Why Florida and Colorado are favoured to play for the Stanley Cup

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Tonight, the NHL’s two top teams begin their quest to win the Cup

The 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs opened with two very different results for both Canadian teams. In Toronto, the Maple Leafs silenced their critics (for now) with a stunning 5-0 blowout of two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay, boosting their hopes of making it past the first round for the first time in the salary cap era. In Edmonton, the Oilers’ shaky supporting cast was once again exposed in a 4-3 loss to underdog Los Angeles. Connor McDavid scored with a brilliant solo effort, but goalie Mike Smith’s late-game giveaway triggered the decisive goal.

Tonight Calgary hosts Dallas, the other Canadian team in this playoffs. You can watch the game live at 10:05 p.m. ET on CBC TV, CBCSports.ca, and the CBC Sports App. We examined the Pacific Division champion Flames’ Stanley Cup chances (quite good) in yesterday’s newsletter, so today let’s focus on the other two most interesting clubs in action tonight.

Florida and Colorado were ranked 1-2 in the overall standings and are the favourites to face each other in the Cup final. They’re also among the most entertaining in the league. Here’s a quick overview of each:

Florida Panthers

If you thought the Leafs’ playoff-victory drought was bad, get a load of this: Florida hasn’t won a series since its improbable, rat-infested run to the Cup final in 1996. The franchise has won nine games in the 24 post-seasons that followed.

The Panthers are, however, a new breed. The Floridaissance dates back to 2011, when Jonathan Huberdeau, forward for the Panthers, was drafted third overall. Aleksander Barkov was drafted third overall by the Panthers two years later. 2 pick. The next year, they added defenceman Aaron Eklbad as the No. 1 choice.

Today, these three men make up the core of an incredible team that just won Presidents’ Trophy. It also became the NHL’s most-scoring NHL team since 1995-1996 Lemieux/Jagr Penguins. Huberdeau scored a career-high of 115 points, trailing only McDavid McDavid. Barkov had 39 goals in just 67 games. Ekblad was almost a point-per game defenceman before being sidelined for the last 20 games due to a lower-body injury. Tonight, Huberdeau will return to Washington Capitals for Game 1. They expect Alex Ovechkin (upper – body injury) to be there.

The Panthers have other forwards to keep an eye on with this incredibly deep unit: Sam Reinhart, third-line centre (career high 82 points), Anthony Duclair (30 goals), and Claude Giroux (23 total points in 18 games since Philadelphia traded for the former Philadelphia franchise player). Sergei Bobrovsky (two-time Vezina Trophy Winner) is no longer in his prime, but he remains above average.

Florida had the fourth-best league record last year but was unable to draw the defending champion Tampa Bay in round one. This time, assuming their run ‘n’ gun style holds up in the playoffs, the Panthers should at least be able to score their first series win in more than a quarter century — and maybe even go all the way.

Colorado Avalanche

Last year’s regular season champions were defeated by Vegas in round two of the playoffs. It was the sixth consecutive Presidents’ Trophy winner to lose. The curse won’t be applicable to this year’s Avalanche who placed second overall (and tops of the Western Conference) despite injury to many key players.

Nathan MacKinnon was a Hart Trophy finalist and missed 17 games. However, he still produced at an impressive 111-point pace for his third season. Mikko Raantanen missed seven games, but still scored a team record 92 points (including 36 goals). Gabriel Landeskog, their linemate and captain, had 30 goals in just 51 games. He will be back tonight for Game 1 vs. Nashville at 9:30 pm. ET. Second-line centre Nazem Kadri had a career-best 87 points despite missing 11 games.

As great as MacKinnon and MacKinnon are, defenceman Cale Makar might be the best Av. After finishing second in the Norris Trophy voting, Makar was back in action in his second season. He scored 28 goals and 86 points in 77 matches. Makar is the most outstanding player on the best hockey team.

The Avs’ Achilles heel in goaltending for the last few seasons was their goaltending. With last summer’s trade to acquire Darcy Kuemper from the Coyotes, the team seems to have solved the problem. Kuemper had the fifth-best save percentage of all the No. 1 goalies in the league. 1 goalies. If Colorado’s skaters can be fully recovered, then this team is likely to win the Cup in June.

Quickly…

Guy Lafleur received his final farewell at a Montreal national funeral. In the days leading up to today’s ceremony at a downtown Catholic cathedral, thousands of people lined up (some for hours) to pay their respects to the hockey legend and French Canadian cultural icon, who died at the age of 70. Today’s funeral was attended by former Montreal teammates Yvan Counoyer, Guy Carbonneau and others. Other Habs, both current and former, were there along with Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister. Lafleur was a star player who appealed to all hockey fans. Lafleur was particularly beloved in Montreal, where his five Stanley Cups won in the ’70s were a highlight. He is also the Canadiens all-time points leader and still holds that title in Quebec. (Lafleur was born Thurso, Que., and played with the Nordiques until the early ’90s). Quebec Premier François Legault today called Lafleur “the idol for the Quebec nation… We were so proud that a guy coming from here was the best player in the world.” Read more about the funeral for Lafleur here.

Bianca Andreescu’s encouraging run at the Madrid Open is over. Playing in just her second tournament of the year after a six-month break to care for her mental health, the unseeded Canadian won two matches at the clay-court event — including a 6-1, 6-1 drubbing of world No. 8 Danielle Collins. Andreescu, ranked 111th, lost in round 16 to Jessica Pegula. It was nice to see Pegula play some tennis again ahead of the French Open which begins in a few weeks. Both of the Canadian singles players still alive in Madrid are on the men’s side. Fourteenth-seeded Denis Shapovalov’s second-round match vs. Andy Murray was scheduled to start right around our publish time. Felix Auger-Aliassime, eighth-seeded, got a bye into the second round and will be playing tomorrow.

And finally…

Mattea Roach is back for another big night. On last night’s airing of Jeopardy!, the 23-year-old tutor extended her Canadian-record winning streak to 20 games. Roach and Julia Collins now share the fifth-longest string, making her equal to Amy Schneider’s 40-year-old women’s record. Roach would be in sole possession of fifth on the winning-streaks list if she wins tonight’s game, but she will likely remain sixth in regular-season total winnings. Roach’s current US earnings of $476,985 US are $55,000 less than her average per-game. This is a great opportunity to reflect on the fact that James Holzhauer (2019 sensation) won more than $131,000 per game in a single match and still holds all the spots on this list. Jeopardy! Hall of Fame rankings for single-game winnings.

You’re up-to-speed Talk to you tomorrow.