What a round! The two best teams in the east are in the conference finals. On one side, the well designed, balanced and deep Carolina Hurricanes. Led by coach Rod Brind’Amour, captain Jordan Staal and veteran goaltender Frederik Anderson, the Hurricanes are the best and most complete team in the conference. Their opponent is the last team standing in the atlantic division, the Montreal Canadiens. Rookie goaltender Kyle Dobes has been stellar. The young core of captain Nick Suzuki, 50 goal scorer Cole Caufield and phenom defenseman Lane Hudson have stunned viewers. Coach Martin St. Louis is as good a coach as he was a Stanley Cup winning player over 20 years ago. Both squads will have their hands full. Time to break down which team has the best chance to win the eastern conference and advance to the Stanley Cup finals.
#4 Montreal Canadiens v. #1 Carolina Hurricanes
Nobody thought Montreal would make it this far. This is easily the more lopsided conference finals matchup. Carolina is the only team to be undefeated in either the NBA or NHL playoffs. The Hurricanes have done everything right while the Canadiens were somehow lucky to advance after two game sevens.
Yes, Montreal swept the regular season series, even winning two of the three games in Carolina. However, this is the playoffs. Commissioner Gary Bettman is known for cramming all the conference finals games together to eliminate the weaker two teams. The Hurricanes have played eight games in 32 days by the time this series starts. If Carolina can’t advance to the finals in five games, there will be serious conversations on coach Brind’Amour’s job security. This is the easiest path to the championship any team could have.
Prediction: Hurricanes win series 4-0
Eastern conference playoff predictions record: 1-3
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