vs
CENTRES: I love the Aho/Seguin/Shaw down the middle but McDavid being helped by Duchene still gives
COLORADO the win.
LEFT WINGS: Hoffman and Skinner basically cancel each other out - so it becomes JVR + Hagelin vs Drouin + Heinen and I'd prefer the size/defense combo of the former to win out the day -
VEGAS
RIGHT WINGS; Teravainen is the best of them - but on Vegas I love Williams as well, and Bailey/Panik/Bennett is more appealing to me than Dzingel/Kahun/Pirri - it's pretty close to a draw but maybe a slight advantage to
COLORADO due to the presence of Teravainen.
DEFENSE: I love Spurgeon, and Girard/Orlov give the Avs a bit of depth. Vegas has a killer shutdown pair to place on McDavid though in Lindholm/McAvoy and then Trouba/Brodie gives them just a bit more depth as I'm not a fan of Nick Leddy for the Avs.
VEGAS
GOALIES: Matt Murray has won a cup, twice. Devan Dubnyk/Cam Talbot have not - I'd trust Murray much more in this scenario.
VEGAS
VERDICT: VEGAS IN 6, they overall just are a bit more defensively prepared, better goaltending
vs
CENTRES: It's very close - Malkin and Tavares are a toss-up for me. I think the bottom six is similar. I have to go with
TORONTO because the gap between Point and Toews exists now.
LEFT WING: I'm going with
TORONTO again - I see Landeskog being a more adept playoff guy than DeBrincat, Pearson and Hintz are pretty close, bottom six is pretty close but I prefer Compher slightly to Dickinson.
RIGHT WING: Slight edge to
COLUMBUS, I think Zucker is the best overall RW here but Johnsson on his off wing and Donskoi doesn't convince me as much as Gourde + a versatile Namestnikov do and Granlund isn't that far off from Zucker. It's tight though.
DEFENSE: Other than the pairings Toronto has made, which are bad, they have better depth here. Martinez/Boqvist I still think is a very average 2nd pair when Boqvist hasn't proven anything, Dahlin/Pesce and OEL/Schmidt (or better, Manson) would be quite even. Toronto having Gardiner and Niskanen to play with gives them better depth, although Djoos-Holl is a very serviceable 3rd pair.
TORONTO
GOALIES: Holtby had his best work in round 3 vs Tampa Bay in 2018, have to go with
COLUMBUS here even though Francouz had a great season.
VERDICT: Toronto in 6, both teams have C as their strength and Leafs have slightly better Cs, and their D just has more depth on it.