NHL Eastern Conference Round One Playoff Results

Hey folks! Round one of the NHL Eastern Conference playoffs has completed, so we are going to dive into each of the matchups and talk about how they went.

If you didn't catch my matchup predictions from the Eastern Conference, you can read that here.

Check out daily fantasy hockey projections all postseason at FantasySP.

Washington def. Montreal 4-1

First comes a series of absolute heart, growth, and a team of the future. I had my heart saying Habs in seven, but the Caps took it in five.

This series saw what the next few years will look like for Montreal with the kids showing they belong in Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov. Hutson led the Canadiens in points with five, and Demidov has played more playoff games in the NHL than regular season and was second with four points. 

Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield also had great showings as a lethal powerplay duo, and proved that the Habs are rebuilding the right way and are right on the cusp of breaking out. They were never really out of this series, so the stats might look worse than it was. Like the battle of Ontario (more on that later), the teams were both close, but the Caps have a lot more postseason experience and leaned on that.

One note coming out of the now golfing Canadiens is the story surrounding Patrik Laine. The powerplay specialist was benched in game two, then never saw the ice again. What does his future look like with Martin St. Louis behind the bench? He obviously has no trust in the fantastic Fin.

Alex Ovechkin kept hammering the goals in as he somehow led the team with four. What an absolute beast. Dylan Strome also had an unreal series with a team-leading nine points. There is not much to say here other than the Caps never panicked and despite the games being close, they maintained calm and control on the ice and proved to be the superior club who has been there and done that.

Personally, I put a few Caps in my work playoff pool this year, and luckily Strome was one of them!

Carolina def. New Jersey 4-1

Oh boy, did the Canes absolutely dominate this series. It wasn't even close. I had the Devils in six, but clearly Jack Hughes being out of the lineup decimated their confidence. Carolina took the series in five.

When Timo Meier is leading your team in the postseason, you've got some issues. Not that Meier isn't a respectable skilled player, but on this roster he should not be on top. Granted he is tied with captain Nico Hischier, who also had four points, but four from your top guys isn't nearly enough.

The Canes had five guys with four or more, and Sebastian Aho on top with eight. Goaltender Frederik Andersen apparently played well enough to earn himself a one-year extension with the Canes, despite only playing in four games. He did have a .938 save percentage, though.

I was super impressed with newly acquired prospect Logan Stankoven, who had three points. I think that the Canes are not that far behind being a contender as I anticipated as they looked completely dominant the entire series. 

With the deep roster Carolina has now, and adding Stankoven with some first rounders, they look dangerous for the next five years at least. Look for them to be hungry out of the gate next year while they continue to add elite youth to their core.

Toronto def. Ottawa 4-2

The battle for Ontario is detrimental to my blood pressure. I was bang on with my prediction of Leafs in six, in this series that was the only matchup in the East to make it past game five.

A blowout first game by the Maple Leafs, followed by three overtime bouts and the seeds of doubt being planted when the Leafs again struggled to close out the series.

Their “core four” were 13-1 going into game six which is an abysmal statistic with fans thinking; “here we go again!”

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, and John Tavares typically would disappear in the postseason, but this “core four” were the top four scoring players on the team and combined for a whopping 29 points. This is a drastic change where they would limp through games, not be impactful, and have to rely on depth scoring to carry them through. Not the case this year.

Several players on the Leafs spoke about “outside noise” about their history, but they blocked it out and got the job done for the second time in the “core four” era.

The Senators, however, were down right impressive. They held the Leafs after game one and had a level of compete that was not in anyone's playbook. This should have been the most lopsided series, but it really turned on the heat and remained close.

Brady Tkachuk carried his team with a passion that grew as the series went on. He did lead the Senators in points with seven, however veteran presence from Claude Giroux and David Perron helped isolate the young core who was experiencing the postseason for the first time and their presence on the ice making veteran plays, and in the locker room keeping the team focused was key for the development and growth of this hockey club.

A last note was how much of a pest Ridly Greig is. You love to see it, just not against my team! This series has certainly reignited the battle of Ontario, I can't wait to see them go head to head again next season!

Tampa Bay def. Florida 4-1

What happened here? I had Tampa in six, but it was Panthers in five. The Cats were not nearly as banged up as I anticipated, and Panthers superstar Matthew Tkachuk was back and out in full force. This was easily the most physical of all of the Eastern Conference matchups.

Jake Guentzel led the Lightning in points with six, but phenom Nikita Kucherov was held to just three, which is very unlike him. Obviously they were missing a lot of firepower that they needed to get past Panthers' goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky.

Bolts goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is one who I would never bet against, and while he did not let Tampa Bay down, he just was not getting the offensive support he needed.

This was an unreal physical series too, which again leads me to believe that the Panthers were playing possum. They showed to be a tired, beat up, exhausted team going into this series, but there was not a player who did not look to be 100%.

Getting Tkachuk back to hype up the team was a big momentum swing for Florida. He leads the pace of play, emotion in the locker room, and physicality of play. Getting him back as well as the likes of Aaron Ekblad was huge, but so was the depth of their scoring. 

Sam Reinhart led the Panthers with six points, but they had seven players with four or more points.

The battle of Florida definitely did not disappoint. Let's see if the defending Stanley Cup champions can keep up the momentum into round two, but they will need to keep their emotions in check to avoid further suspensions. Ekblad was suspended again, coming after a 20-game suspension in the regular season, as was captain Aleksander Barkov.