NHL Playoffs: Third Round MVPs

Two teams remain, at 18 skaters and two goalies apiece.

Here are the players who have led the way so far...

Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins: the single most dominant player on the ice in almost every game he's suited up for in these playoffs. It's not even close. There's Rask, then there's a list we have to make of the rest.

Jordan Binnington, St. Louis Blues: oh, he's for real, for now. As long as the season doesn't end, neither will his fairy tale.

Brad Marchand, Boston Bruins: urgh. Next.

Colton Parayko, St. Louis Blues: the best skater on the Blues in these payoffs. He saved the team's behinds many a time when Binnington was feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins: played without mentor Zdeno Chara in the deciding game against the Carolina Hurricanes and showed everyone that he was actually the guy making the back end work on the best defense still standing.

Jaden Schwartz, St. Louis Blues: he's about to break Brett Hull's team record for single-season playoff goals. Then again, Hull never even made it to the Conference Finals in St. Louis...

NHL Playoffs Predictions 2018-19: Round Three

Here we are, with no team that really excites me in the third round, the Conference Finals. Chokers vs Chokers, Goons vs a Bunch of Jerks.

Western Conference Final:

San Jose Sharks (2nd in the Pacific Division) vs St. Louis Blues (3rd in the Central Division):

The San Jose Choking Sharks are trying to re-write History and perhaps using their talent and depth to win with a head coach, Peter DeBoer, who usually also likes to fail big. Former captain Joe Thornton would want nothing more than to face the other team he captained, the Boston Bruins in the Final, but has the ever-the-bridesmaids St. Louis Blues in his way in Round Three.

The Sharks needed the referees to cheat in their favour to defeat the Vegas Golden Knights, while the Blues outworked an exhausted Dallas Stars team to the point where they forced Stars goalie Ben Bishop to deliver a historic performance just to keep the series tight.

I may not like them, they probably should not have made the playoffs, but I feel the Blues at least somehow kind of deserve to be there, at least. I wouldn't mind if they made the Final, considering what the opposite means.

Blues in 7.

Eastern Conference Final:

Boston Bruins (2nd in the Atlantic Division) vs Carolina Hurricanes (WC1):

Sure, the Canes' story is cool. They pissed off Don Cherry, got seats in the stands, rallied each other through an overblown Team-Building Exercise. But I will never forget 2006, when Justin Williams tried to take Saku Koivu's eye out in the first round and some other asshole injured would-have-been playoff MVP Dwayne Rolosson when the Edmonton Oilers led the Cup Final. They bullied and injured their way into an undeserved Cup win, led by a goalie who would never play a single game as good as during that run in the 14 years since. I still refuse to count that Cup as legitimate, and will always root against them for as long as they remain in Carolina.

Don't get me wrong - I'm no fan of the Bruins. Goons to the core, with Brad Marchand (as dirty as ever in these playoffs, punching people in the back of the head after a whistle and ridiculing journalists after games) and Zdeno Chara leading the way, but Tuukka Rask is looking like a legitimate Conn Smythe winner in their net.

Rask is what you get when team management, the media and the fans are all honest about the way guys are playing, showing them their flaws instead of sugarcoating the truth (or outright lying about his performaces) to positively reinforce his mental game. Even with a Vezina trophy in tow, because he's not at his best against the Montréal Canadiens (particularly in the post-season), Rask scared his side so much that they went and acquired Jaroslav Halak to back him up this year, and both goalies split the games nearly 50-50 (46 to 40 for Rask with Halak having the best statistics out of the two, top-5 in the NHL where it matters most) in the regular season, which left Rask full of energy for the playoff run - and the Bs with an option should he falter.

I didn't think Boston would get through the Columbus Blue Jackets, but that's exactly what they did: they plowed through them, nice and slow, methodically, until it was over. They're now the top seed, the top team, and they very well might win their second Cup this decade.

Bruins in 6.

NHL Playoffs Predictions 2017-18: Round Three

These have been exciting playoffs and the quality of hockey played just seems to get better every round.

Only four teams remain. Here's how they stack up.

For the record, my heart's with Fleury and Ovechkin, but as you'll see, my head doesn't fully agree...

Western Conference

Vegas Golden Knights (2) vs Winnipeg Jets (1)
My heart's with current playoff MVP Marc-André Fleury and the rest of the Golden Knights, but my head says it won't even be close. The way the Jets disposed of the Nashville Predators and dominated the important games tells me these guys are on a mission and virtually unstoppable. I mean, Vegas plays their extremely effective system at 99% capacity with a bunch of guys who rank anywhere between 70 and 87% (with most guys in the late 70s) on the "pure talent" scale, whereas Winnipeg plays their 90% effective system at 90% capacity with guys whose talent level ranks between 79-95% with three full lines of guys over 82%.

They're simply too big, too fast and too good.

Can Fleury steal one? Definitely. Two? Probably. Three? Possibly. Four? C'mon, he's not Patrick Roy, for the simple reason that no current NHL goalie can just decide to be infaillible and deliver on it. On the other side of the ice, Connor Hellebuyck probably had four "let's give 'em four" games to give this postseason, and not only did he already have them, he won a couple of them, too.

Jets in 6.

Eastern Conference

Washington Capitals (2) vs Tampa Bay Lightning (1)
Alex Ovechkin is a man on a mission: he wants that Stanley Cup and nothing will be able to stand in his way. The caveat? The guys who are determined to stop him are Norris nominee Victor Hedman, perennial All-Star and former New York Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh, legitimate top-2 defender Anton Stralman, future Norris hoarder Mikhail Sergachev, and finally-in-his-right-spot-as-a-number-five Dan Girardi with Anton Sustr and Braydon Coburn rounding out the D for good measure, and that's without mentioning that the Bolts have two Ovechkins of their own in former 50-goal menace Steven Stamkos and current top-5 world beater Nikita Kucherov while the Caps do not have top-level shut-down defenders.

Of course, the Pittsburgh Penguins just won consecutive Stanley Cups with essentially an AHL defence, but they had their entire offense; Washington is playing without Nicklas Backstrom, and should Lars Eller effectively replace him, there's no one to take Eller's 3C spot to shut down Tampa's offense.

Bolts in 7.