2023 Division Semifinals Preview

The ultimate madness begins! The greatest championship chase in all of professional sports is all set! For the next two months, we will bear witness to a chaotic, thrilling, and fantastic journey to the holy grail known as the Stanley Cup. For the first time in nine years, the Nashville Predators and the Washington Capitals won't be involved. Even more shocking, for the first time in 17 years, the Pittsburgh Penguins won't be involved.

16 teams will be part of the pursuit for the Stanley Cup, a format that started back in 1980. Since 1987, all four rounds have been played in a best-of-seven format, and this season is the tenth year under the current format that sends the top three teams in each of the four divisions (Atlantic, Metropolitan, Central, and Pacific) to the playoffs, with a Wild Card format deciding the remaining spots. The format debuted in the 2013-14 season, and has been used every year except for the two COVID-affected seasons.

Of course, the playoffs will kick off with the Division Semifinals, and the eight series are as follows:

Atlantic Division

It's amazing. The only other playoff meeting between the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers saw the teams separated by one point in the standings, which was in Florida's favor. That meeting took place in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals in 1996, with the Panthers winning as part of their long run to the Cup Final. That year's Eastern Conference Final was the Panthers' last playoff series victory until 2022. Here it is, 27 years after that meeting, and boy, what a difference. The two teams are separated by a whopping 43 points in the standings! This is a true 1 vs 16 matchup.

The Bruins set the records this year--65 wins, 135 points. Based on that alone, they better win. Anything less than a Cup is unacceptable, but stranger things have happened. As for the Panthers, they suffered a vast decline from their dream regular season last year, but they are part of this year's Sweet 16. Again, this is a true 1 vs 16 matchup, but remember, we did see a 16 beat a 1 in this year's March Madness tournament. Also, remember what happened to the last team who won 60+ games in a season. Don't believe me? Just ask one of the members of the Panthers: Sergei Bobrovsky. Just a thought.

As I said before, the Toronto Maple Leafs have one job: win four games. With the Penguins, Predators, and Capitals' playoff streaks ending, the Maple Leafs share the honor of having the longest current playoff streak with the rival Bruins; this is their seventh straight playoff appearance. For the second straight year, they're facing the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning are looking to avenge their thwarted three-peat. They fell two wins short of maintaining their throne for another year, and now, they are looking to get it back. However, the team is (in my estimation) at their weakest point since their phenomenon began.

Because of this, the Leafs have their best chance right in their laps. They are still on that big roll from the shortened season; this year has been quite strong. However, the Leafs and that expensive core need to get it done. I still say that Kyle Dubas should have been fired last year, but I believe that they saw last year as an improvement (of sorts) and used that to keep Dubas as GM. If the Leafs fail again, there's no excuse this time. Dubas has to go. Honestly, I think Dubas should go even if the Leafs advance

Metropolitan Division

One has to believe that expectations for the Carolina Hurricanes are at their highest peak yet. The team continues to get stronger and stronger as the years go by, but despite their streak of playoff appearances, they haven't made it past Round 2 since 2019. The Hurricanes are looking to remedy that, but first, they have to get past the New York Islanders in a series between two teams who are centered on goaltending. Carolina has that three-headed monster of Andersen, Raanta, and Kochetov. For the Isles, it's Ilya Sorokin, who ended the season as the league leader in shutouts with six.

The only other playoff meeting between these two teams took place in 2019, in the Metropolitan Final. The Canes swept the Isles that year, but that was a different Canes team who ended a long playoff drought and made the most out of it. Now, the Canes are an established powerhouse, expectations have raised vastly since then, and now the pressure is on for them to go that far again, if not farther. As for the Islanders, this playoff appearance comes after missing out last year, and it comes a few years after they made back-to-back appearances in the Final Four. Will we see those Isles back again? Time will tell.

Oh man, this takes a lot of fans back, myself included. The New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers have been division rivals for four decades, and this year's playoff meeting is their seventh overall. Of the previous six, two main ones come to mind. First, there's 1994, we all remember that one. The Devils led 3-2 in that year's Eastern Conference Final, but Mark Messier guaranteed victory in Game Six, and it happened. The Rangers won the final two games and went on to defeat the Vancouver Canucks to end their 54-year Cup drought. The second one is their last meeting in 2012, also in the East Final, which was summed up by the immortal words of the legendary Doc Emrick: "Henrique! It's over!"

That remains New Jersey's last playoff series victory, and for the Devils, this playoff appearance is a huge bounce back from those last few years, which saw them win the Jack Hughes lottery, and actually serve as one of the seven teams who missed the 2020 "bubble" playoffs. The Devils will face a Rangers team who was very close to reaching the Cup Final a year prior, and they are looking to get there this year. I think this will be a seven-game series; anything less than that is unacceptable, especially if it doesn't have a lot of overtime.

Central Division

It begins! The evening of June 26, 2022 has been playing over and over and over in my subconscious. I've relived mentally, I've relived it in highlights, I've relived it with fellow Colorado Avalanche fans, and no matter how much time has passed, it's such an amazing moment. Now, the quest begins for a repeat. Eight teams have won back-to-back Stanley Cups. The Avalanche are 16 wins away from becoming the ninth. It hasn't been easy. Injuries have affected the team, with the big one being Gabriel Landeskog, who hasn't played all season, and will not play at all in the playoffs. Even so, the Avs fought hard and managed to take the Central Division on the last day, and now, this team is set.

Fun fact: in the four main sports leagues, there are ten teams whose names don't end in the letter "s." Four of them are in the NHL, and for the first time in league history, all four teams are in the playoffs together. Two of them play each other in this series, as the Avalanche face the Seattle Kraken. The Kraken's sophomore season is a dream one, improving by 40 points to accomplish their first 100-point season, as well as their first playoff appearance. Seattle is quite a strong team, they have amazing players in the form of Jared McCann, Matty Beniers, and Vince Dunn. This will be quite an amazing series.

This is going to be a good series! Minnesota's former franchise vs Minnesota's current one: the Dallas Stars and the Minnesota Wild facing each other in a series that I hope goes seven, and no, I'm not saying that as an Avs fan who wants to see these two teams tire each other out. Each team has a big time superstar; the Stars have Jason Robertson, one of 11 NHL players who cracked 100 points this season, while the Wild have Kirill Kaprizov, whose season was slightly hampered by a late season injury that he is just coming back from. Each team also has a big time playoff goaltender: the Wild have Marc-Andre Fleury, and we know what he can do in the months of April, May, and June, while the Stars have Jake Oettinger, who rose to fame and legendary status with his 63-save performance in Game Seven last year.

Speaking of last year, that's another thing the teams have in common: they are coming off disappointing first round exits. Dallas lost that overtime Game Seven, while Minnesota was ousted in six games by the St. Louis Blues. This playoff meeting is their second ever; their only other playoff encounter came in 2016, a first round series that was won by Dallas.

Pacific Division

The best revenge is living well, and at the moment, the Vegas Golden Knights are definitely living well. Last year, they were not part of this party, so this year, they decided to do something about it. They hired a new coach in Bruce Cassidy, and later went on a monstrous start that resulted in them getting the #1 seed in the Western Conference. The team is loaded with talent (as usual), but the name that sticks out in this playoff appearance is Jack Eichel, as he will be in the playoffs for the first time in his career.

Their opponents are the Winnipeg Jets, who weren't picked to be a playoff team. I don't know how; the team's loaded with talent. Mark Schiefele, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Josh Morrissey, as well as Connor Hellebuyck in net. It was tough; they were up and down, but managed to get back on track at the right time. This is the second meeting between the Golden Knights and the Jets (two of five teams in this year's playoffs who have yet to win a Cup), with their only other meeting taking place in the 2018 Western Conference Final, which Vegas won in five games.

We know the story in this rematch from last year's opening round series: Connor McDavid. Already, McDavid took home the Richard and the Ross for leading the league in goals and points. Well, actually, he ran away with the points lead. 153 points. That is deliciously monstrous. However, as great as the seasons that McDavid and Leon Draisaitl are having, there is one more thing that comes with such stats: high expectations. As great as this duo is, they've only had one long run, and that was last year. The Los Angeles Kings weren't quite ready for primetime last year, yet Edmonton needed all seven games to get them out. This year? The Kings are ready.

Look at the Kings this year. Adrian Kempe's a goal scoring beast. Kevin Fiala is having the best season of his career. Anze Kopitar, the old reliable he is, is playing to the form he had during the Cup years. Oh, and Drew Doughty, the other old reliable? He'll be playing in this series. I said this before, the Oilers are faulty. Don't be fooled by McDavid and Draisaitl's numbers, don't be fooled by the nine-game winning streak that ended the season, this team is a disaster waiting to happen. The Kings had Doughty out last year, and still almost beat them out. I wouldn't be surprised if LA knocked the Oilers out; Oilers are known to disappear when it counts.

Those are the eight Division Semifinal matchups! This is the second year of ESPN and Turner Sports' big TV deal with the NHL, which began last year, and it will see ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, TNT, TBS, and even FX air the Round 1 games. Also, in the U.S., the representing teams' respective regional cable networks will have coverage of the opening round games only, while Sportsnet will have will air the entire playoffs in Canada. If this regular season is any indication, we are in for quite a chaotic postseason. As usual, I am here for it!