The Nashville Predators are done dealing with the speed of Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.
Next Daryl Johnston Jersey , they get the physicality of Dustin Byfuglien and the Winnipeg Jets .
There’s no easy test this time of year.
”They’ve got size. They’ve got skill. They’ve got speed,” forward Austin Watson said Sunday night after Nashville beat the Avalanche 5-0 in Game 6 to clinch the series. ”Get our rest and get prepared.”
Nashville looks every bit like the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final a season ago and won the Presidents’ Trophy this season. The Predators are hitting their stride heading into the Winnipeg series. They had 11 forwards notch at least a point in the Colorado series.
Not to be outdone, the Jets had a balanced scoring attack in closing out Minnesota, 4-1.
”We saw how the regular season went against them. They’re good hockey games,” said Watson, whose team went 3-1-1 against the Jets during the year. ”We’re excited.”
This goaltending showdown should be worth the price of admission: Pekka Rinne vs. Connor Hellebuyck.
One Vezina Trophy finalist against another. Both are coming off a solid series, with Rinne stopping 22 shots in a 5-0 win Sunday to close out the series with Colorado. Hellebuyck had a 1.94 goals-against average in eliminating the Wild.
”Moving into the second round, I think you want to be playing very good defensive hockey against Winnipeg,” Rinne said. ”One of the better teams in the league. They have a lot of firepower, a lot of talent up front. Also, like ours, their `D’ is a big part of their game. I think it’s going to be very exciting, good series.”
The Western Conference semifinals feature a little bit of history: This marks only the third time the final four in the conference are all chasing after their first Stanley Cup since the introduction of conferences in `74-75, according to information provided by the league. The scenario also occurred in 2012 (the Los Angeles Kings hoisted the Cup) and in 1984 (Edmonton).
In the other semifinal matchup set to get underway, expansion Las Vegas faces San Jose.
”Anytime you win a series you’re feeling confident,” Predators forward Nick Bonino said. ”We’re going to be as confident as we can going against Winnipeg. We know how good they are.”
That’s a sentiment shared by forward Filip Forsberg Matt Paradis Jersey , who scored four goals against Colorado.
”It was a good test for us. These guys have been flying around for six games, playing really fast hockey,” Forsberg said. ”We’ve been trying to play as fast as we can as well. If we can bring that speed into the next round that will be good.”
The Nashville defense will have its hands full with the likes of Jets forward Patrik Laine, who scored 44 goals in the regular season, and Blake Wheeler (91 points).
Still, the Predators enter on a high after posting a shutout victory in a series-ending game for the first time in franchise history. They joined Vegas and Winnipeg as the third team to accomplish the feat this postseason.
”It’s better to end it this way than hanging on at the end,” Predators coach Peter Laviolette said. ”There are other teams on the ice that are pretty good hockey teams. You see it in other series going on. It would have been great if you win (the series) 4-0 but that wasn’t the case. We had an opposition that was young, skilled and fast and they had nothing to lose, and they played that way. There were times in the first five games it didn’t look like it was just going happen – we were going to have to work for it.
”It was nice tonight to play a game we were comfortable with.”
The Avs take some pride in knowing they gave the Predators fits at times.
”We made them fight for it,” Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said.
Exactly.
”The way Colorado works and battles and plays the game fast, it definitely challenged us,” Predators center Colton Sissons said. ”It was a good experience for us going forward.”
—
Their doubters are dropping off as quickly as the competition.
Only one team has advanced to the conference finals in these NBA playoffs, and it’s the same squad that looked vulnerable during a chaotic regular season, beatable in the postseason and was one loss from a possible franchise collapse.
The ending’s been postponed. The Cleveland Cavaliers aren’t nearly finished.
On Monday night, the Cavs completed their second straight four-game sweep of the Toronto Raptors, the East’s top team and the one that was supposedly built to dethrone them Eric Ebron Jersey , with a 128-93 win in Game 4 that has perhaps changed Cleveland’s outlook.
LeBron James, whose future hangs over this city like a looming thunderstorm, scored 29 points with 11 assists and eight rebounds on 12 of 19 shooting – an ordinary performance by his standards – as the Cavs won their 10th straight over the Raptors with one of their most complete games in months.
After all the injuries, the failed Isaiah Thomas experiment, the roster overhaul at the trading deadline and other distractions, the Cavs, who can get some rest while waiting for the Philadelphia-Boston winner, are peaking at the right time.
Their path to the East finals wasn’t straight. But they arrived.
”We’ve had four or five seasons wrapped in one, we know what the narrative has been about our team,” said James, who averaged 34 points, 8.3 rebounds and 11.3 assists in the series. ”But I can only speak in the moment. To be able to put ourselves in position where we can represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals, that’s all you can ask for. So we’re excited about being part of the Eastern Conference finals once again and having the opportunity to compete for a championship.
”That is what our goal is.”
James has been reluctant to discuss the Cavs’ chances to win a title or get back to the Finals for the fourth straight year, but his confidence has grown with each victory.
Kevin Love, who struggled in a seven-game scrap with Indiana in the first round, had another solid game with 23 points. Kyle Korver added 16 Kendall Wright Jersey , J.R. Smith scored 15 on 6-for-6 shooting and point guard George Hill, who was sidelined for three games in the Pacers series, added 12.
The Cavs were balanced and were finally able to take some of the pressure off James, who had seemingly been abandoned by his teammates through much of the postseason.
In fact, things had gotten so bad that ”Saturday Night Live” did a skit last weekend that went viral on social media called ”The Other Cavaliers,” a parody that poked fun at Cleveland’s supporting cast.
James, though, said his faith never wavered.
”I believe in my teammates so as everyone was burying my teammates alive throughout that first-round series, I just continued to tell them, `Listen, we can’t win without each and every one doing their jobs and being as great as they can be,” James said. ”I continued to preach that so it’s impossible for me to lose confidence in our ballclub no matter what the stakes are or where we’re down because if I do that – then where are we going to go from a team aspect?”
After winning 59 games in the regular season, the Raptors had the East’s top seed and figured that this was their year. James had other plans.
Toronto came into the series feeling great. By the end, the Raptors were defeated and deflated. Exactly one year since they were last swept by James, he did it to them again.
”Everyone had counted Cleveland out,” said coach Dwane Casey John Franklin-Myers Jersey , whose job could be in jeopardy. ”They struggled a little bit. They had the big trade and all that. Everyone thought they were vulnerable but as long as they have him, they have a chance and that’s what we were looking at. But 10 days ago we had all the confidence in the world.”
As the Cavs look ahead to a matchup with either the Sixers or Celtics, who lead that series 3-1 and host Game 5 on Wednesday, Love’s renaissance gives Cleveland the most comfort.
The All-Star was rendered ineffective in Round 1 by the Pacers, whose big men battered him and took Love out of his game.
But despite cries to bench Love or move him back from center to power forward, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue stuck with him, and in doing so may have prolonged Cleveland’s season.
Love said there was nothing magical about his turnaround.
”It just came from me being me,” he said. ”I didn’t forget how to play basketball, I was just ultra-aggressive. I found myself in spots, I found myself just missing little chippies, missing shots that were uncharacteristic of me to miss. But I continued to be aggressive, continued to put in the work every single day. So for me it was just more than anything it was just me being myself.”
And now the Cavs appear to be themselves.
Jaren Jackson Jr. Jersey ,
