The Pittsburgh Penguins will continue their quest of repeating tonight when they host the Ottawa Senators for game one of the Eastern Conference Final. This is Ottawa’s first trip to the conference Final since 2007.
The Penguins defeated the Washington Capitals in seven games to advance to the Eastern Conference Final in back-to-back years for the first time since 2007-2008 and 2008-2009.
Here’s a look at a couple big storylines for what’s sure to be a great Eastern Conference Final.
How well can the Penguins defense play?
The Penguins have been without Kris Letang for the first couple rounds and will be without him for the remainder of the playoffs due to a herniated disk. Despite that, the defense has done well enough to get the Penguins forwards the puck so that they can generate scoring chances and finish on some of them.
This series will again be a test to their defense because Ottawa has some very speedy and skilled forward such as Mike Hoffman, Kyle Turris, Mark Stone, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Pittsburgh will also be without Trevor Daley at least to start the series due to a injury he suffered during the Capitals.
Mike Sullivan has done an outstanding job at spreading the minutes out evenly among the six defensemen, though he could try and limit Ron Hainsey a bit more. Brian Dumoulin has been dealing with an injury throughout the playoffs and has been pushing through it every game. He had his best game against the Capitals in game seven and it’s going to need to continue into the Ottawa series.
Justin Schultz is the closest thing the Penguins have to Kris Letang so he’s going to be tasked again with helping the forwards out with generating offensive zone pressure and of course quarterbacking the power play which he’s been great at.
After that, you have Olli Maatta and Ian Cole who both were great against the Capitals as Cole was a shot blocking machine and Maatta was great in his defensive zone by getting pucks out quick.
If the defense can hold and not be gassed by the end of the series, the Penguins have a very good chance of advancing back to the Stanley Cup Final.
Can Erik Karlsson continue his amazing post-season?
What more needs to be said about this guy? Erik Karlsson is a one man wrecking crew for the Senators and has been the biggest reason why the Senators are back in the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in a decade. He’s the best defenseman in the league and it’s showing.
His offensive ability has been out of this world but his defensive play in the defensive zone has been great as well. His 13 points is the most by any defenseman in the playoffs and is averaging 28:56 of ice time per game which is unbelievable considering he’s playing on a broken foot.
He now faces his biggest test yet in the playoffs and that’s stopping Sidney Crosby’s line and Evgeni Malkin’s line. Both Crosby and Malkin have been great in the playoffs and they’re going to do their best to wear down Karlsson since he’s injured.
It won’t be just them either as the Penguins have some really speedy wingers such as Jake Guentzel, Phil Kessel, Brian Rust, and Conor Sheary who can fly all over the ice.
Karlsson is going to have to be on another planet for the Senators to have any chance at upsetting the Penguins and he will also need some help from some of his other defenseman and wingers. If he doesn’t get too much help, it may be a quick series for the Penguins no matter how good Karlsson is.
Goaltending in the series
Like the Western Conference Final, the goaltenders in this series aren’t Vezina caliber goaltenders but both have played well during the playoffs, especially Marc-Andre Fleury.
Fleury had to start game one after Matt Murray went down with a groin injury and has been fabulous ever since. He’s 8-4 with a .927 save percentage and a 2.55 goals-against average. Fleury stole the series against the Capitals after the Penguins were outshot in every game and shutout Washington in game seven. He’s going to need to continue his great play if he’s going to help lead the Penguins back to the final.
In Ottawa, Craig Anderson has also been good in the playoffs despite a save percentage of .914. He’s let in some leaky goals but his high danger save percentage of 83.61% is what’s helped the Senators win games. He was especially good against the Rangers in game six when he stopped 37 out of 39 shots.
He’s been the second most important player on the Senators during this playoff run behind Karlsson and he’s going to need to steal a couple games if the Senators want to pull off the upset. It may be a tough task though as Pittsburgh was able to beat Sergei Bobrovsky and Braden Holtby the previous two rounds, though both were subpar.
Prediction
The Senators are going to put up a real fight this serious which may surprise people but the Penguins top end talent is going to be too much for the Senators to handle. Erik Karlsson will make some great plays but I have the Penguins in six games and returning to the Stanley Cup Final.
