The Stanley Cup Playoffs never disappoint and this year is no exception.
The first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs has come to an end, with the second round set for Tuesday evening as the NHL postseason continues on into May. The opening set of 16 teams has been cut in half, with just eight teams remaining in the hunt for the Stanley Cup.
And folks, the remaining field is pretty fresh with new blood for the first time in a long time. The reigning Stanley Cup champions in the Colorado Avalanche were ousted in a Game 7 stunner. The Boston Bruins, the NHL’s best regular season team in history, also were handed a stunning Game 7 defeat. Even the stalwart Tampa Bay Lightning were felled in the opening round, meaning we’re set to get a totally new Stanley Cup champion for the first time since the mid-2000s.
Last Stanley Cup for remaining teams.
Carolina: 2006
New Jersey: 2003
Dallas: 1999
NY Rangers: 1994
Edmonton: 1990
Toronto: 1967
Florida: Never
Vegas: Never
Seattle: Never— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) May 1, 2023
That’s playoff hockey for you!
With all these major upsets now behind us, the field is set for an exciting second round. Here’s how we rank the eight teams remaining in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs, with one final eulogy for the teams we left behind.
Eliminated teams
16. Boston Bruins
The Bruins made NHL history with the most regular season wins ever then went on to lose in Game 7 overtime to the Panthers. Can’t get much worse than that!
15. Winnipeg Jets
Winnipeg was the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs. The normally steady Connor Hellebuyck allowed 18 goals across the five-game series, with a rough .886 save percentage. It just wasn’t Winnipeg’s series, and the injuries they suffered to Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, Nikolaj Ehlers and Cole Perfetti certainly didn’t help either.
14. New York Islanders
While the Hurricanes are no offensive juggernaut, the Islanders had even worse scoring woes than their opponents in the first round. Kyle Palmieri and Brock Nelson each led the Islanders in scoring with five points apiece, which clearly wasn’t enough to get the job done. Hard to win games in the playoffs when your offense is coming up short.
13. Minnesota Wild
Speaking of quiet first rounds, Kirill Kaprizov was held to just one goal in six playoff games against the Stars. The Wild overall scored just three goals in the last three games of the series — which includes a crucial shutout in Game 5 that all but sealed the deal for Minnesota. It’s hard to say if a healthy Joel Eriksson Ek would have won the Wild the series, but it was certainly a tough blow to lose one of their biggest offensive drivers before the playoffs.
12. New York Rangers
The Rangers had the Devils on the ropes with a 2-0 series lead and the chance to bury New Jersey in overtime. Instead, the Devils stormed back to win four of the last five games in the series to claim victory. Hard not to see this as a disappointing result given how active the Rangers were at the trade deadline in preparation for a deep playoff run.
11. Tampa Bay Lightning
This Lightning team will always be remembered as the ones that finally allowed the Maple Leafs to break their curse. Still, Tampa Bay didn’t go down in the first round without a fight. It was a tense series, but the real back-breaker for the Lightning was their inability to win at home. In this series, the Maple Leafs came away 3-0 at Amalie Arena, with all three victories in the Lightning’s own barn coming in overtime.
10. Los Angeles Kings
The Kings just had no answer to the Oilers’ suffocating power play in this series. It’s tough to stop Connor McDavid on a good day, but when the Oilers’ power play is rocking at over 50 percent, there’s just not much you can do. Adrian Kempe put in some work in this series, with a team-leading five goals and eight points, but it seems as if nothing could stop the Oilers offense.
9. Colorado Avalanche
The reigning Stanley Cup champions won’t have the opportunity to repeat after a heartbreaking Game 7 loss to the Kraken. Injuries really put a damper on the Avalanche’s season and that only continued in the playoffs. This year’s Avalanche were not the same squad that bullied their way to a Stanley Cup last year, but if the team can rest up and get healthy for next season, they should be right back at it in the West.
8. Seattle Kraken
No disrespect to the Kraken here, who deserve massive kudos for knocking off the Avalanche in Game 7 to stun the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Seattle does have quite the hill to climb ahead of them in their second round series against the Stars, who are not nearly as banged up as the Avalanche were. Still, the Kraken already played the upset as underdogs once, so who says they can’t do it again? Plus, Seattle can score up and down their lineup, with 15 different skaters tallying a goal in their series against Colorado.
7. Florida Panthers
Talk about a gutsy performance to upset the NHL’s best regular season team ever in the opening round of the playoffs. Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Montour each had five goals apiece in the first round as the Panthers made up for their disappointing finish in last year’s playoffs and then some. Maybe the biggest surprise, however, was Sergei Bobrovsky playing the hero and helping Florida win the last three games with a .906 save percentage to close it out.
6. New Jersey Devils
It took a few games for this young Devils team to get their playoff legs under them, but it all came together for them at just the right time. Erik Haula had quite the series for himself, posting four goals to help lead the Devils to their first playoff series win since 2012. New Jersey’s young core is certainly something special, but the biggest standout has to be goaltender Akira Schmid, who had two shutouts in the first round, with his biggest coming in Game 7 to propel the Devils to victory.
5. Dallas Stars
Once again, Jake Oettinger is the heart and soul of a Stars playoff run. The goaltender had a .929 save percentage in the Stars’ six-game series, allowing just 13 goals on 183 shots faced from the Wild. Oettinger can be beaten, as last year’s postseason run has shown, but he may just be the best goaltender remaining in these playoffs. Not only that, Roope Hintz currently leads the playoff field with 12 points after the first round. Pretty impressive stuff all around!
4. Toronto Maple Leafs
The ghosts have finally been exorcised in Toronto. After the Maple Leafs won their first playoff series in 19 years, the pressure is finally off this talented Toronto squad. The Panthers are certainly going to be no easy task, especially since they toppled the NHL’s best regular season team to get to Round 2, but it’s going to be a real treat to see the Maple Leafs unleashed from the shackles of their past.
One Maple Leafs player to keep an eye on against the Panthers is Mitch Marner, who had 11 points in Toronto’s six-game series and is one of the top point producers in these playoffs so far.
3. Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas had their way with Winnipeg in the opening round of these playoffs. The Golden Knights scored four or more goals in each of their wins as they skated to a five-game series victory with ease. And not only that, the scoring was spread around between the Golden Knights’ biggest stars, as Jack Eichel, William Karlsson, Chandler Stephenson, and Mark Stone were all major players in Vegas’ first round success.
Given the Golden Knights are set to face the Oilers in the second round, who also blitzed their way past their opponents, this upcoming series is set to melt our faces off.
2. Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers power play was an absolute force to be reckoned with in the first round. Edmonton went 9-for-16 on the power play against the Kings, scoring goals at a more than 50 percent rate to completely scorch Los Angeles out of the playoffs. Sure, power plays will likely be harder to come by as the playoffs go on, but if the Oilers can keep up this kind of fire power, they’re going to be hard to stop.
While Leon Draisaitl and McDavid did a lot of the heavy lifting — 21 points combined between the two in six games — Evan Bouchard had a pair of goals and 10 total points as a major player in the Oilers’ offensive dominance.
1. Carolina Hurricanes
Sebastian Aho was an integral piece of the Hurricanes’ series victory over the Islanders, scoring four goals — including the third period tying goal in Game 6 that helped send the game to overtime. Injuries may have the Hurricanes looking a bit more weathered than normal, but Carolina is still holding as strong as ever after easily dispatching their worst-possible stylistic matchup in the Islanders in Round 1.
Keep an eye out for which goaltender starts Game 1 of Round 2 for the Hurricanes. Frederik Andersen was brilliant in his only showing in Game 6, but Antti Raanta is surely no slouch either, so we may see the pair trade off games as the series goes along.
