Central
1ST Carolina vs Tampa Bay 3RD
Preview
The two teams have never played a playoff series in history. Each teams record vs each other in the regular season: Carolina 4-3-1, Tampa Bay 4-3-1. What I Would like to see would be the special teams, Tampa Bay’s power play vs Carolina’s penalty Kill. Tampa Bay always seemed like they would get timely goals from their power play sand it always hurt the Panthers. They had 8 goals on 20 power play opportunities and is second best in the league. But Carolina has the second best penalty Kill only allowing 3 goals on 26 power play opportunities to Nashville behind brilliant play from rookie goalie Nedeljkovic and whoever wins this battle should have the upper hand in the series.
Stats from first round
Goals for to Goals against
Carolina 22-16 Tampa Bay 24-17
Power Play
Carolina 4/19 Tampa Bay 8/20
Penalty Kill
Carolina 23/26 Tampa Bay 16/22
Hits
Carolina 271 Tampa Bay 232
Shots
Carolina 254 Tampa Bay 187
Tampa Bay has advantage offensively: Carolina offense is really good especially with Aho and Svechnikov leading the charge but with Stamkos and Kucherov healthy and Barclay Goodrow back from injury Tampa Bay has the better offense.
Carolina has advantage Defensively: the Hurricanes are known for their depth at defense and one of the best defences in the league and I think they are better than Tampa Bay even after Tampa got David Savard at the trade deadline.
Tampa Bay has advantage on goaltending: Andrei Vasilevskiy is a top 5 goalie in the world right now and I know that Alex Nedeljkovic is a good up and coming goalie but for now Vasilevskiy is better.
Prediction: Carolina in 7 games
Carolina is a good team and I think would be able to beat Tampa Bay. For the Canes to beat the Bolts in this series first Alex Nedeljkovic will have to be even better than he was in round one as he has to compete with Vasilevskiy, Carolina’a Penalty Kill has to be up to the challenge off facing A Lightning power play that was second in the league and Carolina has to get depth scoring that can mirror Tampa Bay’s but if they can do these things than I’m sure they can win the series.
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