NHL Playoff Predictions: April 26th

Today is Western Conference day with a pair of Game 1s coming at you tonight. Let’s take a look at our NHL playoff predictions.

Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.

Predators vs Blues: The St. Louis Blues have now earned home-ice advantage after a pair of upsets dismissed the Minnesota Wild and Chicago Blackhawks from the Stanley Cup Playoffs early.

The Blues rode Mike Yeo’s conservative system for a five-game series victory against Minnesota. The Wild played right into their hands, dumping and chasing to no avail and simply having one mistake too many per game in their own zone. Everything seemed to be bouncing the Blues’ way. Though St. Louis was massively outshot, they managed to hold on…barely.

Nashville’s play was a bit more sustainable. They allowed quantity, yes, but did a far better job of limiting quality. The Blackhawks were forced to the outside boards and traffic down royal road prevented high-danger chances. Chicago was barely able to get to the slot or below the hashmarks for prime scoring chances because of the Predators’ defense.

The Preds took two games at the United Center. Can they take one at the Scottrade Center?

Well, the home team was 4-1 this season in five encounters between these two teams. The Predators were the only road team to steal a game. They did so with a 4-0 shutout of the Blues in Missouri back in December. With that said, they have only played each other once in 2017, which is remarkable scheduling.

St. Louis was 1-for-14 on the powerplay against the Predators in the regular season, while the Preds were 4-for-22. If the Blues want to take an early series lead, they are going to have to stay out of the box. Nashville is very good at drawing penalties, so they are going to have to be careful. The Blues have a good kill, yes, but the law of averages says that the more opportunities you give a team with powerplay scorers like Ryan Johansen and P.K. Subban, the more you will be burned.

At the end of the day, the Blues have the upper hand with the home-ice advantage. But they will need to be a much different team than they were in the opening round. Tonight is going to be a low-scoring defensive game, and until I am proven wrong, I am going with the team that played a better game in the opening round.

Prediction: Take the Predators to win. Play the stone-cold under. There will not be a whole lot of scoring in this series whatsoever.

Oilers vs Ducks: While the first game on tap tonight may not be particularly high-scoring, this series will light the lamp for sure. Anaheim is coming off a sweep of the Calgary Flames. They have not lost in regulation since March 10th, and have scored three or more goals in 14 of their last 15 games.

Edmonton fended off the San Jose Sharks in six games. They were far from perfect, but they were a resilient bunch that got contributions from their depth forwards when they needed them most. They will be reuniting Patrick Maroon, who had a quiet first round, with Connor McDavid on the top line. The Oilers will be looking for contributions from their literal big guns, meaning Maroon and Milan Lucic. Lucic was near-invisible in the opening round.

Anaheim’s home dominance is going to be a major difference tonight and in the series going forward. The Ducks have won nine of their last 11 home games against the Oilers, this coming after a series in which Anaheim was a house of horrors for the Calgary Flames.

Tonight will be a test for the top line guys to put pressure on the Oilers’ blue line. Corey Perry had three points in the final two games of the series against the Flames. Ryan Kesler had just one assist. Kesler’s role will be far more than just picking up the offense. He will need to go toe-to-toe with Connor McDavid and/or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the faceoff dot.

Kesler’s line, including Andrew Cogliano and Jakub Silfverberg, will be one of the most important in the series. Rickard Rakell’s line with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf’s top line with Patrick Eaves will get the spotlight. If Kesler’s line can accent their offense with a solid two-way style, they can really outclass the Oilers.

Prediction: Take the Ducks to win Game 1. Play the over.

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