We can face 1 of 5 teams. Rank them!

[Donnie Shulzhoffer]

I'm not saying I'm smart. But if you check the Heinen, JVR, Geekie, Boqvist, Coyle, Zacha, etc etc. threads, you'll see I was immediately on board. Same with Linus.

So let's say I'm at least sane. We get a lot of wacky takes in here.

One wacky take is that there are no soft matchups. Not true. We saw the Habs in the bubble prove my point.

Sorry my opinion of thinking that there is no soft match ups is wacky. And to make the Montreal comparison in the bubble year is not a very good one.

 

[DarrenBanks56]

Any team. If you are worried about who you are facing in the first round then you aren't going to advance very far.

first round is usually the toughest in the NHL.
after you get past that teams usually pick up steam and start playing better,
Just gotta get out of round 1.

 

[MarchysNoseKnows]

Most in here were picking a sweep of Florida. The only time you can point to a round as soft is after the fact.

Either way I will stick to my original point that if a team is more worried about one team over another come round 1 then they aren't going far.

That’s fine but we’re fans, not the team. What we think, say, or post has absolutely no bearing on the results.

 

[Donnie Shulzhoffer]

That’s fine but we’re fans, not the team. What we think, say, or post has absolutely no bearing on the results.

Well no shit!

 

[goldnblack]

Sorry my opinion of thinking that there is no soft match ups is wacky. And to make the Montreal comparison in the bubble year is not a very good one.

But Montreal in the bubble is LITERALLY what happens when your draw is soft. Another soft draw (this year) would be something like:

Caps
Leafs (but they lose Samsanov to injury and have to start Woll)
Flyers (who win two rounds and wind up in the conference final on a goalie heater)

If you don't see that as a soft draw, I don't know what to tell you. And it starts with the first round against a team with a negative 35 goal differential.

The math says Washington vs Tampa, you take Washington 100% of the time. No questions. But that's if you math.

 

[BruinDust]

Without quoting everyone, is it fair to say there are no "soft match-ups" in the 1st round anymore, but there are certainly more favorable match-ups from a style and team composition perspective?

The chaos of the 1st round to me favors the faster heavy-forechecking teams now. The days of a 1-4 neutral zone trap team sitting back and grinding out 1st and 2nd round playoff wins against a heavy forecheck are over. You look at last year's match-up, the Panthers forwards forechecked hard while their D (beyond Montour) sat back and just played it safe and conservative allowing the Panther forwards that freedom to unleash the forechecking pressure.

Meanwhile, you give me a more methodical defensive team similar to the Bruins and the Bruins probably win that series 8 times out of 10.

Bruins also struggle more with "shot volume" teams. Once again, Florida is an example. One of the best ways to combat the Bruins collapsing zone D is to just throw everything at the net. It pulls guys out of position on loose pucks/rebounds/deflections/missed shots. Meanwhile your likely to get a friendly deflection or bounce at least once or twice a game.

Conversely, a team that likes to pass the puck around the perimeter and maintain possession are right up the Bruins alley because the Bruins are fine allowing the team to keep possession as long as they are kept to the outside and out of high danger areas.

 

[TSBruins13]

1) Philly
2) Wash
3) Detroit
4) Toronto
5) Tampa

I’m not afraid of Toronto but I’d rather let another team take them out in round 1. In the off chance they beat us in round 1 we wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Top three teams are interchangeable IMO, none scare me.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

I want nothing to do with Tampa. I dont care if they havent been themselves this year, hard pass on having to go against the playoff versions of Kucherov/Hedman/Vasy