Stanley Cup Playoffs: Western Conference packs some familiar games

It's playoff time in the NHL. Thursday we broke down the Eastern Conference. Now we'll dive into

the West and as I pointed out every hockey team uses a whiteboard to diagram plays. Well I'm

showing you the matchups on the whiteboard. Game one Saturday between the eight seed St. Louis

and the top seed in the West Winnipeg. I think I think my drawings are getting better. The Jets

are the President's Trophy winners with 116 points the most in the league and it's their defense

backstopped by the best goalie in the league, Conor Hellebuck, that drives the bus

They'll face maybe the hottest team in the league, in the Blues, since the Four Nations break to the end of the season

They went an astonishing 19-4-3, including a 12-game winning streak. Needless to say, they have confidence

Just can't be happy that we're in and playing Winnipeg. Winnipeg is obviously a good team and it's going to present a good challenge for us

But I don't think anyone gave us a chance, really, at the end of the day where we were

And I'm glad we kept it together. All right, whoever advances there will meet the winner of this matchup

the Stars and Avalanche. What a matchup in the first round, right? Perennial playoff teams, one of which is going to go home early

Talk about big-time players, Nathan McKinnon and Cale McCarr against former teammate Mikko Rantanen

who was abruptly traded away by Colorado earlier this year. The Avs could get a boost from Gabe Landeskog's return

He's missed nearly three full seasons because of a knee injury. The Stars have had some trouble on defense

They're hoping Miro Heiskanen can return at some point. You know, Saturday's the first time in probably three weeks

where we're playing, you know, basically with our season back on the line again

You know, so that desperation level has to be there. Our execution has to be there

You know, so we've got to make sure we're ready for that. On the other side of the West bracket it is the two seed Vegas Golden Knights against the Minnesota Wilds this one lopsided at least on paper two against seven you know Vegas secured the Pacific Division title weeks ago

they have been resting up and the Wild secured their playoff spot with a tying goal in the final

20 seconds against the Anaheim Ducks in their last game of the season but give Minnesota credit

they won four of their last five all of which went to overtime Vegas they've won the last five

games against the Wild and both sides remember their playoff meeting in 2021. It's going to be

an exciting series. They're a heavy team. I played them in the past and it was a very exciting series

It went to seven. Remember, Janmark got the hat trick for us to seal the deal against them. So

we know they're going to fight tooth and nail. You know, they hit a little rough patch there at

the end of the season, but they clawed their way back in and now it's official. And that brings us

to the final first round series. Talk about meeting before in the playoffs. The Edmonton

Oilers have knocked out the Los Angeles Kings in the first round each of the last three seasons

I know my Kings. I didn't have a silver marker. This time around, the Kings are the team with

home ice advantage, and they just might have the defensive chops to slow down Connor McDavid and

Leon Dreisaitl. The Oilers will also be without star defenseman Matthias Ekholm, at least in the

early going. And the Kings hope to take advantage of that and jump out to a fast start. I think the

first year we played them, I think we were the better team. I think we should have beat them

So yeah, it's hard to say, but I think everybody is pretty confident how we're playing right now

And I feel like we, yeah, it feels like we're a better team than we have been in the past

And home ice advantage could be a big factor. For the third straight season

the NHL broke their league-wide attendance record. The fans will bring it during the playoffs

you can bet. We've got more coverage as the chase for Lord Stanley's Cup goes into June

And maybe some more drawings too. For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis