1 Overreaction About Every 2024 NHL Playoff Team (2024)

Folks, halfway through the first round of the 2023-24 NHL playoffs and the drama is starting to bubble.

The Bruins have a 2-1 edge on the Leafs: Will they stop overthinking it and run with Jeremy Swayman, who is undefeated and almost Herculean against Toronto?

Will the Carolina Hurricanes, up 3-0 on the Islanders, finally do the thing?

There's trouble in Vancouver with Vezina candidate Thatcher Demko at least out week-to-week (some sources claim optimism about a potential late second-round return, while others are significantly less optimistic). Will he come back, but more importantly, will the Canucks be able to hang on till then?

Let's dive in with an overreaction about every team so far.

Look, testing out this goalie rotation thing in the playoffs was the way to go. Linus Ullmark didn't play poorly in Game 2 and he kept the game even with some clutch saves at various moments while the defense hung him out to dry. The Bruins still lost, though.

Sometimes we don't have to overcomplicate these things. After the Bruins' Game 3 win, Jeremy Swayman is 6-0-0 with a .959 save percentage and a 1.31 goals against average against the Leafs over the past two seasons. Swayman had emerged throughout the regular season playing more games and playing them well.

According to MoneyPuck.com, he's leading all playoff goalies by far with 7.8 goals saved above expected -- the next closest is Logan Thompson with 2.4. He also has a significant lead in goals saved above expected per 60 with 3.934.

The Bruins gave Ullmark six chances in round one last season. Again, starting with the tandem this time was the move. It's not that Ullmark has been bad, it's just that Swayman has been ridiculously good. He deserves the net for now if we aren't overthinking it.

It's relatively rare that the first blush "deal of the deadline" exceeds the hype. Often, it's a sellers' market, or we're all so excited to talk about potential trades that we tend to collectively exaggerate the impact most players available could have on a team.

But none of those deadlines had Jake "58 points in 58 playoff games" Guentzel on the market. Since coming to Carolina, Guentzel has been a revelation at all strengths for the Hurricanes, and his point-per-game playoff ways have continued with a goal and two assists in the first three games against the Islanders.

Between Guentzel, the growing lore of Seth Jarvis, the continued consistency of the core led by Sebastian Aho, and the resurgence of Freddie Andersen, things are finally all clicking at once for the Hurricanes in their Cup window. It's time to do the dang thing.

The Jets-Avalanche series has been the wackiest, hardest-to-read playoff series in recent memory. Vezina favorite Connor Hellebuyck has allowed 10 goals in two games. Alex Georgiev on the other end was palpably better in Game 2 than in Game 1. The goals keep flowing from everywhere on the ice.

Perhaps the reason this series is so hard to read is because these are two of the best teams in the league meeting in the first round. You have to think whoever wins goes far.

The Kelly McCrimmon-Peter DeBoer bowl is alive and well again, folks.

Dallas, pound for pound, was probably the most complete and consistent team throughout the regular season. Vegas was extremely up-and-down, then got a haul of a lifetime at the trade deadline.

You couldn't have drawn it up better for the Golden Knights with Mark Stone returning and scoring, Tomas Hertl scoring, Noah Hanifin scoring and assisting on many of these goals, and a 2-0 start to the series in Dallas for the lower-seeded team.

These teams and this management have played together and know each other so well at this point, that it was the most unfavorable draw the Stars could've drawn. LTIR drama aside, the Golden Knights are well under the Stars' skin, and their star power is beating out the roster balance of the Stars thus far.

What Connor McDavid has been doing to help his team has been nothing short of a revelation this season, and when you think about it, it might be the best he's ever been.

While we all love to watch him score goals, we've seen him do that season after season as the team around him fell short. His ability to catch a vibe with Zach Hyman and improve the overall team is the type of adaptation that makes you the best player in the world.

His new assisting ways have been met with some tongue-in-cheek reactions from him in the media, but he was the first player to record five assists in a playoff game in 25 years in game one. Being the best in the world means being the best at many things.

Before crediting Sergei Bobrovsky, we need to credit the Panthers coaching staff.

Many thought the veteran goalie was cooked heading into the first round against the Bruins last season. Instead of just putting him in as a hail mary when things started to go south with Alex Lyon, they kept believing in their $10 million man, kept playing him, and now he's been worth every single penny as the Panthers are up 3-0 on the Lightning in this Round 1.

The save of perhaps a lifetime -- yes, I'll say it -- above is really all you need to see. He's provided a confident foundation in net for a team that thrives on confidence.

Look, the Kings aren't anywhere close to being out of it.

That Anže Kopitar overtime game-winner in Game 2 reminded us that it feels unstoppable when Los Angeles is on. But when Los Angeles is off, it's really, really off. You rarely know which version of the team will show up that day.

Kopitar, Adrian Kempe, Quinton Byfield, and Drew Doughty can't do it all. The Kings aren't out of it yet, and a series win against the Oilers would be a huge statement. But on the way to that potential series win, the depth needs to wake up and chip in if we are to believe they'll take it any further.

When I think about the first trade deadline Barry Trotz had as an NHL GM, I'm perhaps more impressed at what he didn't do than what he did do.

He didn't sell the heavy hitters -- especially not goalie Juuse Saros -- when there was pressure to do so.

He acquired some decent scoring depth like Anthony Beauvillier with playoff experience for low-round draft picks.

Look at the Predators now, after a missed U2 concert, a historic point streak, and a tied round one. They feel super hard to play against and they have an identity for the first time in years.

This team is almost the same version of the team we saw in the regular season, except you don't get a point for losing in overtime in the playoffs, so they've cut to the chase and done so in regulation instead.

The Islanders are down 3-0 on the series and every loss has been deflating in a new and exciting way. One thing that remains consistent is their inability to sustain a lead -- quite indicative of their much-criticized negative goal differential in the regular season.

Fans were allowed to be excited and have hope despite it all, but the team that hasn't done much to improve in the past few years is still that team.

I was excited that the Rangers only made depth acquisitions at the deadline (and really good ones, including Alex Wennberg) because they're at their best when their best players get the opportunity to shine.

The problem with that, of course, is many of these young players have been spending the past few seasons establishing their game and trying to find consistency.

This year was 2020 No. 1 overall pick Alexis Lafrenière's big breakout and he's shown more and more that he can consistently contribute. And when he contributes, the Rangers are the best team in the league. He's been a key factor on plenty of plays this round as the Rangers hold a 2-0 series lead, and he's got three assists in two games to show for it.

Captain Steven Stamkos has been excellent with three goals and an assist through three games despite his team's 3-0 deficit against the Panthers in Round 1.

I hope Lightning fans enjoyed that home-ice goal Thursday night because, with contract uncertainties still publicly very much in the air, it's hard to believe the Lightning can manage to keep him.

You hope the Bolts can pull off one win at home as it might be their captain's last in the jersey. Soak it in.

It's a shame that William Nylander is reportedly struggling with migraines without a clear cause of the source. In the past, he's attempted to use a tinted visor for the same issue, so this has been a recurring thing.

Nylander had a career year, so obviously he wants to attempt to play in the postseason. He's been out practicing multiple times despite the migraines, but don't mistake that for a sign that he should be cleared and able to play.

I know it's frustrating, Leafs fans, but have some faith that your core is good enough to hold its own without putting someone's brain health in danger. You don't want to mess with that stuff, and if you've never had a migraine, I can assure you you don't want a player on your team experiencing one on the ice if you want to win.

It wasn't that Casey DeSmith was terrible as Vezina candidate Thatcher Demko went out with an injury. It's that the rest of the team around him suddenly seemed to forget they are the magical Vancouver Canucks of 2023-24.

This team is supposed to overcome something like this and not completely deflate. They and all of their scorers and comeback mentalities from the year need to give DeSmith confidence and let him build it up, it cannot be the other way around. Game 3 in Nashville is huge.

LTIR drama or not, what player can come back after months of not playing and immediately contribute all over the ice including a gigantic goal?

It's Mark Stone, and he has few peers. Say what you will about the circ*mstances around him, but can we please put that stuff aside for at least a few seconds and appreciate his greatness? He's so fun to watch when you don't have a hater in your ear talking about loopholes.

What a tough scene as Alex Ovechkin has failed to record a point and only has one shot on net and his Capitals trail the Rangers 0-2 in the series.

He can't do it all anymore, and the team had a league-worst -37 goal differential heading into the playoffs. That's almost unheard of, especially considering the goalie Charlie Lindgren is actually good!

The problem here is multilayered. For one, the Capitals' championship core that played with the Great 8 is gone: no Nicklas Bäckström and no Evgeny Kuznetsov. Secondly, the Rangers have done a great job of -- pardon the hockey cliche -- taking away Ovechkin's time and space, particularly on the power play. Finally, Ovi has played a lot of hockey in his career, and -- pardon the sports cliche -- Father Time is undefeated.

In the past, defenders would have to have eyes all over the ice, especially with Bäckström in his prime dishing it to Ovechkin. Now, as always, they know where to find him -- but they also know where to find everyone else.

Vezina candidate Connor Hellebuyck allowing 10 goals in two games was the most uncharacteristic thing we've seen out of him in potentially his entire career, no matter how many of the goals were truly his fault.

Year after year he has been the backbone of this team, and has not been rewarded with much past a few stray first rounds from the rest of his team. Have the tables now turned? I'm betting not -- it's just two games. But if he doesn't have a trademark Hellebuyck performance in Game 3, I'm starting to worry.