2021 Western Conference Quarterfinal Preview

The Western Conference looks to try and make it two years in a row as champions and there’s plenty of contenders. The reigning champs are back, the recent mini-dynasty of the Winnipeg Jets are looking to make another long push and the back-to-back Presidents Trophy winner Edmonton Oilers are hoping to make it another step further this year. We asked our Eastern Conference GMs (and yours truly) to predict the West and for the most part (except the Oilers/Preds series) they were split as to who will come out of each matchup and that should create some excitement as another round of matchups start up. 

(B1) Edmonton Oilers vs. (W2) Nashville Predators

The Edmonton Oilers are back in the playoffs as the President Trophy winners and have even improved on last year's record despite moving out names like Evander Kane, TJ Brodie and Jonathan Toews during the summer. But even with high profile names shipped out, the identity still remained that the Oilers would be a high profile attacking team with one of the best goalies in the league in their net. The Oilers were the best offensive team in the MRFHL this year with 7 20+ goal scorers on their roster all year, while even still adding a pair of 30 goal scorers at the deadline in Evgeni Malkin and Tyler Bozak. This attack has allowed them to just overpower teams to the point where even when the defensive side of the game was lacking at times, they would still come out with the W. You just need to look at backup goalie Christopher Gibson who posted an .896 in 15 starts, and still left with a 10-1-3 record. Patrick Kane was a force all season finishing runner-up for the Maurice Richard trophy. The offence even bleeds out into the PK where the Oilers were one of the most deadly PK teams scoring the second most shorthanded goals in the league this year.

The Nashville Predators were shockingly upset last year in the first round, falling to a wildcard team. This year they hope to play as the upset team. The Predators entered the playoffs with the worst point total amongst playoff teams and could even have been considered sellers at the deadline after they shipped out Joe Thornton and Matt Niskanen. They also enter the playoffs floundering down the stretch, finishing 1-9 in their last 10. A part of that is due to having to turn to Aaron Dell more at the end of the season, while Ben Bishop was great all year should cover up some of those deficiencies better. The young group continues to provide the bulk of the offence, but Elias Pettersson taking a step back in production must be disappointing. The Predators though are an immensely physical team, throwing the second most hits in the league this season and may be poised to reach into their potential during a playoff series. 

It is the biggest points disparity between two teams in the playoffs, with a whopping 29 points separating the team teams throughout the regular season. The overwhelming evidence should put this in favour of the Oilers and the eastern conference GMs seem to almost all agree. With the Preds floundering down the stretch at 1-9, the Oilers were at the polar opposite going 9-1 in the last 10. The one thing Todd McLellan and his staff will point to is that in the three matchups with the Oilers, the Predators took a win and in the two losses were only by a goal (+ an empty netter), so it seems to be in their best interest to try and keep these a tight and low event hockey. Season Series: Oilers 2-1

(B2) Los Angeles Kings vs. (B3) Anaheim Ducks

Kings return to the playoffs as one of the playoff teams in the Bonsignore, this time holding home ice advantage against their Californian rival. They were bounced in 5 games last year and for the most part a lot of the same team has returned, with a few notable exceptions. Jakub Voracek led the team in scoring after being acquired in the summer in a trade with the Maple Leafs, as well as Joel Edmundson in a separate trade with the Leafs. Dominik Kubalik was given a massive contract in the summer and has proven to be a solid addition to the group. Jaroslav Halak provided another reliable year in net and the depth defencemen on the team were outplaying the big minute eaters at times. That’s where the big issue with the Kings lies; they were pretty good offensively and were pretty good defensively, except the top line players were eaten alive 5on5. A combined -56 between the four of OEL, Muzzin, Kopitar and Voracek has to be a big worry considering only one other regular on the roster was a minus player. With those players providing a bulk of the offence all season it will be interesting to see how head coach Laviolette deploys those players in tight games and weighing the risk vs. reward.

It’s going to be interesting to see how the Ducks gel together as they head into the playoffs. The team was fairly decent down the stretch despite the team making some massive changes at the deadline. Joe Pavelski, Connor Garland and Nikita Zaitsev were all shipped out, and Phil Kessel, Dylan Strome and Roman Polak entered in. The early returns seem to be positive with Kessel and Strome scoring at or nearly at a point per game pace since then. The Ducks off-season acquisitions have been key as well after they acquired cup winners Ilya Kovalchuk and Thomas Greiss from the Colorado Avalanche. Kovalchuk leads the team in points and Greiss has been a big improvement over Bobrovsky’s last season. The Ducks power play was tied for the best in the league, so we’ll see how much an effect special teams will play in this series. The defence definitely has an identity as well, especially after trading Zaitsev, the highest scoring D on the team was Ryan Graves with 24 (a far cry from the 113 points Tyson Barrie had for the Ducks last year). This is a physical and imposing group of defenceman that will make life difficult for the Kings. 

With both teams almost firmly locked in to the division spots for a long time now, it was just a matter of who could secure home ice advantage in this California Clash. And even with the Ducks taking the matchup in the last week of the season, the Kings held on to second spot by two points, and while the season series reads as the Ducks winning it 3-2, it should be pointed out the Ducks won the last 3 matchups so they are coming in with a bit more momentum in this matchup. The East is divided right down the middle on this one and this one could be one of the safer bets to see it go a full 7 games. Season Series: 3-2 Ducks

(S1) St. Louis Blues vs. (W1) Colorado Avalanche

What a glow-up in St. Louis. The Blues have been in the bottom 6 of the league for the last 4 years and were easily the worst team in the league. After some aggressive and shrewd moves in the off-season, the Blues are not only set for the future and back in the playoffs - they easily took the division crown. The Blues were easily the kings of the off-season making massive moves to acquire star players like Logan Couture, Samuel Girard, Clayton Keller, Morgan Rielly, Sam Reinhart, Dylan Larkin, Darcy Kuemper and Duncan Keith - a whole rosters worth almost! - they continued this trend in season making blockbusters to grab the likes of Gabriel Landeskog, Brent Burns and Kyle Palmieri. A shot was sent across the league, the Blues wanted to win and they wanted to win now! Even though they didn’t win the West, the early returns have been a success for the Blues. The offence has been potent and growing even stronger after the Landeskog and Palmieri adds. Kuemper has been one of the better goalies in the league all year. And they enter the playoffs with the second lowest goal differential in the west. John Hynes must be loving life being able to roll 4 lines and 3 defence pairings without worry.

The task ahead of these new jumpstart Blues is no easy task, they get to deal with reigning champs in the Colorado Avalanche. It’s a slightly different team from last year but the Avs are a group that progressively got stronger as the playoffs went along last year culminating in a shocking sweep of the Maple Leafs. A lot of the veteran core like Mikko Koivu and Ilya Kovalchuk, plus starting goalie Thomas Greiss exited town in the off-season. While a newer group and identity entered town with the likes of Anthony Beauvillier and Brendan Gallagher. It hasn’t been quite smooth sailing so far in an attempt to repeat. As mentioned before Phil Kessel, who struggled on his new team, was shipped out for Joe Pavelski who has also struggled to find a role on the team. Tristan Jarry was handed the starting role and struggled all season with it, before being shipped out and replaced with Jake Allen where the early returns show it being a smart bet. But let’s get to the true identity of this team and that is every night is alright for fighting. The Colorado Avalanche take no shit and are maybe a tad over aggressive. The Avs have almost 400 more penalty minutes than the next closest team and it’s something that was not only embraced by the Avs, but doubled down by GM Hiemstra after he acquired Nazem Kadri before the deadline. The Avalanche have 3 of the top 4 PIM takers on the season and each of them have an amount of fights this year that would equate to a long boxing career. Zdeno Chara 37 fights, Brendon Dillon 39 fights and 28 fights for Nazem Kadri.

It will be interesting to see how two vastly different styles of play matchup in the first round, and the east seems to agree as a 5-3 split amongst our pollers leaves a bit of belief that even with a big points difference those who have won before just know how to get it done.  Will the Avs try and avoid the penalty box with the playoffs starting or will they try and pummel their opponent? Or will the Blues skill overtake and leave them with just a few bruises to show in the second round? It is definitely one of the more fascinating series of the playoffs. Season Series: 3-2 Avalanche

(S2) Winnipeg Jets vs. (S3) Chicago Blackhawks

The Jets had been to two straight finals before time (and maybe exhaustion) caught up with them. It may have also just been an unfortunate matchup as they were easily handed defeat in 5 games to the Oilers in the first round last year. For the most part though it seems like the off-season was a chance to relax and reset as nothing radically changed with the Jets and they are ready to make some noise once again. Linus Ullmark entered his first full year as the netminder after shockingly outperforming the soon to be traded Andrei Vasilevskiy. Leon Draisaitl and Nikita Kucherov exploded with some of their best seasons in the MRFHL and while it was a disappointing year statistically for Nathan MacKinnon, he’s always lurking ready to explode. And while it was a quiet off-season, GM Ryan Schurman backed up his group after Colton Parayko went down with an injury making a blockbuster trade for Roman Josi. And now with Parayko back from injury, the Jets have one of the best top pairings in the league. 

IT WAS SOLVED! After years of goaltending failing them year after year, the Blackhawks picked up Anton Khudobin in the off-season and years of Martin Jones and Henrik Lundqvist were put in the rear mirror. And the thing is they might be right. The Blackhawks were the best defensive team in the West this year and Khudobin stole a lot of games this year, amassing 11 first stars. That could also be contributed by the fact that they replaced half their D core with the likes of Rasmus Dahlin, Cam Fowler and Josh Morrissey. Once again though the offence continues to be a tricky puzzle for the Blackhawks to solve, despite all the talent on the roster. The defensive success is slightly overshadowed by the fact that they are the second worst offensive team heading to the playoffs, a stat that must just perplex head coach Gerard Gallant. To make matters worse, one of those players that have been scoring, Mark Stone, will miss most if not all of the playoffs with an injury. The Blackhawks haven’t made it out of the first round since 2016 and there may be questions of how this team is constructed if they fail to do so once again. 

On paper this is a heavyweight matchup and should come later in the playoffs, but in spite of all the talent there’s some glaring flaws in both teams. The Blackhawks can’t score, which the Jets do plenty of. The Blackhawks defend well, while the Jets haven’t been the best at that - but Parayko and Josi haven’t been on the ice together for the entire season. The matchup is fairly split amongst the East, with a slight edge to the Jets. However the series shakes out, it will be a massive disappointment for whoever fails to make it out of the 1st round. Season Series: Jets 3-2 

Ryan Schurman

Fantastic job on Both West and East Playoff Previews.

2021 Western Conference Quarterfinal Preview
A Look at the four western conference matchups

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Dylan Wilson Appreciate that!

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