Ranger Lothbrok

My head says Canes, but that's largely because that's what I've been hearing basically since October when every pundit on Earth was picking them to win the Cup. Those same pundits had Vancouver as a lottery team and us as a bubble team behind the Devils in the Metro, so who knows. They're analytics darlings. Corsi Canes and all that. They have a chip on their shoulders from two years ago. The top end talent they were lacking in 2022 has been fixed. My feeling is this: Igor is going to have to outright steal 2 if we're gonna win, which he's capable of doing. This is probably going 7. The good news is that we'll have had a week to shake off bruises without getting rusty. That's huge (that whole stat of "no team has ever gone to 7 games in Rounds 1 and 2 and won in the conference finals" that doomed us preemptively in 2012). We're over that hump, should be full pedal to the metal rest of the way. And you have to like the locker room rhetoric. Total tunnel vision, they have their eyes on the prize. No shot this resolves in our favor in less than 7 though. Canes could sweep or do it in 5. I doubt we can. The shifts off and seemingly lazy mistakes could have easily stretched the Caps series to 6 or 7, despite people making it sound like we dominated. Bear in mind we were only up by 1 in Game 4 when Igor had to stop a point-blank chance where the Caps player had an egregious amount of time and space to keep it tied. Everyone was caught looking. Do that against Carolina and it WILL be in the net. It's winnable, but nowhere near easily winnable. The eternal pessimist in me says Canes in 6.

I'm sure somebody said this already, but in case they didn't, here's the #StatoftheSeries courtesy of our friends at Elias Sports Bureau: Matt Rempe outscored Alex Ovechkin.

Kinda thought we were gonna give up at least at least one. But hey, all the people saying "first round exit" (myself included) have been silenced.

I can't with this officiating.

Rempe has been following orders not to engage. You have to imagine Laviolette greenlights him to take on Wilson as long as he avoids the instigator.

Very concerned that the GDT title doesn't have teeth anywhere in it. Kind of seems like futzing with the mojo.

I agree with this. As if the 120 points and 49 goals wasn't statement enough, he took last playoffs really hard and placed a lot of the blame on himself. Honestly, assuming we make it past them, I'm almost happy this was the first round matchup. If Panarin's blood is boiling, then he's not in his own head. The chippiness seems to only have engaged him more.

Happy with how that ended, but not happy with the 5 consecutive minutes of panic.

He's had his ups and downs, but Gustafsson really has been overall a pleasant surprise. Can see why Laviolette wanted him.

When was the last time MSG had a cult hero that reached Rempe levels of phenomenon? Jeremy Lin?

Were all 4 goals 5 on 5? Also, there's no on-ice award ceremony for the Trophy right?

Igor locking it down tonight. Love to see it.

Not to get all armchair psychologist about it, but I divorced myself from hope last year when we made a backup goalie look like Patrick Roy and were gutless pukes despite having made a run to the ECFs a year prior, and even in that run, once Tampa shook off the rust we weren't even competitive. That team is largely unchanged, except older. That's a positive for the young players, but obviously Kreider and Mika are slowing down. The only way I could cope with last year's catastrophic debacle was to convince myself that in the grand scheme of things, none of this matters. Like "if I lost my job tomorrow I wouldn't be thinking about NHL standings" kind of rhetoric. I think it was easier to be hopeful when the two biggest fans I knew, my dad and my uncle, were still alive. Now it's just me carrying the torch, perennially surrounded by Devils fans here in Central Jersey.

That is eerily accurate. That is 100% what I would do. Definitely a "glass half empty" guy.

I appreciate the good points made by Pete and fletch, and I get that there's two different lenses you can view each pro/con through. That's where the tiebreaker for me is simple history. Assume the worst, maybe you get pleasantly surprised.