The St. Louis Blues haven’t been to the Stanley Cup final in almost 50 years, but they’ll get there this year in a meeting with the reigning Eastern Conference champions. Here are The Canadian Press picks for the NHL conference finals:
Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning
Pick: Lightning in seven.
There’s very little separating the two Eastern finalists, and that should ensure a close conference final.
Pittsburgh has followed a dominant finish to the regular season (14 wins in 16 games) with a pretty thorough takedown of both the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals.
The Penguins depth has been most encouraging.
The team’s best line throughout the playoffs has not included either Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby. Instead, it’s been the trio of Phil Kessel, Nick Bonino and Carl Hagelin.
Kessel has been especially dangerous, leading the team with 12 points through the first two rounds, including a two-goal, three-point performance in the Game 6 clincher against Washington.
Pittsburgh’s defence is also back at full-strength with Olli Maatta returning from a suspected concussion and Kris Letang enjoying an impressive post-season.
Rookie Matt Murray, meanwhile, has been terrific in goal, though there are lingering questions in the Penguins crease with longtime No. 1 Marc-Andre Fleury available to play.
Tampa has rushed to another Eastern Conference final despite playing without captain Steven Stamkos and defenceman Anton Stralman.
Like the Penguins, the Lightning have quality depth, though they’ve been led mostly this post-season by the exciting combination of Nikita Kucherov and Tyler Johnson. An impending restricted free agent, Kucherov has been electric with nine goals in 10 games, while Johnson has risen after a subpar regular season with 13 points.
Additionally fueling the Lightning’s run is polarizing 21-year-old winger Jonathan Drouin, mesmerizing at times (nine points) following a turbulent regular season which included a much-publicized team suspension and trade request.
Tampa is backed by perhaps the best goaltender in the NHL this season, Ben Bishop, who has two shutouts already this spring. The club may also get both Stamkos and Stralman back at some point, the Swedish defenceman the likelier of the two.
Even without them there’s enough here in terms of speed and skill for the Lightning to match up with and ultimately defeat the favoured Penguins.
The difference may just be in goal. While Murray has shined in his first NHL post-season, Fleury lingers in the background, despite having not played since the end of March. An uncomfortable situation looms.
Bishop is Bishop, meanwhile, sturdy and reliable in Tampa’s net.
His edge is enough to guide the Lightning to a second straight Stanley Cup final.
St. Louis Blues vs. San Jose Sharks
Pick: Blues in seven.
St. Louis has been falling short in the playoffs for years, but not this spring. The Blues have already outlasted the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks and Western Conference top seed Dallas Stars, both in gruelling seven-game series.
This will be the year the Blues reach the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1970.
St. Louis is better all around than the Sharks, who beat the Nashville Predators 5-0 in Game 7 on Thursday night.
The Blues, for one, have two legitimate game-changers up front in Russian star Vladimir Tarasenko (seven goals, 13 points) and 20-year-old Robby Fabbri (13 points). Beyond those two emerging talents is plenty of quality, playoff-tested depth, from captain David Backes to Alex Steen to Paul Stastny to veteran Troy Brouwer, who has five goals and 10 points thus far.
That depth is matched by a sturdy back-end, fronted by Alex Pietrangelo, who’s doing it all for St. Louis while averaging 30 minutes a night.
The big question for the Blues is goaltender Brian Elliott. He’s been excellent since he took over for an injured Jake Allen late in the regular season, but old playoff demons remain and surfaced again when he was pulled quickly in Game 6 against Dallas.
Elliott rebounded with a near-perfect performance in Game 7. His conference final adversary, Martin Jones, has had his struggles.
The Sharks look dangerous (they won two of three against the Blues in the regular season) given their potent power-play, numerous weapons up front, not to mention on defence where wacky but incredibly productive Brent Burns continues to thrive (playoff-leading 15 points).
But the Blues are the pick for a rare Stanley Cup final appearance that will help erase past failures.
Playoff picks record: 10-2
