2021 Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Preview

The Eastern Conference needs a new king. Over the last 6 years only three teams have represented the conference in the finals; Toronto, Florida and Washington. All three are not in the playoff picture this year and someone new looks to take up that mantle. We asked our Western Conference playoff teams (and noted Eastern conference hater, the Calgary Flames) to give their predictions on the East and while there’s some early favourites, no consensus among the four quarterfinal matchups. Let’s take a deeper dive at each of those series.

(D1) Tampa Bay Lightning vs. (W2) Detroit Red WIngs

The Lightning pulled off a gutsy game 7 win against the Canadiens in last year's playoff, before a backdoor sweep by the hands of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Tampa stormed through the gate at the start of the year building an impressive lead in the standings and even had aspirations of shooting for the record books, but they have since stumbled down the stretch and even with difficulty finding the win column they still secured first in the East. Tuukka Rask wasn’t playing much down the stretch and that may be key when looking at the Lightning’s struggles because he was excellent all season. They were the best defensive team in the MRFHL this past season and doubled down on that by adding Matt Niskanen at the deadline. With a top 6 that was firing on all cylinders all year, it’s hard not to like the #1 seed in the East. 

The Red Wings went out in meek fashion last year falling in 6 games to the Flyers. A lot of that could be chalked up to the poor play of Robin Lehner, but the Swede was back in the net this season before being shipped out at the deadline, fully handing over the reigns to youngster Carter Hart. It has to be disappointing for Austin and Co. that with the group that they have that they haven’t progressed past a wildcard berth and once again put themselves against some stiff competition in the first round. They did however make an effort to add veteran depth experience at the deadline with the likes of Patrick Marleau, Milan Lucic and Casey Cizikas (they have combined for 0 points). One thing that Bruce Cassidy and his staff will try to use is that unlike the Lightning, the Wings have been playing well down the stretch because they have had to fight for their playoff lives. Connor McDavid continues to be an X factor and in his first playoff appearance last year he stormed out with 11 points in 6 games, so we’ll see what he does in round 2.

Despite the Lightning’s struggles, they matched up twice against the Red Wings down the stretch and took both games with Tuukka Rask in net. The Lightning and Red Wings have been trading partners in the last 12 months as well, so we could see someone burn the other teams; Hampus Lindholm on Detroit, Tyler Johnson (who was flipped at the deadline) for Tampa. Both teams are extremely deep for a quarterfinal matchup and have a lot of firepower upfront. The Lightning though are going with more experience in net and defence and that could be a difference. Not surprisingly the Lightning are heavy favourites amongst the Western Conference group. Season Series: Tampa Bay 3-2

(D2) Montreal Canadiens vs. (D3) Boston Bruins

The Montreal Canadiens were oh so close to taking the division and conference title, but time just ran out. This is familiar territory for Montreal as they also missed out last year by 2 points, slotting them in a tough division matchup. Montreal is at least hoping to avoid another first round disappointment and it can be said, this team has improved some weaknesses on last year's version. Jakob Markstrom is a vast improvement over Matt Murray in net and steadies the shop and a full season of Mark Schifele has had massive positive effect with his pairing with Huberdeau. Torey Krug and Roope Hintz have instantly had a positive effect on the team since being acquired at the deadline. The one potential issue is that the Canadiens have a more top-heavy offence than some of the other playoff teams in the East, and while it may not be the biggest issue against the Bruins, it may burn them once they come across a deeper defensive team that can shut down their top line.

While the Canadiens missed the division lead by two points this year and last, the Bruins on the other hand are back in the playoffs after missing the playoffs by 2 points in 2020. The way the off-season transpired for the Bruins, it’s hard to imagine that they would even think they’d be at this point. Taylor Hall, Clayton Keller, Morgan Rielly, Andrei Svechnikov and Anthony Beauvillier were all sent packing for future assets. But the young core pushed forward with the likes of Matthew Tkachuk and Nico Hischier providing the bulk of the offence. Add in guys like Drew Doughty and Esa Lindell pushing the puck forward from the backend, the Bruins turned into an exciting and offensive capable team. Freddie Andersen hasn’t been great, but he’s improved upon his play from last year and is capable of keeping them in the game.

So it’s a battle between two different styles of play; the more offensive Boston Bruins and the more defensive Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens were one of the better home teams all season whereas the Bruins were shockingly better on the road this season. So that could make the first two games in this series quite pivotal. The Western Conference GMs definitely seem to prefer the Habs in this series, so we’ll see how that goes. Season Series: Montreal 5-2

(B1) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (W1) Buffalo Sabres

The dynamic duo of Ryan O’Reilly and Evgeni Dadanov are back in the playoffs. The Penguins duo has combined to win the last three Art Ross trophies and Dadanov is especially going to be a lot to handle in the playoffs. In his 3 seasons in the MRFHL he has almost 400 points and 200 goals. Last time he was in the playoffs he was held to a measly point per game pace in a 7 game series. And while the duo seem poised to at least score twice every game, the Penguins bled goals all year. They have the highest goals against amongst East playoff teams and neither Henrik Lundqvist or Marcus Hoberg really ran away with the starting role, pretty evenly splitting the duties all season. Who starts Game 1 will be a question mark but you’d have to assume they go with the vet in Lundqvist. And while they have the most potent offensive duo in the league, the secondary scoring is pretty potent as well with 4 other players with 20+ goals on the other. The defence has some big mean dudes eating big minutes, and maybe they’ll be more effective once the game tightens up for the playoffs. 

The Buffalo Sabres are also back in the playoffs after a long drought. After a change in management, the Sabres roster was quickly reshaped from a group that finished at the bottom of the east to now a playoff spot. It’s easy to spot a key difference between the two teams and that is in net with a legit #1 in Andrei Vasilevskiy tending the twine. It’s not even worth comparing the differences from last year's team considering Dustin Brown is the only hold over. The Hoffman and Pacioretty pair is not quite as deadly as the Pens one, but both put up 40+ goal campaigns. The big X factor could be the late deadline addition of Jonathan Toews, who stormed out with 17 points in the final 8 games for the Sabres, shooting an unbelievably high 25%. If he can even keep up most of that, the Sabres all of a sudden become much more effective in their offensive game. 

The Penguins stayed quiet at the deadline and the Sabres said they would, before swooping in for Toews at the final hour. Both GMs for the most part stuck with their team and it’ll be interesting to see who it pays off for. Vas faced the most shots in the league this season and that is a dangerous game to play against Dadanov/O’Reilly who consistently pepper the net with shots. The West is pretty split on this series which should be surprising for a Division leader for a wildcard, but that seems to be chalked up to not trusting the net in Pittsburgh. Season Series: Buffalo 2-1

(B2) New York Rangers vs. (B3) New York Islanders

The Rangers have gone from picking 1st overall to now home ice in the playoffs. It’s been an impressive build on Broadway, with most of it coming from within. Mitch Marner took the lead and continues to set career highs each year with the Rangers. Zibanejad, despite an injury that had him miss 20 games, was again a major player for the Rangers. The new and improved defence with new additions Brady Skjei, Cale Makar and TJ Brodie weren’t flashy this year but they were steadily reliable all season. Like some of the other teams in the conference the Rangers for the most part stuck with their team, except making one big move (which we’ll get to later) to shore up their goaltending after losing trust in Antti Raanta. Raanta was good, not great but the Rangers went to go out and get more experience and a winning pedigree in Corey Crwaford. In his limited run of starts Crawford has definitely looked to be an improvement in net. 

The New York Islanders are also returning to the playoffs. While the Rangers were steady, the Islanders continued to shape and work their roster all season long both buying and selling. Guys like Erik Karlsson, Brock Nelson and Gabriel Landeskog were shipped out, but they also brought in guys like Robin Lehner, Joe Thornton and Jake Guentzel. JT Miller and Travis Konecny have taken massive leaps forward offensively this year and continued to do so once they were paired with Guentzel. Amongst the changeover was in net, where at different times this year at least 3 different goalies seemed to have claimed the starting role. It could be debated that the best goalie among the 3 was the one that was shipped out, but Robin Lehner has been good in his short stint on the Island. The biggest issue for the Islanders is that part in net and defence (team defence at that). They are the only team with a negative goal differential in the playoffs at a -12. Konecny has been taking more responsibility this year but is also a -22 and that has to be a cause for concern for Travis Green and his staff. 

It’s a battle for supremacy of New York and Corey Crawford is at the heart of it. The Islanders shipped off the goalie to the Rangers during the season, raising many eyebrows, now the two shall meet. Maybe luckily for the Islanders, the Rangers aren’t the most dominant offensive team and they have the opportunity to shore up that side of the game as the playoffs go along. The Islanders were also the worst road team of the East playoff squads, so they need to work hard to avoid falling back. On the other hand though the Western Conference seem to have looked past some of the warts and have given the edge to the Islanders in the series. Season Series: Rangers 3-2