PRIMEPUCKS™ 2015 FIRST ROUND PLAYOFF REVIEW The 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs are beginning shortly and PrimePucks™ is taking a look at what they predict will happen in the first round and beyond. NEW YORK RANGERS vs. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS:  After last season’s improbable run at the Stanley Cup only to fall short by losing to a more determined Los Angeles Kings team, the New York Rangers are back in the dance but this time with a more focused outlook.  It appears the Rangers got a very good taste and were thisclose to hoisting Lord Stanley’s Cup that they locked down the home ice advantage throughout by winning the President’s Cup with a very solid second half. The Rangers take on the Pittsburgh Penguins who seem to be a team in disarray especially after losing their best defenseman in Kris Letang for the remainder of this season with a concussion. The team with all this talent up front seemed to have trouble finding their offensive game with the loss of Letang.  The Rangers on the other hand seemed to be getting better with every passing game.  Expect the Rangers to win this in no more than 6 games as they forge ahead to another Finals appearance.  Those of you in playoff pools should definitely start all the major Blueshirts like Rick Nash, Henrik Lundqvist, Keith Yandle, Derek Stepan, Mats Zuccarello, Ryan McDonagh, Martin St. Louis and company as this team has their eyes set on the silver trophy. MONTREAL CANADIENS vs. OTTAWA SENATORS:  The Rangers likely opponent in the Conference Finals, the Canadiens, should dispose of the surprising Ottawa Senators fairly easy behind MVP Candidate Carey Price.  The Senators had an amazing climb in the standings to reach the playoffs but will run into a team that has some motivation of their own to exact revenge on the Rangers, who they may have beaten in last year’s Conference Finals if it weren’t for Chris Kreider knocking Price out of the series with a collision in the first game of their match. For the Canadiens, it all starts with Price. And in front of Price there is a defensive core that packs a punch both in the scoring department and defensively as well.  P.K. Subban leads the charge on both those ends with veteran Andrei Markov supplying steady support. The rest of the defense will give other teams fits to round out the Montreal defense.  On the forward front, Max Pacioretty leads the charge with Tomas Plekanec, Alex Galchenyuk, David Desharnais and Brendan Gallagher rounding out the scorers but don’t expect high scoring games as they main focus is defense in front of Price.  The formula seems to work just fine for this Montreal team to make another solid run to the Conference Finals. Ottawa’s strong run will hit a brick wall when they have to face Montreal in a 7-game series and Cinderella goaltender Andrew Hammond will get a taste of NHL playoff life.  Craig Anderson has shown playoff brilliance in the past if Hammond falters but no matter who is in net, Montreal should prevail and win in 5 games allowing the Habs to move onto the next round. Price is a must have in these playoffs along with Subban and Pacioretty as this series will probably be a low-scoring affair.  TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING vs DETROIT RED WINGS: This series will be tougher than at first glance. Detroit has always been a force during both the regular season and the playoffs, and if the veterans Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk can stay healthy along with the next generation players such as Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Tatar stepping up their game, Tampa could be in for a rude awakening.  Of course there is the goaltending controversy as to whether Petr Mrazek earned the right to start for the Red Wings, but the Motor City team will stick with the vet Jimmy Howard in net but won’t hesitate to make the switch should the team need to.  The Red Wings defense starts with Niklas Kronwall but the addition of veteran Marek Zidlicky at the trade deadline gives the Wings another scoring option from the blue line.  A dark horse for Detroit could be Justin Abdelkader who has been a consistent contributor during his 6th year with the club scoring a career high 23 goals and 44 points.  The Wings pack plenty of depth and their system has worked wonders for years to come but will face a very potent Lightning team and if they can’t contain the scoring depth of Tampa Bay, they will out in possibly 4 games.  Tyler Johnson showed that last year’s rookie campaign of 50 points was no fluke by bettering his numbers by 22.  Those 72 points were actually tied for the team lead with Steven Stamkos.  The team has infused the roster with talented youngsters from Nikita Kucherov (64 points), Ondrej Palat (63 points) to supplement the veterans Ryan Callahan (54 points) & Valtteri Filppula (48 points). The Lightning doesn’t stop there as the defense has been molded to almost perfection with the addition of Anton Stralman & Jason Garrison in the off-season to play along with Victor Hedman, Matt Carle and Andrej Sustr.  Don’t expect much offense from any of the blue liners except for Hedman, who was able to play a full season, could have reached 60 points.  The only concern for the Bolts is that they lack any type of veteran leadership in the crease which may be an advantage to the Red Wings if they can get to Ben Bishop early as they only have rookie Andrej Vasilevskiy as the backup.  The Lightning should be able to play a complete game against the Red Wings in this series and move on to the next round in 5 games.  Go with the top scorers on Tampa in this one. WASHINGTON CAPITALS vs. NEW YORK ISLANDERS: This should be one doozy of a matchup as both teams can put up points in a hurry.  The Islanders have made it back to the post season on the backs of goaltender Jaroslav Halak and forward John Tavares.  Both have had excellent years with JT just falling short of the scoring title.  The Islanders seemed to have had the division title sewn up but they tired a bit at the ¾ mark and the Rangers were just steamrolling along to grasp the title away from the Isles.  But the playoffs are a new start and the Islanders will put up a good fight. The Isles were missing Kyle Okposo for a part of the season but when he came back he seemed to have regained the chemistry he had with Tavares.  Expect the bulk of the Islanders scoring to come from those two but the Islanders hopes are dependent upon how well Halak can perform.  We all know what he did while in Montreal for the 2009-2010 playoffs and the Islanders will need that kind of effort to get past the Washington Capitals.  Funny how it’s the Capitals against whom Halak made a name for himself when he turned aside 53 shots in Game 6 and then completed the comeback from a 3-1 series deficit to oust the President’s Trophy winning Caps. For the Caps, it used to start and end with Alex Ovechkin and why shouldn’t it be?  Well, it still is to a degree but AO needs Nicklas Backstrom and vice versa.  Ovechkin scored 53 goals and was a plus 10 under new Head Coach Barry Trotz so you know he is playing a complete game now with more focus on the entire aspect of the game.  It was the sixth time in 10 NHL seasons that the Great 8 has scored 50 or more goals in a season.  He probably would’ve scored 50+ in the Lockout shortened season as he did have 32 goals in 48 games played that season.  So this is where the bulk of the Capitals offense lies so for the Caps, it will all depend on the talents of goaltender Braden Holtby.  Holtby enjoyed a career year under his new head coach with 41 wins and 10 shutouts to stake claim that he has arrived as a bona fide NHL goaltender.  He also started in 27 straight showing his durability which is a key factor for the long playoff run. For those in elimination type playoff pools, your best bet is to stick with the top guns on these two teams as mentioned above and perhaps pick a goaltender from another team that has a higher probability of advancing as these two net minders appear to be in a real dogfight.