Daily Picks: Caps-Rangers opens second round
The New York Rangers and Washington Capitals meet again. (USATSI)
Welcome to the Stanley Cup Playoffs Daily Picks, where CBS hockey writers Chris Peters and Adam Gretz get you ready for every game every day of the postseason and share their predictions for each.
Washington Capitals at New York Rangers, 7:30 p.m. ET, Game 1, NBCSN
The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs kicks off Thursday night with a series that we have seen a few times recently: The Rangers and Capitals.
It’s a great matchup between two of the best defensive teams in the league, two of the top individual goal scorers (Alex Ovechkin and Rick Nash) and two long-time rivals that have met in the playoffs in three of the past four years, twice needing all seven games to decide a winner.
The Rangers got here by going through Pittsburgh in five games while the Capitals needed a Game 7 win on home ice against the New York Islanders.
The key for the Capitals is finding a way to beat Henrik Lundqvist, something they have not been able to do very often in recent years.
Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom are going to continue to do their thing for the Capitals (they were the team’s leading scorers in round one) but the emergence of Evgeny Kuznetsov could be a huge factor in this series after he scored three goals in Round 1, including the series-clinching goal in Game 7.
The Rangers will be without Mats Zuccarello at the start of the series and need to get more goal scoring from Nash, but they remain one of the deepest teams in the NHL up front.
Can the Capitals match up with that four-line threat and find enough offense against Lundqvist?
Pick: Rangers 3, Capitals 1
Calgary Flames at Anaheim Ducks, 10 p.m. ET, Game 1, NBCSN
It is not a surprise to see the Anaheim Ducks still playing. But the Calgary Flames? That is still unexpected and a little hard to believe.
Their crazy season continues Thursday when they open their second-round series on the road in Anaheim, and if they are going to have any chance at all of moving on to the conference finals they are going to have to do something they have not done in nine years.
Win a game in Anaheim.
The Flames are 0-15-5 in their past 20 games in Anaheim dating back to the 2006 postseason. The rosters keep changing and the players are different every year, but even this season’s group went 0-2 and was outscored 9-5 in Anaheim.
No matter what happens in any of these games or what the score is, never turn away after the second period — these teams were first and third in the NHL this season in come-from-behind wins when trailing after two, a trend that has continued into the postseason where Anaheim went 3-0 in the first round when trailing after two while Calgary was 2-1.
Even though the Flames have some exciting young pieces in place and have overcome the odds all season to keep finding ways to win games, at some point you have to think the overall talent gap between them and some of their opponents will catch up to them. Maybe this will be the series.
Pick: Ducks 4, Flames 2
Three stars
1. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers: He is rested and once again playing like a goalie that can carry his team a long way in the playoffs. He allowed more than one goal just once in the first round and has been great against the Capitals this season, posting a .929 save percentage in two games against his second-round opponent. He is 5-1-1 against the Capitals over the past three regular seasons.
2. Derick Brassard, New York Rangers: He always seems to get overlooked as a key contributor on the Rangers’ roster, but he is a huge part of their success and has consistently been a big-time player for them in the playoffs, including his three goals in the first round.
3. Corey Perry, Anaheim Ducks: One of the best goal scorers in the NHL and one of the most hated players for opponents to play against, Perry seems to be made for playoff time. He was increidlbe in the Ducks’ first round series win over the Winnipeg Jets, scoring three goals to go with four assists in the four games.
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