The National Hockey League regular season is now over and the playoffs begin tonight with three games on tap. With 16 teams making it to the post-season, there are bound to be a few former Halifax Mooseheads players that will be fighting for the Stanley Cup. Six alumni are on teams participating in this year's playoffs and while none of them will play against each other in the first round, hopefully a few will in subsequent rounds.
The New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche were bit of a surprise to make the playoffs especially the Avs who finished last in the league last season. Nathan MacKinnon played a huge part in Colorado's return to the post-season, producing his best season so far in his short career and leading the team in scoring. MacKinnon ended the regular season 5th in league scoring with 97 points in 74 games. The Avalanche will play the President's Trophy winning Nashville Predators in the opening round and will need Kid Mack to keep producing if they have any chance of defeating the Preds. Nico Hischier on the other hand, had a pretty good rookie season and was second in team scoring on the Devils. New Jersey will play the Eastern Conference regular season champion Tampa Bay Lightning.
Halifax native Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins will be taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 1. Marchand finished the season on top of the Bruins leaderboard with 85 points. Alum Jakub Voracek has his best season as well in terms of points, recording 85 in 2017-18 for the Philadelphia Flyers who will matchup against their interstate rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This series begins tonight at 8pm ET on CBC.
In the West, Nikolaj Ehlers and the Winnipeg Jets take on the Minnesota Wild, a series that starts to tonight at 8pm ET on Sportsnet. Ehlers was able to score more goals this season than his previous two and was third in team scoring. The other matchup will be a battle of California as Timo Meier and the San Jose Sharks taking on the Anaheim Ducks. 2017-18 saw Meier play almost every game during the regular season, missing only one game.
Good luck to all six players and their teams as they battle for the chance to raise the Stanley Cup in two months time. Congrats to all them as well on excellent seasons. Check out their finals stats below.
G A Pts +/- PIM
Jakub Voracek PHI 20 65 85 +10 50
Nikolaj Ehlers WPG 29 31 60 +14 26
Brad Marchand BOS 34 51 85 +25 63
Nico Hischier NJ 20 32 52 +10 26
Timo Meier SJ 21 15 36 +2 51
Nathan MacKinnon COL 39 58 97 +11 55
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