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Playoff Preview 2022
In our Playoff Preview, we have full-page breakdowns on each team, plus features on Slavin, Swayman, Guerin, the Avalanche, the Battle of Alberta and the Avs-Wings 1997 bloodbath.
WELCOME TO THE REAL DANCE
BELIEVE ME, PLAYOFF HOCKEY is the best part of the NHL. When spring comes around, you know it’s playoff time. You can smell it, and you know that in the next little while, your team will be laying it on the line to try to win the ultimate trophy, the Stanley Cup. Playoff time is special. It is the time when players forge their reputations. This is the time when legends are born. And trust me, players know this. Some players who are relatively quiet during the regular season shine during the playoffs. You can have a bad year and completely salvage your season with a great contribution during the post-season. I loved the playoffs, as it’s when players with size and toughness got an opportunity to shine. During the regular season, teams…
SCOUTING REPORT
OWEN POWER WE ALREADY KNOW THAT Owen Power is really good at a lot of things – it’s the reason the Sabres made the University of Michigan D-man the No. 1 pick in 2021 and why he was the top NHL prospect in our 2022 Future Watch rankings. So we’re digging a bit deeper with the help of Michigan assistant coach Brandon Naurato, himself a former skills expert for the Detroit Red Wings. GAP CONTROL “HIS GAPS ARE REALLY good. Because he’s always looking to be active in the offensive zone, when he doesn’t get the puck, it allows him to be right on top of the other team’s forwards so he’s killing plays earlier. He’s really big on playing defense while skating forward. Duncan Keith was the first to do that, and…
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
THN POWER RANKING | 15TH RARE IS THE organization that transitions from one franchise-cornerstone, Vezina Trophy-caliber goalie to the next without so much as a hiccup in between, but the Predators have managed exactly that. Though Juuse Saros was the de facto starter in 2020-21, this year – his first without Pekka Rinne as a partner – has proven the 26-year-old can take the torch and potentially hoist it even higher. Saros has turned in star-making efforts, posting heady numbers in both traditional and advanced stats. And he’s done so while playing more minutes than almost any other NHL stopper. It’s through Saros that Nashville stands its best shot at manufacturing a deep playoff run. Though that’s not to suggest they won’t call upon others to help out. The goal-scoring prowess of Filip…
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
THN POWER RANKING | 6TH IT CAN BE onerous to carry around five-and-a-half decades of unfulfilled dreams. It’s made all the more laborious when doing so in one of the NHL’s most hockey-crazed markets. But before the Maple Leafs can be considered a serious Stanley Cup contender, let’s first talk about winning a playoff round. That should have happened last year, but it was thwarted by a monumental collapse. The sense is that once the Leafs get over that psychological hump, there may be no stopping them. Over the past couple of years, this organization has put together a breathtaking array of offensive talent that is capable of quickly turning deficits into leads and leads into bigger leads. Blessed with the most gifted goal-scorer on the planet, Auston Matthews, the Leafs are…
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