How’s it going everyone. This week is my second part of my NHL playoff predictions. For today I will show the Atlantic division some love. Comment down below what you think will happen in these playoffs.

Florida Panthers vs. Boston Bruins

This one is an absolute no brainer. Florida is in the top three teams of the league. Boston is still in ninth place but nowhere near Florida. Florida has wicked offense, great defensive play, and two goalies who can both play starter. Boston has decent offense but their offense is aging, and their defense is not as good as Florida’s. Swayman and Ullmark are pretty good but with less good defense in front of them, they are not as good. So far the season series is tied 1-1, but Boston’s win came from overtime and Florida’s came from 3 periods. Boston could have a chance if they get a top 4 defense or a two way forward at the trade deadline but overall I think Boston is just too old and they won’t have the same fight in them, especially because many of them have already won a cup. Florida has players who are still hungry for a playoff win, nevermind a Stanley Cup. Bobrovsky also knows how to play like a wall, like how he did against Tampa Bay in the Blue Jackets sweep a few years back. I think a 6 game series will have Boston taken care of.

 

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Toronto Maple Leafs

I’m calling it right now, Tampa Bay is winning in Game seven. That is all that needs to be said. Don’t even argue me. Toronto has lost to a last place team in their division (Montreal Canadiens) and a first place (Washington Capitals) and second place (Boston Bruins) in the last 6 years. They have never won a single playoff series since 2004. Literally I have not lived to see the Maple Leafs win a playoff series. Besides the obvious that Tampa Bay is better anyway, I have a 99.99% prediction that the Leafs will lose to the Tampa Bay Lightning. There is nothing to analyze besides the Leafs playoff history here. I am predicting the Leafs will come so close but of course lose in Game 7.

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Florida Panthers

This is going to be either the second best or best playoff series in terms of how closely matched the teams are. Florida has solid offense, with high scoring players mixed with two way defensive-minded guys, and decent defenseman, as well as an amazing goalie who has experiences winning playoff series. Tampa bay has solid offense, with high scoring players mixed with two way defensive-minded guys, and decent defenseman, as well as an amazing goalie who has experiences winning playoff series as well. It could really go either way. I think even though Florida will have a better regular season and Tampa Bay has lost a bit of their depth, Tampa Bay is a different kind of beast in the playoffs. Tampa Bay’s core still knows how to take down the best teams in the world, and Florida hasn’t got there yet because they don’t have as much playoff experience. Andrei Vasilevski is quite a bit better than Bobrovsky, and Kucherov, Point, and Stamkos are better than Huberdeau, Barkov, and Sam Reinhart. However, the late addition of Claude Giroux to the Panthers is definitely going to help out the Panthers. I think this series will go to a game seven, and Tampa Bay will unfortunately lose their first playoff series since 2019. These teams are so evenly matched, but Tampa Bay will be too tired to continue this on and with back to back game seven series, I think they will look really good at the start of the series but the tiredness will get to them. It will be a Game seven that Tampa Bay will underperform because I think they will be really tired.

Thanks for reading my Playoff predictions. Drop a comment  with what you agree with and what you think will happen. Here is a link to a cool video of hockey experts making their predictions, and here is the link to the NHL website. Also, checkout these two cool blogs.

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If these matchups get changed and there is different teams playing eachother, I still have Florida and Tampa Bay winning.