To the Stanley Cup | On to the second round!

Here are the teams that will continue the spring show this Tuesday.

Toronto vs. Florida

The Toronto Maple Leafs have finally overcome their demons against the Tampa Bay Lightning and reached the first round for the first time since 2004. Will this victory give them the momentum they need for the future?

The Florida Panthers have surprised the season champions Boston Bruins, but they will face a younger and more explosive team.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, John Tavares and William Nylander scored 13 of the Leafs’ 23 goals in the first round. If we add defender Morgan Rielly to form a quintet, we go to 16 of the team’s 23 goals.

Panthers centers Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett, Anton Lundell and Eric Staal will therefore share the work to succeed where the Lightning failed.

The Panthers’ attack is less diverse. She relies heavily on the brilliant Matthew Tkachuk, 11 points, including 5 goals, against the Bruins.

Barkov remains the heart of this formation at center, and he will play a pivotal role against the Leafs’ offensive elements, but he was limited to one goal in the first round.

The goalkeepers of the two teams were not expected. Ilya Samsonov of the Leafs was supposed to be the backup this season; Sergei Bobrovsky had a tough season and didn’t even start the series against Boston.

Players to follow

Toronto: Mitch Marner

Mitch Marner has been criticized in the past for the Maple Leafs’ playoff woes, but he was excellent in the first round, with 11 points in 6 games and an OT of 23:29, a season-high among forwards. the team.

Florida: Matthew Tkachuk

GM Bill Zito may have traded Jonathan Huberdeau, MacKenzie Weegar and a first-round pick for Matthew Tkachuk, but he got a 25-year-old power forward not only smoldering in the season with 109 points, but also transcending in the playoffs. He was the big offensive leader against Boston with 11 points in 7 games.

Players under the radar

Toronto: Matthew Knies

Ryan O’Reilly would be an obvious choice, but rookie Matthew Knies, fresh from his NCAA contract, made a big impact upon entering the lineup in Game 2 with three assists in five games on the left of the third line with Matthews and Nylander.

Florida: Gustav Forsling

Gustav Forsling is the busiest defender in the playoffs with 25 min 20 sec per game, ahead of Brandon Montour and Aaron Ekblad. He was obtained on waivers in 2021 from the Carolina Hurricanes, another find from Zito!

Dallas vs. Seattle

The Seattle Kraken stunned the defending Stanley Cup champions in their second year with an unrelenting collective effort.

Despite their reputation, the Colorado Avalanche looked nothing like the glory of the club in 2022, due to the departure of second center Nazem Kadri, the injury of captain Gabriel Landeskog and the nebulous withdrawal of Valeri Nichushkin after Game 3. not to mention also the loss of Andrei Burakovsky – 61 points in the season last year – in favor of the Kraken.

The Kraken will face a well-established club. The Dallas Stars had 103 points on the season and won the last three games of the series against the Minnesota Wild, including the last two by a combined score of 8-1.

Dallas and its goaltender, gifted youngster Jake Oettinger, have allowed the Wild an average of just 2.33 goals per game.

Roope Hintz, 12 points, including 5 goals, in 6 games, the NHL’s leading scorer so far in the playoffs, and Jason Robertson, 7 points, are the new powerhouses for the Stars on offense. But Dallas can count on the strong comeback of Tyler Seguin, 6 points, including 4 goals, in the first round against Minnesota.

The Kraken don’t have the offensive power of other clubs in the playoffs. Its number one center, Matthew Beniers, was rather shy against the Avalanche with one point in seven games. No player has reached the point mark per game or scored more than two goals.

Players to follow

Dallas: Miro Heiskanen

Despite Hintz’s offensive prowess, defenseman Miro Heiskanen remains, at just 23, the Stars’ most important player, with an NHL all-time playoff high of 29:03. , and six assists on his record.

Seattle: Yanni Water Bottle

Yanni Gourde gained valuable playoff experience with the Tampa Bay Lightning before moving to the Kraken. He leads the team in scoring after one round with six points in seven games.

Player under the radar

Dallas: Ryan Suter

Has good old Ryan Suter been regenerated by the scent of spring? Suter, 38, ran out of breath at times this winter and we had to take it easy. He finds himself on the first pair with Heiskanen today with a time of use of more than 22 minutes per game, second in this chapter among the defensemen of the Stars behind his partner.

Seattle: Adam Larsson

Unloved in Edmonton after costing Taylor Hall, a popular player at the time, Adam Larsson remains the Kraken’s mainstay in defense despite his offensive limitations. He averaged 25:31 per game in the first round.