While the National Hockey League takes a pause to determine the next steps in confronting the coronavirus pandemic, there is no better time to put together a list of the most exciting top-five potential matchups in the NHL playoffs.
With the standings frozen into the foreseeable future, we are able to take an extended look at where teams stand as they are poised to enter the final three weeks of the season (assuming the league is able to resume play as normal).
In creating this list, I factored in not only past playoff history between teams, but also their playing styles and geographical location. And yes, all of these potential playoff matchups could very reasonably occur this postseason with the standings as they currently sit.
Matchup No. 5 – Carolina vs. Washington
The bad blood between the Carolina Hurricanes and Washington Capitals only really hit a boiling point during the 2018-19 season when the two franchises squared off in the first round of the playoffs. The Capitals finished in first place in the Metropolitan Division while the Hurricanes snuck into the first wild card seed.
By most accounts, (including mine) the Capitals were they heavy favorite heading into the series. At the time they were the defending Stanley Cup Champions, and Carolina was a franchise with recent changes in ownership, coaching, and management, that had not made the postseason since 2009 and had yet proven itself as a playoff contender.
Sure enough, the Capitals won the first two games of the series in D.C. before heading to Raleigh where the Canes were able to tie things up with two wins on their home ice. The teams would continue to trade wins in their own buildings before entering game seven in Capital One Arena.
In double overtime, Hurricanes’ forward Justin Williams, lovingly known as “Mr. Game Seven” for his history of strong performances in these crucial do-or-die games, would put a shot on net that was tipped in by linemate Brock McGinn to win the series for Carolina.
This victory by the ‘Canes led to what I believe to be one of the greatest social media slam dunks I have ever witnessed from one NHL franchise over another.
The Capitals had Tweeted, prior to the start of the series, this Game of Thrones-inspired photo of forward Tom Wilson ready to ride into battle:
And when the Hurricanes eliminated the defending Stanly Cup Champs, they made sure that Tweet was front and center in the hockey world:
I’d reason to guess that most of us out there are either fans of Game of Thrones or at the very least understand the sentiment here. Kudos to the Hurricanes for jumping on yet another opportunity to gain massive exposure through social media. I mean this is the same franchise that created “Bunch of Jerks” shirts in a response to Don Cherry’s tirade about the team’s postgame celebrations.
For my own selfish reasons, I would love to see a team in a non-traditional hockey market continue to find success in the playoffs. And those of you who have followed me long enough know that I am a firm believer that hockey can work in any city under the right conditions.
Rivalries are great for hockey, and for organizations looking to re-energize their fan base, they not only get butts in seats but also boost the whole atmosphere around a team.
If the playoffs started today, the Capitals and Hurricanes would meet in the first round for the second consecutive season, and I believe this is a playoff matchup the hockey world should be hoping becomes a reality when the league resumes.
Matchup No. 4 – Tampa vs. Florida
It might be for my own selfish reasons that I decided to put this matchup ahead of Carolina and Washington, but seeing the two Floridian teams meet in the NHL playoffs is a dream for those who have championed expansion hockey for years.
We have already seen great success with expansion teams in the recent past. In 2017, the Nashville Predators made a historic run to the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since their introduction to the NHL in 1998.
And it is hard to forget the mark the Vegas Golden Knights made on the league during their inaugural season that brought their fledgling franchise just three wins away from hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup in 2018.
Most recently, the Columbus Blue Jackets, after years of hardship in just getting into the dance, were finally able to advance to the second round of the postseason after a monumental sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2019.
The Florida Panthers remain one of the few expansion teams of recent decades to have a true run at the Stanley Cup. I am not going to pretend that the Cats didn’t make it to the Stanley Cup Final in their third season (’95-’96), but since then they have since been unable to make it past the first round in the years they have qualified (exactly four times since).
And look, my intention is not to rag on the Florida Panthers, in fact, I crave their success nearly as much as those who have been forced to watch underwhelming season after underwhelming season.
This desire to see hockey thrive in South Florida is a huge reason why I have this matchup where I do on this list. For what seems to be the first time ever, both teams from the Sunshine State are competitive. Albeit the Lightning has a roster that is made to win the Stanley Cup now, while the Panthers are still working on getting their lineup to exactly where it needs to be.
Regardless, both teams can score, and both teams (on paper) have goaltending. Now debating the productivity of that goaltending is a conversation for another article.
As it stands, the Panthers sit three points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third in the Atlantic. They also hold a game in hand on the Leafs which would potentially make the point gap just one.
If not for a dismal stretch of games following the All-Star break, the Panthers might all but have third in the Atlantic secured, and with the Lightning sitting pretty firmly behind the Boston Bruins in second in the division, if the Panthers were able to sneak past the Leafs, the cross-state rivalry would be all but inevitable.
There is still no indication as to how the season will play out, but the Panthers are certainly a team that could benefit from a bit of a regroup before heading into the final stretch. Look for Florida to come out of the gate hot if and when the NHL is able to resume play.
Matchup No. 3 – Boston vs. Tampa
While the Tampa Bay Lightning has been a playoff contender for the better part of the last decade, last season’s embarrassing sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets shook the organization to its core.
General Manager Julien Brisebois was careful not to overreact to the defeat, only making relatively small changes to the roster over the summer. One notable addition was that of Patrick Maroon for one year and $900k. Maroon had just won the Stanley Cup with his hometown team in St. Louis and it was clear Brisebois was looking to add a little size to his lineup.
Brisebois would continue the trend by trading on February 24th for San Jose’s Barclay Goodrow, a six-foot, 215-pound winger known to enjoy the rough stuff from time to time.
And on March 3rd and March 7th, the Bruins and Lightning met for their final two matches of the regular season. Boston took the first of the two games in Tampa by a score of 2-1. Tampa then visited Boston that Saturday for what would become a good old-fashioned hockey game.
The two clubs would combine for 94 penalty minutes. Though only two fights were officially awarded, the nastiness went far beyond that.
This is a sequence from the second period of that March 7th game:
The play was originally stopped directly by the league when it was determined the puck had crossed over the Tampa Bay goal line entirely. And tempers, which had already begun to flare early in the game, rose dramatically after Pat Maroon decided he wanted a word with Zdeno Chara.
This fight between Barclay Goodrow and Chris Wagner is what really got things going in the first period:
These teams won’t meet in the first round of the playoffs, but if they so happen to advance against their respective opponents, they would be staring each other down come the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
And who wouldn’t love seven games of this?
Matchup No. 2 – Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia
This rivalry needs little explanation. The Pittsburgh Penguins have faced off in the postseason against their cross-state rival Philadelphia Flyers five times since the turn of the century.
Twice the Penguins defeated the Flyers en route to a trip to the Stanly Cup Final, once in 2008 when they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in six games and a second time just a year later when they would capture the Cup against that same Detroit team in 2009.
Below is a highlight video from their 2012 matchup, an incredibly high-scoring series where you can still get chills watching even eight years later:
Since that season, the Flyers have literally alternated years qualifying for the playoffs. The following season they would not qualify, and the season after that they would lose in seven games to the New York Rangers in the first round.
In 2019 the Flyers did not make the postseason, but as it stands in 2020, the Flyers currently have 89 points, one point behind the Washington Capitals for first in the Metropolitan Division.
Who sits just three points behind the Flyers with a game in hand? You guessed it.
If the playoffs started today the Flyers would have home-ice advantage over the Penguins. The last time Philadelphia was in the postseason was 2018 when they were eliminated in six games by Pittsburgh.
With balanced upfront scoring and a young stud netminder in Carter Hart, the 2019-20 Flyers might just prove to be the most complete Philadelphia team the Penguins would have seen in decades.
Matchup No. 1 – Edmonton vs. Calgary
It has been nearly 30 years since the Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames have met in Stanley Cup Playoffs, but that hasn’t stopped these two Canadian franchises from rekindling their decades-long rivalry that can be traced back to the early ’80s.
A huge part of the rivalry going cold over the last several years has to do with the fact that the Oilers have only made the playoffs once since losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final in back in 2006.
The Flames have only seen sporadic playoff success themselves in the 2000s, making it to the Stanley Cup Final for a seven-game series of their own against Tampa back in 2004 before also losing one game short of a championship.
Since then, Calgary has only made it past the first round of the postseason once, back in 2015 when they beat the Canucks in six games before bowing out to Ducks in five the following round.
Fast forward to the present day and both Albertan teams have rosters built to contend in the NHL playoffs.
Edmonton has the best player in the world in Connor McDavid, and the emergence of Leon Draisaitl as a now two-time 100-point scorer has propelled the team forward when McDavid has been forced out of the lineup with injury.
On the other side, the Flames have done some solid drafting of their own. Johnny Gaudreau has been an NHL player for six seasons now, but Matthew Tkachuk, who the Flames selected 6th overall in 2016, has perhaps been the biggest catalyst in propelling Calgary back into relevancy.
While Tkachuk leads the Flames in scoring with 61 points, it is the edge that he brings to his game that sets him apart.
The 22-year-old has averaged no fewer than 61 penalty minutes in his first four seasons in the NHL, and with 12 games still remaining on the schedule for Calgary this season, he has already reached 74 minutes in the box.
It is this mixture of toughness (some might just call him a flat-out agitator) and skill that sets him apart as a dynamic player, one certainly any NHL team would welcome to their roster with open arms.
And he hasn’t shied away from going after some of the toughest players on opposing teams, and his feud with Zack Kassian has been one of the highlights of 2019-20 season:
The two did eventually end up squaring off the game following this hit, much to the delight of Oilers fans everywhere:
But the kid has skill, and that is what likely elevates him to Brad Marchand-levels of hate from opposing teams:
Calgary and Edmonton have no problem scoring, but defense and goaltending are soft spots for both. Neither is necessarily built to win the Stanley Cup as their rosters currently stand, but a hard-hitting, high-scoring, seven-game (hopefully), series would make excellent television.
Currently, Edmonton sits at 83 points and second in the Pacific Division behind the Golden Knights. Calgary comes in just behind them at third with 79 points and a game in hand.
The Pacific Division race has been ultra-tight this season, with the top five teams hardly ever being separated by more than five or so points.
The pack has loosened a bit with the Arizona Coyotes taking a nosedive but the possibility of getting another Battle of Alberta in the 2020 playoffs is becoming more and more real, and if the hockey gods are on our side, they’ll make sure it comes to fruition.
