right before Vezina finalist Thatcher Demko’s injury frustrations made an unwelcome return, the Vancouver Canucks’ second-round matchup with the Edmonton Oilers might have been a pick ‘em. Sure, the Canucks have had notoriously good fortune (their 12 percent conversion rate was the second-highest of the regular season), but they stayed in the Presidents’ Trophy hunt deep into the spring. Jack Adams frontrunner Rick Tocchet coaxed elite results from a talented lineup led by Elias Pettersson (89P), J.T. Miller (37 G, 103 P, 217 hits), and defenseman Quinn Hughes (92 P, +38), the team’s captain and franchise player. Now, the oddsmakers at bet365 see the Oilers as a heavy favorite (-250) to win the series. What changed?

Injuries to Demko on March 5 and almost immediately upon his return in Game 1 against the Nashville Predators would have adversely affected even the best teams, but excellent play in relief from rookie Arturs Silovs (1.70 GAA, .938 SV%) softened that blow. The real issue has been the team’s plummeting offense, which ranked sixth in regular season scoring (279 G). The Nashville Predators stifled Vancouver’s chance creation and allowed a Round 1 low 20.17 shots per game as they drew the Western Conference No. 2 seed into an unattractive battle of attrition. If it weren’t for Brock Boeser’s hat trick during a dramatic Game 4 comeback, the Preds might have knocked off the Canucks. Though Miller and Hughes managed five helpers apiece, Pettersson especially struggled (3 A, 8 S) to make his presence felt. Silovs and the Vancouver D, which features Hughes, Filip Hronek, and a boatload of big, mean shot blockers, kept a crafty but talent-deficient Nashville outfit quiet but will need more run support to oust the dangerous Oilers.

Edmonton was typically terrifying in the Western Conference quarterfinals, routing the Los Angeles Kings while averaging 4.4 goals per game and scoring on 45% of their power plays. Playoff Draisaitl (5 G, 10 P) is in full effect, Zach Hyman (7 G) is the league’s preeminent garbage man, and Connor McDavid (11 A, 12 P) remains its best player despite an ongoing shooting slump. The Canucks drew 4.17 penalties per game against Nashville, up from their 3.83 season average. Waiting for a bailout from Silovs (or, hopefully, Demko) is not a winning strategy against their next opponent. If Vancouver can’t improve massively on a paltry 2.17 goals per game, their triumphant return to the playoffs could be brief and unpleasant. Not everyone is counting them out: our resident Pacific Division expert Mike Gould likes the ‘Nucks to go through in a war.

Superstars are emerging in Carolina and Dallas

The Dallas Stars and Carolina Hurricanes sought to strengthen their Stanley Cup odds after falling short in the 2023 Conference finals to the Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers, respectively. During the offseason, Dallas signed perhaps the best bargain contract in the NHL by bringing in longtime division rival Matt Duchene (65P in 80 regular season GP) on a one-year, $3 million contract, and the Hurricanes bolstered an already elite blue line with pedigreed veteran Dmitry Orlov. They weren’t done there. At the deadline, Dallas landed veteran defenseman Chris Tanev to shore up its second pair, and Carolina traded for a primed top-six sniper in Jake Guentzel (25P in 17 GP after the trade). Given either team’s aggressive focus on improvement, it’s a surprise that their most significant additions have come from within.

The key ingredient to Dallas’s success in an unlikely first-round rematch with the Knights was Wyatt Johnston, who terrorized the defending champs throughout their seven-game battle. After a breakout regular season (32 G, 65 P) saw him emerge as a legitimate scoring threat, Johnston, who doesn’t turn 21 for another week, looks like more than that in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The former CHL top scorer is consistently the best player on the ice (team-high 7 P) for a Stars team already featuring stars like Jason Robertson and Roope Hintz; he controls over 68% of expected goals and has fired a postseason-leading 27 shots on net. Just when it seemed a dynamic eight-shot, two-goal (including the overtime winner) Game 4 performance would be his signature playoff moment, Johnston scored the ice-breaker in Game 7. If the Colorado Avalanche manage to draw the Stars into a track meet, the Western Conference No. 1 seed needs the talented sophomore to help them keep up.

For the Hurricanes, Seth Jarvis has filled a similar role. He finished just above Johnston in regular-season scoring (33 G, 67 A), and unlike his Stars counterpart, has been effective in the postseason before (18P in 29 GP). While Sebastian Aho is the standard bearer for Carolina’s offense and Guentzel its shiny new toy, it’s the 22-year-old who has made a difference for the Hurricanes when it matters most. Jarvis led the Canes in scoring throughout the first round (7 P in 5 GP) and has formed a dominant line with captain and shutdown center Jordan Staal, outchancing opponents 38 to 21 at five-on-five. He has been Carolina’s most visible forward and was at it again in a 4-3 Game 1 loss against the New York Rangers, shoveling home a loose puck with 90 seconds left to give the away team hope. Even after the usually conservative Canes went all-in on outside help, a homegrown star is still leading the way in Raleigh.

Goalie-Mania

Call it a cliche, but there is no more important position in hockey than the goaltender. Last season, Sergei Bobrovsky carried the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final. In years past, Carey Price, Dominik Hasek, and John Vanbiesbrouck did the same for rosters far worse than last year’s Cats. Patrick Roy went and won the thing behind a good-not-great Canadiens team. Twice. The netminder who drags his teammates kicking and screaming to soaring heights is a story as old as hockey. So too is the great team undone by shabby goaltending. There is plenty of potential for both narratives to appear in the second round.

It’s no secret Jeremy Swayman (.950 SV% in 6 GP) must continue his dominance if the Bruins are to beat a far superior Florida team; they only kept pace with the Panthers throughout the regular season because of, you guessed it, stellar goaltending from Swayman and Linus Ullmark (.915 team SV%, third in NHL). Bobrovsky, his opposite number, will feel a different kind of pressure; ‘Bob’ wilted during the postseason regularly before last year. Out west, the Vancouver Canucks might surprise a few people if a fully healthy Thatcher Demko (.97 GAA in 5 career playoff games) can slow down the high-powered Oilers or Arturs Silovs can cement his cult hero status in relief of the Vezina finalist. That’s a double-edged sword; if Demko rushes into action with a bum knee or Silovs turns into a pumpkin (both entirely possible), McDavid and Draisaitl will shred these guys. Edmonton puck-stopper Stuart Skinner, meanwhile, is out to prove his 2023 collapse (3.68 GAA, .883 SV%) was down to rookie jitters after an assured first round (2.59 GAA, .910 SV%). Will this finally be the year goaltending doesn’t sink the Oilers?

Goalies are often the story in apparent mismatches but still factor into the powerhouse matchups between the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes from the Metropolitan Division and the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche from the Central. New York’s Igor Shesterkin (5-0-0, .921 SV%) and Dallas’s Jake Oettinger (1.95 GAA, .925 SV%) provide a clear advantage for their respective teams in showdowns that are too close to call on paper.

Can any of these teams afford to lose?

No one wants to admit it, but there are scenarios where losing is not the end of the world. Last year’s representative from the “happy to be here” delegation, the Seattle Kraken, made it to Game 7 of Round 2. This season, in the first year of an organizational overhaul, the Nashville Predators took their best shot at the second-seed Canucks and might have beaten them if not for a pair of late-game collapses. Both teams were pleasantly surprised at their own success and walked out of a losing effort with heads held high and the appreciation of a grateful fanbase. No club left in the field should expect a similar reception upon defeat.

The Dallas Stars have a host of young impact players that will keep them competitive for years to come, but for every stud on an entry-level deal, there’s a veteran whose team-friendly contract is expiring. Joe Pavelski, Matt Duchene, and Chris Tanev (all UFAs) cost Jim Nill just $7.625 million against the cap combined this season. Dallas needs to capitalize on its perfect storm before it’s too late. The Carolina Hurricanes have their own expiring bargain contracts and could lose Teuvo Teravainen or even Jake Guentzel for nothing this offseason. That makes them desperate. For the Florida Panthers, re-signing Sam Reinhart could mean losing Brandon Montour. The Edmonton Oilers have yet to build a winner around Connor McDavid and are running out of tries before they have to re-up Leon Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard. The New York Rangers are under pressure to end a lengthy championship drought before they get too old, and the Colorado Avalanche are victims of the standard set by their 2022 Cup triumph.

Even the underdog Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks are battling considerable outside pressure ahead of their second-round matchups. The Canucks’ rabid fan base will not accept excuses if they roll over for the Oilers despite their home-ice advantage. The Bruins are at the tail end of a contention window spanning nearly two decades and would love nothing more than to go on a last deep run before things take a turn for the worse. That leaves eight teams that need to win and one winner. Buckle up for great hockey and crushing heartache.

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