The Pacific Division's second-seeded Edmonton Oilers take on the Pacific's third-seeded San Jose Sharks in a classic battle of youth versus experience. It will also mark Oilers head coach Todd McLellan facing his former team.
The Oilers are in the playoffs for the first time since they lost the Stanley Cup Final in 2005-06. Outside of Milan Lucic, the roster has very little postseason experience. The Oilers won the season series 3-2, taking the final three games.
The Sharks will be looking to head back to the Stanley Cup Final after losing in the dance to Pittsburgh last season. The Sharks faded down the stretch, going 4-9 in the final 13 games. The roster is littered with postseason experience.
Players to watch
Oilers: Cam Talbot
Everyone will be watching Connor McDavid in this series, regardless of whether he's the player to watch.
Talbot provided the Oilers with stable goaltending for the first time since Dwayne Roloson did more than a decade ago. He was fantastic, actually, posting a 2.39 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage and leading the league with 42 wins. The concern with Talbot is that he played a league-high 73 games this year - seven more than the next goalie.
In fact, since the 2007-08 season there have only 25 instances in which a goaltender played 70-plus regular-season games. In only five of those instances did the goalie's team make it past the first round of the playoffs. Four of those teams were eliminated in Round 2. The fifth team was eliminated in the Conference Finals.
It will be interesting to see if Talbot can avoid fatigue in the early going.
Sharks: Logan Couture
Couture will have the toughest task of any player in the series: shutting down McDavid.
It's nearly impossible to actually shut down the league's most electrifying player, but if Couture is able to at least contain McDavid, the Sharks have a great chance at winning the series.
During the regular season, McDavid tallied four goals and four assists in five games against the Sharks. However, Couture wasn't present for the final two meetings, where McDavid picked two points in each contest.
Still, four points in three games is far from shutting down McDavid. He will have to be better if the Sharks are going to come out on top.
Weakest links
Oilers: Scoring depth
McDavid scored or got an assist on 41 percent of Edmonton's goals this year, while Leon Draisaitl was in on 31.6 percent of Edmonton's goals. If Edmonton is going to win this series, the second line of left winger Lucic, center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and right winger Jordan Eberle is going to have to produce.
This trio combined for a modest 144 points this season - not bad for a second line - but they will need to provide secondary scoring to take the burden (somewhat) off McDavid's shoulders.
Sharks: Speed
As mentioned, the Sharks are a veteran team. Five of their top six point producers are over the age of 30, including Joe Thornton, 37, Patrick Marleau, 37, and Joel Ward, 36. Even on the back end, Paul Martin is 35.
As is the case with older teams, the Sharks aren't the quickest bunch. The speed of the Oilers, specifically McDavid, could prove to be a handful.
Prediction
McDavid and the Oilers will prove to be too much to handle for the aging Sharks. The more pressure they have on the Sharks in the offensive zone, the more penalties they will draw. This is a recipe for success considering they own the league's fifth-best power play.
Furthermore, not only are the Sharks getting up there in age, but they are also banged up. Both of Joe Thornton's legs will need to be broken to keep him out of action, but it doesn't appear he'll be at 100 percent - or even close to it - thanks to a lower-body injury. He missed the last three games of the regular season.
In addition to Thornton, the aforementioned Couture is dealing with a mouth injury. Those are two very key players for San Jose and both are listed as day-to-day.
San Jose's experience should help them win at least a couple games, but Edmonton should be able to take this one in six games.
(Photos courtesy: Action Images)
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