Puck Playoffs ‘24 | Nine Ball | YouTube Rabbithole
Alright @YouTheReader,
Here’s hockey…
Playoffs start this weekend, here’s the bracket. Figured I’d use a Sharpie and the actual Notepad.
Western Conference
The Last Vegas Knights are 3-0 against the Dallas Stars this season. That’s a bit of a surprise considering Vegas is the last wild card and Dallas is tops in the West. However, those games all took place in ‘23 so much has happened since. Despite the Knights only being around for a handful of years, they have played the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals in 2 of the last 4 Stanley Cup playoffs, each splitting 1 to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Las Vegas is the defending Stanley Cup champions. As the final wild card team of the West, they are looking to repeat. As far as recent champs, TB Lightning won back-to-back in ‘20-’21 and Pittsburgh won in ‘16-’17. Last year, the Knights were led by Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault, Mark Stone, and William Karlsson. They return these playoffs with most of their top skaters but with a bit of change at goaltender as Logan Thompson is healthy after missing last year’s run with a lower body. It’ll be interesting to see if the Knights have a quick hook on Thompson because Adin Hill, who was in net for last year’s run, is currently on the pine.
The Dallas Stars as a team were 3rd in the NHL in goals scored with 298. They didn’t necessarily have a 1-star scorer, but 8 forwards who scored at least 20+ goals this season. Led by LW Jason Robertson’s 80 points, the Stars have had many different Stars play hero throughout their run as the top team in the Western Conference. Jake Oettinger also had a nice year in goal, picking up his 3rd 30-win campaign by the age of 25. I going with Dallas because of their balanced attack.
Prediction: Stars in 5.
The Winnipeg Jets got the best of the Colorado Avalanche in all 3 regular season matchups this year. They won by a total goal difference of 17 to 4. These two Western Conference Hockey teams have never faced off in the playoffs.
The Winnipeg Jets allowed the least amount of goals this season thanks in large part to the play of Goalie Connor Hellebuyck. His 92% save percentage was 2nd best in the NHL. Hellebuyck won 37 games this season and yet somehow his backup, Laurent Brossit, in a smaller sample size actually outplayed the starter with a 93% save percentage and fewer goals allowed per game (2.0). Winnipeg has been carried by their goalie play most of the season. They rely heavily on the outstanding play of Hellebuyck and Brossit.
While the Jets haven’t made a Conference Final since ‘18, the Colorado Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in ‘22. They put more pucks on net and score more goals compared to the Jets. The Avalanche are led by 3 stars in C Nathan MacKinnon, RW Mikko Rantanen, and D Cale Makar. MacKinnon finished 4th in goals scored with 51 and 3rd in assists with 87. Rantanen for a 2nd straight year had over 40 goals with 50+ assists and Cale Makar broke his franchise for most points scored in a season with 89. Makar zips around the ice and can go coast to coast with the best of them, he’s the opposite of a stay-at-home defender. Call me crazy but I like the Avalanche in this one.
Prediction: Avalanche in 6.
The Canucks placed 1st in the Pacific Division while the Nashville Predators are in as a Wild Card. The Canucks were 3-0 over the Predators in the season series. These 2 teams have only played each other once in the postseason with the Canucks winning it back in ‘11.
The Nashville Predators have one of the top defensemen in hockey, Roman Josi. The Norris Trophy nominee had the most goals amongst defenders with 23. When totaled with his 62 assists, Josi ended up inside the Top 25 skaters in points on the season, quite the accomplishment from someone in the back line.
For the Vancouver Canucks, after missing the playoffs in each of the past 3 seasons, Playoff Pettersson is back. The last time the Canucks were in the postseason in ‘20, C Elias Pettersson scored 7 goals and assisted on 11 in 17 games. It’s the only time he’s ever played in the playoffs so we’re bringing back the nickname. The Canucks were also led by former Ranger 1st Round pick, JT Miller, who had a career year. Miller reached 100+ points for the first time in his career with 37 goals and 66 assists. When New York traded Miller with Ryan McDonagh down to TB in ‘17, he was only 23 years old and coming off a season where he had 56 points so he’s a different player now. I’ll take Vancouver.
Prediction: Canucks in 5
The Oilers came in 2nd in the Pacific as LA placed 3rd in their OT win over Chicago last night. Edmonton beat the Kings in 3 of the 4 meetings this season. This will be the 10 all-time playoff series between 2 of Wayne Gretzky’s former teams. Edmonton has won the past 5 playoff series, including knocking out the Kings the past 2 years in the 1st Round. 3rd year in a row of Kings vs Oilers.
The LA Kings and Las Vegas Knights are the reason I couldn’t post this Note until 1:30 AM, so I kinda hope they both lose. LA’s got both their NBA teams in the playoffs so I doubt their fans care too much. Adrian Kempe and Kevin Fiala tied each other with 73 points this year. Wayne Gretzky had 696 goals with Edmonton and 539 with the Kings. The Great One won all 4 of his Stanley Cups with Edmonton in the 80s before getting traded to LA in the offseason of 1988 because the Oiler owner needed cash and couldn’t afford to keep Gretzky around. There was a good 30 for 30 on it called King’s Ransom. The rest of the Notes I wrote before the conclusion of the Western Conference seeding.
Connor McDavid of the Oilers is the best player in this series. This year, he became the 4th player all-time to have 100 assists in a season. The #1 Overall Pick of ‘15 has been as good as advertised, after scoring 64 last year, he’s now had 100+ point seasons in 7 of his previous 8 seasons. McDavid has also been a star in his previous playoffs, scoring 29 goals with 46 assists in 49 games. We’ll go with McDavid and Edmonton here, for a 6th straight series win over LA.
Prediction: Oilers in 5.
Eastern Conference
The Florida Panthers came in 1st in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference while the Lightning got in with a wild card spot. This regular season, the Panthers beat the Lightning twice to one loss. These two teams have met in the playoffs 2 times since ‘21 and Tampa Bay won both series.
Tampa Bays’ RW Nikita Kucherov led the NHL in points with 144 on the season. That’ll earn the Russian the Art Ross Trophy. This year he became just the 5th player all-time to have 100 assists in a season. Kucherov joined the short list of Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux to have 40+ goals along with 100+ assists. For the Panthers, they have a star of their own in C Sam Reinhart. He finished in 2nd in most goals in all of hockey with 57 on the season.
What really sticks out to me in this matchup is the both of these teams already spend a ton of time in the sin-bin. With this being a bit of playoff rivalry with recent history, this is going to be a tough one for the refs to call. Hopefully, they let the boys play. I’ll take the Lightning in a 1st Round upset here. I like that they average 4 more pucks on net per game and give up nearly 1 less goal a game. Are the Florida Panthers frauds?
Prediction: Tampa Bay in 7.
The Boston Bruins came in 2nd in the Atlantic Divison and the Toronto Maple Leafs came in 3rd. The Bruins beat the Leafs all 4 times they played in the regular season. These 2 North East rivals first played in the Stanley Cup Playoffs back in 1933. They’ve met 16 times and have split evenly winning 8 series each since. That said, Boston has won the last 6 playoff series matchups going back to 1969.
The Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews scored 69 goals this regular season, the most since Mario Lemiux did it in ‘96. Matthews nearly scored goal #70 on Wednesday night when he deked out a Lightning defender and tried going top shelf. Too bad the Beautician ended up putting the puck Bar North. Toronto has played in a ton of Barburners this season as they scored the most goals in all of the land and Canada. This kind of fancy offensive hockey style looks nice in the regular season, but I don’t trust it one bit come the playoffs.
The Boston Bruins are led by the top pest in the league, Andrew Marchand. The man is a Munson. The 35 year old LW from Nova Scotia is a real pain in the arse and loves to annoy the other team. In the past he would kiss or lick opponents on ice. After winning 65 games last year in the regular season and taking home the Presidents Trophy in ‘23, people may forget the Bruins lost in the 1st Round. No way that’s happening this go around. I have Boston winning the 1st 3 games in blowouts and the Maple Leafs deciding to forfeit Game 4.
Prediction: Bruins in 3.
The Rangers won the Presidents Trophy for most points during the NHL regular season. Since 1994, only 6 Presidents Trophy winners went on to win the Stanley Cup. They were the ‘13 Blackhawks, ‘08 Red Wings, ‘02 Red Wings, ‘01 Avalanche, ‘99 Stars, and the ‘94 Rangers. In the regular season Washington and New York split the series 2 a piece.
On Tuesday night, the Washington Capitals snuck into the wild card spot. They had a -37 goal differential this season, but got in on a 3 game winning streak and held a tie-breaker over the Detroit Red Wings. 38-year-old Alexander Ovechkin is still kinda a savage even with grey hair. While the LW had a career low of 31 goals this season, Ovi is now just 41 regular season goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time career 894 goals. The Great One still has him on assists 1,963 to 697.
As for the Rangers, there is a lot of players that deserve mention, but I guess the easy one in Artemi Panarin. How about Breadman not missing a single game this season? That alone will get you some respect in the locker room, never mind leading the team in goals (49) and assists (71), eh? It’s pretty simple, the Rangers are the better hockey, they just gotta go out there and keep doing what they’ve been doing all year. Personally, I’d like to see some more pucks on net, maybe some more wristers from Mika Zibenejaad, but they got here with Breadman sniping so go with what got you here. As a diehard Rangers Playoff Hockey Fan, I’ve never followed the team as much in the regular season as this year every Friday so Game 1 Sunday at 3 PM ET can’t come soon enough.
Prediction: Rangers in 6.
The Islanders came in 3rd Place in the Metro while Carolina came in 2nd. The two teams split 2 a piece in the regular season. Carolina and Out East have met twice in the playoffs (‘19 and last season) with the Canes winning both series.
While the Islanders may listen to some ZB’s Revival after wins, don’t let it fool you, they are nearly choir boys compared to the rest of the Eastern Conference in terms of penalty minutes. Shows a good bit of character and discipline. That said, the Boys Out East went on a wild heater to end the regular season. On March 28th, the Isles had a 4% chance of making the playoffs. They went 9-2 in their last 11 games and are the hottest team in hockey entering the playoffs. The Isles ended up winning 39 games this season and losing 16 in OT, the most in the NHL this year. They’ve played in a ton of close ones and by the end of the regular season were closing them out on top.
One of the key players for the Carolina Hurricanes is defenseman Jaccob Slavin. For a defender, he is quite the playmaker even though he only had 6 goals and 31 assists. Slavin is the top SAT/CORSI leader in all of the NHL with a +586. That SAT/CORSI stat means when Slavin is on the ice, the Hurricanes are putting 586 more pucks on net than they are allowing. One would think that kind of analytical stat would sway the prediction but I’m going all feel here.
Prediction: Islanders in 7.
Today’s tune is Nine Ball by Zach Bryan. He wrote and released this song last year. Matthew McConaughey starred in the music video, it’s pretty much a sick short film.
Zach Bryan comes in a blazing with that intro that immediately draws you in. He’s setting up a story about his father being a gambling man. Not for nothing, that is a bit more interesting than doctors & lawyers & such for a song.
Back when ZB was on The Twitter, he said he was inspired by a story his dad told him. "My dad and me were drinking whiskey playing pool one night and he goes, 'man do I have a story for you.' Then he tells me about how my grandpa used to bet on him in pool games when he was just a kid."
Pool shots require a certain steady hand. ZB’s dad provided his grandpa a steady hand during his risky bets. Double-meaning.
These lines come from the perspective of the son. He’s good enough at 9-ball that he can hustle people much older than him and come back from deficits to the point his dad could get another 6-pack of Corona. It does come with a price because instead of enjoying the normal things like fishin’ and football, the son is hanging out in bars. Pretty badass story for him to tell to his own son though.
My dad isn’t a town drunk or a betting man. I mean he likes his drink and plays the lotto, but he’s the hardest working man I know. Back when he was a kid in Connemara he and his best friend would street race cars. He doesn’t drink Coronas, but in February of ‘21, I went out to dinner with my parents on their anniversary. It was at El Banditos, a Mexican Restaurant in Spring Valley, New York. He told me a story about how he was around my age today, he had started his own small carpenter/construction company. My mom ran the books. It was pretty risky, I’m assuming non-union, but the pay was good when they could get a job. “That was back when I had a pair,” is what he said to me. He ended up getting a more steady construction job because he had me and my siblings on the way. I don’t think about that story too often, but it stuck with me.
Fast forward to September of ‘22. My aunt Michelle and Audry came over from Ireland. My parents and family came down to Hoboken to visit Sinatra’s hometown. While we were at Ainsworth ordering pints of Guinness, my dad’s eyes lit up with excitement as he was explaining to my aunts what I started doing with Week to Week Notes. Mind you, Week to Week Notes was only about 12 weeks old, and at that point, I didn’t even know my dad was reading the Notes. I hadn’t written anything with any real substance, I was like 2 weeks into covering my first NFL season and the Queen had just died so I was throwing in Peaky Blinder references galore. My dad has always been my biggest supporter since I was a Toys R Us Kid so it’s not like I should have been necessarily surprised by his words of encouragement, but seeing his face happy like that is something I’ll never forget. I don’t think about that story too often, but it stuck with me.
Along the way, since that night at the Ainsworth, I’ve written loads of Notes. Some silly, some stupid, some fun, some sad, and some sorta smart. My dad doesn’t need me to do this and isn’t writing checks he can’t cash. That said, with one more week to go of Sophomore Slump, I can always say to myself that every night this past year I’ve landed a Note for him to read by 12 AM…
Well, except this one, the Western Conference Seedings weren’t set until 1 AM. Last, but certainly not least Happy Birthday to my Uncle Tommy!