One down. Three to go. Three rounds that is. 

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full swing and the first round concluded, there are only eight teams left in the tournament and the second round will hopefully be more suspenseful than its predecessor. 

Of the eight first-round series that took place, only one had any real drama and that was the Golden Knights versus the Stars. Dallas lost the first two games at home before winning the next three in a row. They proceeded to drop Game Six in Vegas before winning a very close Game Seven on home ice. 

You could argue that Boston-Toronto was a suspenseful series, but let’s be honest, only those wearing Maple Leafs on their chests thought there was any real drama. The rest of us knew how it was going to play out. And by the way, if you take a look at the first-round series between the Bruins and Maple Leafs in 2013 and compare it to 2024, you’ll notice it’s practically identical. 

Boston won Games one, three, and four to take a three-games-to-one lead. They lost Game Five at home and Game Six on the road before finding themselves trailing in the third period of Game Seven at TD Garden. They proceeded to tie the game and then win it in overtime, thus extending Toronto’s run of playoff misery. 

Ok, now that that’s off our chests, let’s take a look at what Round Two might hold.

Eastern Conference

Rangers vs. Hurricanes

While the first game of this series has already concluded as of the writing of this column, that won’t change our outlook too much. 

In the Rangers’ 4-3 Game One victory the Seventh Avenue Skaters did as everybody knew they would. They dominated the special teams’ battle and heavily relied upon Igor Shesterkin to bail them out on numerous occasions. 

Carolina was the superior team at even strength – as we all knew they would be – and they controlled the action for long stretches of time to no avail. What we didn’t see coming was the Hurricanes’ poor showing on the power play and penalty-kill.

Both teams ended the regular season Top-4 in The NHL in power-play and penalty-kill conversion, yet, in Game One, Carolina went 0-for-5 on the man-advantage and 0-for-2 on the penalty-kill. 

Something tells us the Hurricanes will turn that around soon; possibly even in Game Two. 

The Blueshirts once again displayed a lack of killer instinct as they could not score the dagger goal that would put the game out of reach. But the mismatch between Igor Shesterkin and Frederik Andersen will likely determine the final result of this series.

If the Rangers can win enough special teams battles and Shesterkin continues to outplay Andersen then New York will skate its way into the Conference Final.

Prediction: Rangers in Seven

Panthers vs. Bruins

The Beast of The East Panthers schooled the Lightning in Round One and will likely do the same to the Bruins in Round Two. 

Boston simply doesn’t have the offense necessary to hang with or beat the Panthers. The Bruins win games with stout goaltending, sturdy defense, and timely goals. Against Florida, that simply won’t cut it, not this year.

Pavel Zacha was supposed to help mitigate the loss of Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, but in the playoffs, he simply hasn’t shown he has what it takes. In 19 career playoff games prior to this series, Zacha has scored a total of zero goals. Look, nobody is saying he has to be THE guy – the one who almost single-handedly carries a team to victory – but zero goals in 19 games is a telling statistic. 

The Panthers have that look in their eyes and a low-scoring Boston sextet isn’t going to be the team who derails Florida’s dreams. 

Prediction: Panthers in Six

Western Conference 

Stars vs. Avalanche

This right here is why The NHL should reconsider its current playoff format. In a different world in which The NHL uses a 1-16 playoff format, this could have been the Stanley Cup Final. But, alas, that is not the case, so we’re getting this in Round Two. 

Two high-powered offenses, two mobile defenses, and two battle-tested teams, that’s who the Stars and Avalanche are. They are as even as two teams can be. Colorado has the edge in star power and top-six forwards. Dallas has the edge in terms of being a more balanced one through 12 attack.

What this series is likely going to boil down to is which goaltender will make the fewest mistakes. Neither Jake Oettinger nor Alexander Georgiev can be expected to consistently shut down the opposing team’s offense. We’ve seen both shine and we’ve seen both struggle under the bright lights. And since timely saves will be the name of the game, there’s only one thing we can know for sure about this series…there will be A LOT of drama.

Prediction: Stars in Seven

Canucks vs. Oilers

Thatcher Demko won’t be starting Game One of this series due to an injury. That much we know. What we don’t know is the exact nature of his injury, though many have speculated it’s his ACL. Again, that’s just speculation and there’s certainly no hard proof that we can find to back that up.  

With Demko’s status for the series in question, this could get very ugly for the Canucks. Sure, Vancouver has a very good offense and deploys Quinn Hughes on the blue line, but much like The Kings in Round One, they’re not stopping Connor McDavid at this junction. Maybe McDavid and Company will falter in the Conference Final – or maybe they won’t. But they’re not falling to Vancouver in Round Two. 

Prediction: Oilers in Six

And there you have it, a complete look at what the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs might entail. Oh and for those of you wondering how our predictions from the first round panned out, we hit on seven of the eight winners (Nashville’s loss to Vancouver was our only blemish). We didn’t always get the number of games right, but nobody cares how long or short it takes for a team to win so long as their team skates off into the next round.