The XFL has entered the second week of its third season under its . Player to watch: Tom Wilson managed not to get suspended during the regular season, to his credit. Seeing its dedication pay off with a playoff opportunity should be all the motivation Dallas needs to give each game its best. Did he skid at the end of this season? The Lightning have great depth down the middle of the ice with Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli, electric scoring potential in Nikita Kucherov and an excellent defenseman who leads by example in Victor Hedman. Now, these two teams just went through two second-round series that were markedly different. Against Carolina, Shesterkin gave up two or fewer goals in six of the seven games in the series and won another Game 7, this time on the road. Kristen Shilton: Lightning in six How they got here: Defeated Nashville Predators 4-0, defeated St. Louis Blues 4-2. Unsurprisingly, Florida has also produced excellent special-teams numbers (including with its top-10 power play). Shilton: Hurricanes in six Player to watch: Mika Zibanejad was back to being a point-per-game center this season, playing the majority of his time with Kreider and assisting on 24 of his goals. Things aren't trending well for Pittsburgh at the buzzer. NHL Rush to the Playoffs: Three National Hockey League Games Monday, Tuesday Night, Exclusively on ESPN, ESPN+ and Hulu ESPN+ NHL Kevin Ota April 25, 2022 Twitter Monday, April 25 on ESPN+/Hulu: Flyers at Blackhawks Tuesday, April 26 on ESPN: Oilers at Penguins, Blues at Avalanche 38 out-of-market games on ESPN+ this week Colorado is fortunate to have dynamic middle-six scorers such as Valeri Nichushkin and quiet contributors such as Artturi Lehkonen who can sneak up and burn opponents unexpectedly. When Boston is at its best, it is a hard-hitting, back-breaking group to go up against. If that's the case, whose top line will benefit more? Every first-round Game One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs will be available on ESPN or ESPN2. When things aren't going Boston's way -- when the Bruins struggle to score a goal or give up a bad one -- can they persevere and push back? We all saw what happened to netminder Sergei Bobrovsky in last season's playoffs (when he was replaced midway through the first round by rookie Spencer Knight), and the veteran has struggled down the stretch this season (with a save percentage below .900 in three of four recent appearances). Case for a Stanley Cup run: Toronto has got the talent in all three phases of the game. The Wild have that, big-time. The College Football Playoff will pit Georgia against Ohio State and Michigan against TCU in a bid to figure out the next national champion. Wyshynski: Flames in seven. PIT | BOS Ditto Brad Marchand. The NHL has passed the mathematical midpoint of the 2022-23 regular season. 87d ESPN staff. NHL Playoff Predictions 2022 Matchups EASTERN CONFERENCE Playoff Round 1 #1 seed Florida Panthers vs #8 seed Washington Capitals Florida wins (4-1) #2 seed Carolina Hurricanes vs #7 seed Boston Bruins Carolina wins (4-2) Metropolitan Division Match-up #2 New York Rangers vs #3 Pittsburgh Penguins New York wins (4-2) Atlantic Division Match-up How to watch All things being equal, Colorado boasts the deeper team. But teams win with depth in the playoffs, and there's been some falloff here for the Flames. Kavanagh: Blues in seven Those 5-on-5 opportunities can be -- and almost always are -- limited in the playoffs. Those aren't encouraging totals. Sixteen teams entered the postseason tournament, but only four are left in the bracket, as the New York Rangers will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the East, and the Colorado Avalanche will square off against the Edmonton Oilers in the West. Complete playoff coverage We've seen in other series around the league how important timely scoring is from often unheralded or unexpected players. It starts with Bruins-Canes (7 p.m. We crunch the numbers, analyze the data, and provide the best free NHL expert picks each and every day. The Big Cat's run since 2020 in elimination games is the stuff of legend: 10-0, six of the wins by shutout. We're down to the final four teams of the 2021-22 NHL season. NHL trade grades: Kings make smart additions in Gavrikov, Korpisalo, NHL trade tracker: Latest deals, rumors and grades, Capitals send Eller to Avs for second-round pick, Kings deal Cup-winning G Quick to Blue Jackets, Rangers clear hurdles, get Kane from Blackhawks, Oilers bulk up defense, secure Predators' Ekholm, Leafs win Schenn sweepstakes, trade for veteran, Leafs deal Sandin to Capitals for Gustafsson, pick, Wild add depth, acquire Johansson from Capitals, Chasing history in Boston: The numbers behind the Bruins' wild 2022-23 season, McDavid, then who? They'll need continued offense from Fox, who had 18 points in 14 games. Weekes: Blues in seven The Capitals have a veteran group that can play physical hockey and defend well at 5-on-5. Bolden: Avalanche in six The 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs on ESPN presented by GEICO continue into the second round with exclusive doubleheaders this Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Tuesday on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes. The Kings have had strong underlying numbers under coach Todd McLellan all season, including placing fifth in expected goals per 60 minutes and fifth in percentage of shot attempts at 5-on-5. Free agency is looming, and all eyes will be on Kadri as he chases that elusive championship. Nikita Kucherov leads the Lightning with 15 points in 11 games. 26, 2022, at 10:51 PM. NHL odds, picks, and predictions for the Calgary Flames at Vegas Golden Knights on February 23. This series projects to trend more toward what Edmonton just experienced, with the potential for larger momentum swings and opportunity to generate offense. 102) of the 2009 NHL Draft, Ekholm has 268 points (62 goals, 206 assists) in 719 regular-season games with the Predators and 35 points (six goals, 29 . I apologize in advance for spoiling the next two months for you, as obviously all of . You can say the Rangers haven't faced a goalie like Vasilevskiy, and that's true. But he's not unbeatable. . That bodes well for Edmonton in this series, since Colorado happens to be a high-volume shot team (39.8 per game); if that continues, Smith will be back under a spotlight early and often in the next round. He was fourth on the team in goals scored above average. The image above displays the 2023 NHL Playoff bracket and will be updated after each week. ESPN Megacast, formerly known as ESPN Full Circle, is a multi-network simulcast of a single sporting event across multiple ESPN networks and serviceswith each feed providing a different version of the telecast making use of different features, functions or perspectives. But it'll also take continued contributions from players like Andrew Copp (12 points), Ryan Strome (9) and Frank Vatrano (8); and further damage done by the Rangers' "Kid Line" of Alexis Lafreniere, Filip Chytil and Kaapo Kakko. Bold prediction: The Oilers win their first playoff series since 2017 before bowing out to Calgary. Coach Jon Cooper says his standout center -- the team's leading goal-scorer (30) over the past two postseasons -- is progressing from a lower-body injury he suffered in Game 7 against the Maple Leafs. Failing to capitalize on man-advantage chances almost always comes back to bite teams in the postseason; ditto with struggling to keep pucks out on the kill. TWDC 2022-23 NHL Game Schedule: Date, Time (ET), Teams, Network/Platform Tue, Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m., Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Rangers, ESPN, ESPN+ Tue, Oct. 11, 10 p.m., Vegas Golden. "I've kind of referred to us as cockroaches. The rare NHL talent who can agitate you with words, deeds and on the scoreboard. They have depth at forward and are getting excellent play from defensemen like Fox and Trouba. While Dallas has every reason to feel good about its top point-getters, in a tight playoff series the secondary scoring often puts teams over the top. Kucherov has 15 points in 11 games, including seven on the power play. He's a dynamic offensive talent who has 11 points in his past 15 playoff games. NHL playoff fantasy competition is its own brand of compact, focused fun. Special teams will play a pivotal role. The 2021-22 NHL season is winding down towards the final . Those types of intangibles are impossible to quantify in the unknowable season ahead. Kaplan: Flames in six On paper, the Rangers were out in the first round. Don La Greca: Panthers in seven While it's desirable to have the top-end talent Colorado does, it's often the unheralded players who pick up the playoff slack. will be coming full force. Viewers in the U.S. can stream every NBA playoff game live on SLING TV. If New York wants to trade chances like they did against the Hurricanes at MSG, the Lightning have finishers that make them pay in ways the Hurricanes could not. Victoria Matiash: Panthers in seven cal: Rangers in seven Case for a Stanley Cup run: Tampa knows how to win. Will that be the Tampa Bay Lightning, who are looking to become the first team to win the Cup in three consecutive seasons since the New York Islanders won four straight from 1980 to 1983? He hadn't been practicing, but is expected to play in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals. That can't happen again. Biggest flaw(s): St. Louis has had defensive issues all season. Callahan: Avalanche in seven Biggest flaw(s): Can the Predators keep it together in their own end? On paper, they're winning this series. The best possible conference finals? They had three 40-goal forwards in Johnny Gaudreau, who posted a remarkable 115-point season, Matthew Tkachuk and Elias Lindholm, with Andrew Mangiapane (35 goals) not far off the pace. But the Flames don't get quite as much contribution as some teams from their bottom six. But if there's a true flaw with the Oilers, it's once again found in the crease. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, in his first season with the Lightning, and playoff hero Pat Maroon also bolster the bottom six. But the kids were all right too: Forwards Arthur Kaliyev, Rasmus Kupari and Quinton Byfield, as well as defensemen Mikey Anderson and Sean Durzi, also contributed. But equally as ominous is the Capitals' goaltending. As Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said: Their problem offensively was not having elite goal-scorers. Ryan Callahan: Panthers in six Levy: Avalanche in five The next highest scorer, Zach Hyman, had 54 points. Look for that to change in the Lightning's second season. Mike Smith has been great for Edmonton in the playoffs, without question, but we haven't seen the best of Kuemper yet. So if there's room for improvement anywhere, it's from some of the Oilers' second- and third-line skaters like Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto and Jesse Puljujarvi. The past three postseasons haven't been the greatest for Sid, with six points in 14 games. The Oilers' top trio will be a confident bunch going into the series -- as they should be -- and Colorado can send a message early by staying on top of them and standing up to that top line's speed in the middle of the ice. Knight: Avalanche in seven Bold prediction: Kopitar and Danault do what they can against Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, but the loss of Doughty proves too much and the Kings fall to the Oilers in six games. The NHL offseason formally begins with the 2022 NHL Draft in Montreal, starting with Thursday's first round (6 p.m. CT, ESPN).. The NHL playoffs get underway Monday, with all four games on ESPN networks. Their top defensive pairings of Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson along with Chris Tanev and Oliver Kylington have been outstanding. Bold prediction: The Avalanche flip the season script, struggling to score in the early going of the playoffs and relying on team defense to step up and move them along. 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