Settle in and get ready: An ‘ultracompetitive’ 2nd round of the NHL playoffs is here

The second round of the NHL playoffs begins Monday night, after no sweeps and two series going the distance to get to this point.

Dallas emerged from a seven-game series against Colorado, and Edmonton rallied from down 2-0 to eliminate Los Angeles and move on in the gauntlet that is the Western Conference. Neither will have an easy time coming up, with the Stars facing either league-best Winnipeg or red-hot St. Louis and Connor McDavid and the Oilers taking on Vegas, which has home-ice advantage.

In the East, defending Stanley Cup champion Florida faces Toronto — trying to reach its first conference final since 2002 — while Alex Ovechkin and Washington play Carolina in a series that won’t get the attention of Panthers-Maple Leafs but has the potential to be must-see entertainment.

It just all might be a little different than the fast-and-furious, rough-hitting first round.

“I think it just settles down a little bit (after) everybody is so amped up at the beginning of the playoffs,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “It’s going to be ultracompetitive, and it’s going to be physical and it’s playoff hockey. But I think it’ll be teams that are settled in and very, very focused on what they need to do to gain the upper hand against their opponent.”

After dispatching cross-state rival Tampa Bay in five games, the Panthers are favorites to repeat at odds of just over 4-1 on BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by the Oilers, Hurricanes and Stars. Edmonton is favored to win the West and set up a Cup final rematch in June, but there’s a lot of hockey to be played first.

West semifinal: Dallas vs. Winnipeg or St. Louis

This one is expected to start Wednesday night, either in Texas or Manitoba, pending the result of Blues-Jets Game 7 later Sunday night. It’s no surprise that the Central Division bracket produced the two longest series, given the depth of legitimate contenders.

The Stars got a storybook, historic performance from former Avalanche standout Mikko Rantanen to defeat the Avalanche. Rantanen became the first player in league history with a third-period hat trick in a Game 7.

“When you go through a game like that, you’re just numb,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “It’s hard to process what really happened.”

Now they’re poised to get their top defenseman, Miro Heiskanen, and leading goal-scorer, Jason Robertson, back at some point in the second round after not having either against Colorado. Heiskanen has been out since having surgery on his left knee in early February, while Robertson got injured in the final game of the regular season and was immediately considered week to week.

Dallas also has goaltender Jake Oettinger in mid-playoff form. He stopped 25 of 27 shots in Game 7 and believes he and his teammates may have already survived perhaps their toughest test.

“I have a hard time believing that there’s any team that’s much better than Colorado out there,” Oettinger said. “Maybe try to win Game 1.”

West semifinal: Edmonton vs. Vegas

Beginning Tuesday night at the “Fortress” just off the Strip, the Oilers and Golden Knights meet in the playoffs for a second time in three years. Vegas won that series on the way to capturing the Stanley Cup in the franchise’s seventh season of existence.

Much has changed since, including Edmonton firing Jay Woodcroft and hiring Kris Knoblauch as coach and reaching Game 7 of the final before losing to Florida last year. The Oilers still have McDavid and MVP finalist Leon Draisaitl.

“They changed their head coach, and they use their depth players more,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “They still rely on their two big guys, obviously, but they won games with depth against LA.”

The Golden Knights found great success in putting centers Jack Eichel and William Karlsson on the top line with captain Mark Stone in beating Minnesota 4-2 in the first round. They’ll hope for more against Edmonton.

“Both teams have some pretty high-end talent,” Eichel said. “We know it’s going to be a tough series.”

East semifinal: Toronto vs. Florida

Going into their series beginning Monday night in Toronto, the Panthers and Leafs largely have the same cores as they did when they met in the second round in 2023, though neither really plays the same way. And Toronto has three players — defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, forward Steven Lorentz and goaltender Anthony Stolarz — who were with Florida for its Cup run last year.

The Leafs’ strength is a daunting, five-forward power play unit of Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares. The Panthers emphasized getting stronger and deeper on the penalty kill at the trade deadline, one of many reasons why GM Bill Zito went out and got Brad Marchand and Nico Sturm.

“You get the chance to play hockey in late April, May, hopefully June,” Sturm said. “I want to play meaningful games. And these are about as meaningful as it gets, against the best players in the world.”

East semifinal: Carolina vs. Washington

The Capitals-Hurricanes game April 2 featured two fights, eight misconducts and a total of 142 penalty minutes. Jalen Chatfield’s takedown of Connor McMichael at the end of their bout did not please Carbery and his players, and Brandon Duhaime fought Chatfield when they played nine nights later.

These teams have not met in the playoffs since 2019, but playing twice in the final few weeks of the season built up plenty of animosity between division rivals who know each other well and don’t particularly like each other all that much.

“We’re going to have to dictate play and worry about our game and make sure we’re really focused and dialed in, because there’s not going to be a lot of time and space out there,” Capitals winger Tom Wilson said. “You’re going to have two fast, big teams in the East going at it. I think it’s going to be high-paced, physical, detailed hockey.”

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AP Sports Writers Stephen Hawkins in Dallas, Mark Anderson in Las Vegas and Tim Reynolds in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed.

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AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl