2020 NHL Playoffs - Three Match-Ups Fans Want To See
- Luke Pendlebury
- May 5, 2020
- 5 min read
Updated: May 24
The question everyone is asking is, “Will the NHL finish the season and award the Stanley Cup?” It’s looking more and more likely that the NHL is finalizing a game plan to resume play at some point in the summertime. According to John Scott, former NHL-er, he tweeted out a week ago about NHL players to start training camp on June 1st.
The fairest way for all NHL teams is to finish the regular season as there are a lot of teams battling to make the playoffs. It wouldn’t be fair to teams like the Islanders, Rangers, Panthers, and the Canucks if they went straight into playoffs as they are only 1-2 points out of a playoff spot. Most NHL teams have 12-13 games left so this will make it very interesting to see who will secure a playoff spot by the time the regular season finishes.
When it comes down to the last few games in the regular season, fans will have a better idea on who their favourite team is going to be playing in the first round. Leafs fans are starting to realize that the Boston Bruins are not going to be their first-round match up. As a sports fan, that series would always be exciting because every time they play, it goes to a seventh game. The #N6ix team came up with three potential match-ups that would be very exciting to watch in the first-round.
Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia
If you have been watching hockey for a long time, you know this match up is going to be crazy! The battle of Pennsylvania has been a great rivalry for a long time. It started back in the 1990’s when the Flyers had Eric Lindros and the Penguins had Lemieux and Jagr. The Flyers took both wins in the 1990’s match up even when Pittsburgh had a powerhouse team with Lemieux, Jagr, Francis, and Murphy.
In the 21st century, there were two match ups that were amazing to watch. First one was in 2012 where they met up in the Eastern Conference First Round. The teams combined for an NHL-record 45 goals in the first four games, as well as combining for 309 penalty minutes (158 of which were in Philadelphia's 8–4 Game 3 victory, which put them ahead 3–0 in the series) throughout the fight-filled, six-game series.[1] The two teams met again in the 2018 playoffs, which resulted in the Pittsburgh Penguins coming out victorious in six games thanks to Jake Guentzel’s four goal night.
According to NHL.com, The Flyers are currently sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division and the Pittsburgh Penguins are sitting in third place. This can very well be a first round match up and hockey fans should be excited to see this happen!
Edmonton vs Calgary
When you think of NHL rivalries, the battle of Alberta will come up a lot especially if you live out in Western Canada. The rivalry started back in the 1980’s where the Oilers took the majority of the wins when they were matched up in the post-season. To put it in prospective, the 1984-85 Oilers team was voted as the greatest NHL team of all time during the league’s 2017 centennial celebrations.[2] A team that had Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Glenn Anderson, Jari Kurri, Paul Coffey, and more; you can’t go wrong with that!
Fast forward to today, the battle of Alberta has intensified even more with the rivalry of Matthew Tkachuk and Zack Kassian. For the first few games, Matthew Tkachuk would try and get under Zack Kassian’s skin and eventually he had enough. On February 1st, 2020, the Oilers flew into Calgary for another great match up. This time, it got out of hand in both the goal and penalty category. The game ended with the Oilers putting eight goals on the board with Leon Draisaitl putting up four assists. Both teams combined for over 100 penalty minutes which included a goalie fight between Cam Talbot and Mike Smith.[3] The moment that all Oilers fans were waiting for was when Matthew Tkachuk finally dropped the gloves with tough guy Zack Kassian. People knew it was going to happen soon especially when Tkachuk was all over Kassian the previous two games.
If you are a hockey fan, you want to see this match up happen in the post season. There is bad blood between this two NHL clubs and would be an amazing series.
Toronto vs Tampa Bay
Every Leaf fan across the world is saying, “please don’t play Boston in the first round!”. How can you blame them as they are 0-3 in the last three times Toronto played Boston in the post-season. Unless Boston goes on a skid and Tampa catches fire in the remaining games in the regular season, it’s looking like Toronto will be playing a new opponent in the first round. Well, Toronto is still in a tight battle with Florida for the 3rd spot in the Atlantic but if Toronto can win the majority of their remaining games, they will be fine.
Don’t think you can label these two Franchises as “Rivals” but when they play against each other, it’s always a good game. Toronto and Tampa Bay are highly skill offensively, one of the best in the National Hockey League. Since 2016, the top two teams in the “goals for” category is Toronto and Tampa Bay.[4] This series will come down to three variables: defense, goal-tending, and leadership.
When looking at both team’s blue lines, Tampa Bay will have the advantage because of skill and experience. The Maple Leafs have a few good defense-men, but they do have one that is a Stanley Cup Champion which is Jake Muzzin. Both teams have good goalies in Frederik Andersen and Andrei Vasilevskiy. According to NHL.com, in the past three seasons combined, Andersen and Vasilevskiy are top 3 in wins.
When it gets late into a series in the playoffs, teams will need to rely on their secondary scoring which usually comes from their third and fourth line. There are players from both teams who have won Stanley cups and it’s important for them to show leadership as they know what it takes to win hockey games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Once the NHL resumes play, it should be very interesting on how the season ends. If these three match ups happen, expect it to be an amazing series.
[1]https://www.hockey-reference.com/playoffs/2012-philadelphia-flyers-vs-pittsburgh-penguins-eastern-conference-quarter-finals.html
[2]Hackel, Stu (June 6, 2017).”1984-85 Oilers voted No. 1 Greatest NHL Team” National Hockey League. Retrieved Novemeber 30, 2018.
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