Quick post mortem for me. I ridiculously underestimated CAR. Looking back, I have no idea why, except I wanted 2 rounds of locals. So I was more hoping than thinking. Not a good look, lol. They were in first all year, have a great coach, and are a very well rounded team. Plus, those injuries didn’t stop them from taking first while the devils were coming on strong, so why I thought it would ONLY start to be a problem in the playoffs seems nuts.
FLA is just a hot team that pulled it all together at the right time. It happens. But, beating those 2 teams is a huge accomplishment for a team that just barely squeaked in.
Either team is worthy of a SCF. West is still going on. No real huge surprises there. Kinda rooting for an all expansion WCF.
On the locals, I’d say they all performed like they did in the reg season. WYSIWYG (past tense, lol).
NYI - the big shocker here was those goalie bonehead miscues. Can’t happen with a world class one. And it’s fatal to a team with very little O.
NYR - the Sybil of the NHL, haha. World beaters one day, stuck in the fetal position the next. A no tactics coach didn’t help, and he paid for it. But this was mostly on the players, and mostly on Panarin. He has entered into Nash territory now, but without the D. Yeesh - how many more years of this…
NJD - a young and talented team played like one. Too young to know that you‘re not supposed to come back from 0-2 at home. But now that they do know, should pay dividends later. Still think the mix is wrong. Didn’t like the Timo trade. Still think they should have gotten Bertuzzi - who had a sick playoff BTW. Do they right that wrong and make room for him? I would.