The NHL's two very best teams from the regular season have been on a second-round collision course since January. This series may arrive a round too soon for some, but the Predators and Jets make for a can't-miss matchup between two colossal Stanley Cup contenders.
Neither had much trouble getting through the first round.
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Winnipeg caught a break with a broken Wild team that couldn't stand up to relentless pressure the Jets applied from all sides. All the big names — Mark Scheifele, Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien, Patrik Laine — provided the offense, and Connor Hellebuyck closed the city's first playoff series win since 1987 with back-to-back shutouts. Nashville suffered a brief scare from the upstart Avalanche, who stole a pair of games, but silenced any concerns with a convincing 5-0 win in Game 6 to bring an end to that.
While the Predators took home the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular season team, the Jets were only three points behind them. And regardless of your feelings about the NHL's format which will force one of these powers from the postseason too soon, the entertaining value alone in this series should be off the charts.
Sporting News' NHL experts Brandon Schlager, Evan Sporer and Jim Cerny make their series predictions below.
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Predators (-140) vs. Jets (+120): Schedule, picks, predictions
Game 1: April 27 at Nashville, 8 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC, fuboTV)
Game 2: April 29 at Nashville, 7 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC, fuboTV)
Game 3: May 1 at Winnipeg, 8 p.m. (CNBC, CBC, fuboTV)
Game 4: May 3 at Winnipeg, 9:30 p.m. (NBCSN, CBC, fuboTV)
*Game 5: May 5 at Nashville, TBD
*Game 6: May 7 at Winnipeg, TBD
*Game 7: May 10 at Nashville, TBD
Regular season meetings: NSH, 5-3 (11/20); WPG, 6-4 (12/19); NSH, 6-5 (2/27); NSH, 3-1 (3/13); WPG, 5-4 OT (3/25)
Brandon Schlager (7-1 in first round): On paper, Predators vs. Jets is a war of attrition. Winnipeg scored more goals than any team in the Western Conference during the regular season; Nashville and its shutdown defense corps allowed the second fewest. They're perhaps the two deepest teams in the NHL and the battle in net between two Vezina Trophy finalists could be just as compelling to watch. All of that went out the window during their regular season meetings, though, when the teams combined for 39 goals in five drool-enducing games. That's a template for this season and where the Predators hold an advantage in my mind: Not only is the defense elite, but they can score in bunches and did so against Winnipeg this season. They've got strength in numbers, the only team in the NHL with 13 10-goal scorers, and the defensive juice to neutralize the Jets' potent top six. A six-game test from the Avalanche didn't expose Nashville's weaknesses; it confirmed the roster is plenty talented enough to win in all circumstances, even when not playing at peak performance. I expect them to flex those muscles in a can't-miss series.
Predators in 6 games
Jim Cerny (6-2): This series has all the makings of being a real classic, and it’s just unfortunate that it does not take place in the Western Conference finals. Both teams finished their respective first-round series in dominating fashion – the Jets shutting out the Wild in the final two games of a 4-1 series win and the Preds blanking the Avalanche in the Game 6 clincher. Those shutouts are fitting since this series features a pair of Vezina Trophy finalists, though Connor Hellebuyck looked more the part than Pekka Rinne for most of the first round. Both teams are deep up front, though give an important edge to Nashville down the middle where the Predators won 59 percent of their faceoffs against Colorado. Another key edge for the Preds is that they appear healthier than the Jets, who could be without some combination of Nik Ehlers, Mathieu Perreault and Joel Armia along with veteran defensemen Dmitry Kulikov and Toby Enstrom. I love the feel-good story of the Jets, and believe they are one of the top four teams in the entire NHL, but I see the Predators ending their dreams in a tight – and fun to watch – second-round series.
Predators in 7 games
Evan Sporer (6-2): It’s very possible this is the best series we get from an entertainment value perspective of the entire Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Predators took the season series, 3-2, featuring two one-goal games and three two-goals games (and one of those with an empty-net goal). The speed at which these two teams play at (and execute) is going to make for a frenetic, cardiac episode-inducing playoff pace. The whole idea of postseason hockey being very stressful and producing these sequences of back-and-forth, what-in-the-hell-could-happen-next often. I plan to watch the Jets-Predators series with one hand on Twitter, and the other on a defibrillator. Seriously; look out.
Now, as for what’s going to happen on the ice. I picked the Jets to win this series entering the postseason, and I’m sticking with that. Love what Winnipeg is getting out of and how they can deploy the line of Brandon Tanev, Adam Lowry, and Bryan Little in this series. It’s going to be a huge matchup tool for Paul Maurice, and a line he can throw out against the Predators top-six, hopefully buying some breathing room for his bigger offensive weapons.
Offensively, I think you started to see the resurgence of Mark Scheifele in Round 1. He was playing some of his best hockey this season prior to sustaining an upper-body injury that kept him out for six weeks. Patrik Laine took the torch from there, but in that first round, Scheifele really started to show some encouraging signs, getting shots from that bumper area in the slot where he needs to take contact, winning pucks in deep behind the goal line, and just doing the types of things that make him seem like he’s fully recovered from that injury in every sense.
This series is going to be an all-out war. One area Winnipeg is going to get an advantage though is in the crease. It may have been buried a bit because of how dominant they were at 5-on-5 in their first-round victory against the Minnesota Wild, but Connor Hellebuyck was really, really great. Yes, he and Pekka Rinne were both Vezina finalists, but I trust Hellebuyck a little more despite his playoff inexperience. Rinne had a lights out start to the playoffs a year ago when Nashville swept the Chicago Blackhawks to begin their conquest of the Western Conference, but his save percentage dipped and dipped by round: in the Conference Final it was down to .903, and the Cup Final, .888. He was still good enough in round two in 2017 in a 4-2 series win agains the St. Louis Blues, but I see Hellebuyck giving the Jets more of a boost from his position.
Jets in 6 games
MORE NHL PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS:
Penguins-Capitals | Golden Knights-Sharks | Lightning-Bruins
