Three NHL Teams That Could Go Home Early

Mattias Ekholm and Phillip Danault Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

With the NHL’s Stanley Cup playoffs now underway, there’s a real danger certain teams could go into the off-season early with a quick first-round exit.

Here are three teams this writer believes could go home earlier than expected this post-season:

Nashville Predators

It’s true we predicted the Vancouver Canucks would eliminate Nashville in seven games of their opening-round showdown, but the truth is the series could be decided far sooner than that, especially if Vancouver’s high-octane offense cuts up the Predators’ defense.

The Preds don’t have a great deal of depth to keep them afloat in the face of injuries, so if health becomes a problem for them against the Canucks, the series could and should be over in a hurry. And in Game 1 Sunday, Vancouver took a couple of body blows from the Preds and wound up beating Nashville anyway.

The Predators were a rollercoaster group this season, but Vancouver has been largely excellent. For that reason, we see a timeline in which the Predators are completely overwhelmed by the Canucks, and Vancouver quickly moves on to the second round.

Nashville has it in them to extend the series to six or seven games. Still, we ultimately like the Canucks to dominate from the first whistle to the last and move on to a showdown against either Edmonton or Los Angeles in the second round. Absent some unforeseen ‘X’ factor, it’s a matter of when, not if, the Canucks win this matchup, and it could be over rather quickly for the Predators.

Winnipeg Jets

In Game 1 of the series between Winnipeg and Colorado, the Jets took full advantage of the Avs’ lackluster goaltending and took the first series lead. However, we picked Colorado to win this series, and we didn’t see anything changing our mind.

Remember, Winnipeg won the first game of their first-round series against Vegas last season before falling to the Golden Knights in five games. The accomplished Avalanche could do the same thing to the Jets this year.

Avs coach Jared Bednar may have to switch goalies to get the results he’s looking for, but Colorado took apart star Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck for six goals in Game 1. So long as they can get better netminding in the games to come, the Avalanche have it in them to seize the day and send Winnpeg packing sooner than expected. You don’t win a Cup in recent years without resilience and dogged determination, and that’s what we expect to see from the Avs from this point on.

Edmonton Oilers

We realize we’re in the minority here, but while many others see the Oilers going all the way this season, we’ve got a little more respect for their first-round opponents, the Los Angeles Kings.

Indeed, we like the Kings so much that we picked them to win this series. L.A.’s 1-3-1 neutral zone trap was tailor-made for playoff success, and the Oilers’ defense is not nearly as punishing as the Kings’ blueliners are. The Kings had the third-fewest goals against per game in the season as well. A few timely goals here or there, and L.A. could take a commanding series lead and take out the Oilers before they know what’s hit them.

It may all come down to goaltending to decide this series, but the Oilers beating the Kings in the last two first rounds doesn’t mean the same result will materialize this post-season. Los Angeles needs their quality of goaltending to be the equal of Oilers netminder Stuart Skinner for the Kings to defeat Edmonton, but L.A.’s defensive prowess may prove to be the difference in this battle. The Kings could shock the hockey world by knocking out the Oilers when most people believed Edmonton would easily move on to Round 2.