The Stanley Cup Playoffs will kickoff on Saturday with the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals kicking things off. The Dallas Stars may not be competing for Lord Stanely this season, but there are still some storylines that Stars fans can get behind.
BOSTON BRUINS
Why to root for them: It might be Zdeno Chara’s last rodeo, and the team standing in his way will be his old mates. A veritable David vs Goliath, if you will.
WASHINGTON CAPITALS
Why to root for them: TJ Oshie losing his father and then netting a hat trick in the game immediately after is easily something you’d want to see him build upon in a magical postseason run.
NEW YORK ISLANDERS
Why to root for them: If an older, slower, defensively-oriented team could win, why not the Stars?
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS
Why to root for them: The Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin bromance is kind of like the older, grizzled veteran version of the Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin bromance. It’ll kind of be like glimpsing into the future a bit.
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING
Why to root for them: Maybe the fans can figure out how to solve Andrei Vasilevskiy because the Stars sure didn’t figure it out this year.
FLORIDA PANTHERS
Why to root for them: The rules of southern hockey are that you have to root for southern hockey, right?
WINNIPEG JETS
Why to root for them:
We know who Billie will be cheering for. #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/GVACzmgzd5
— NHLPA (@NHLPA) May 12, 2021
EDMONTON OILERS
Why to root for them: Connor McDavid put up a 100-plus point season in 56 games. Imagine how much damage he’ll be able to do in the playoffs when the stakes get higher and the games get harder.
MONTREAL CANADIENS
Why to root for them: Well they have Corey Perry, so depending on how much you valued his performance for the Stars in the Stanley Cup run last year could depend on your view of the Canadiens this year. But really the answer is to watch Toronto’s world burn by getting beat by Montreal.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS
Why to root for them: Jason Spezza. That’s it, that’s the reason. But if you need to add one more: Joe Thornton.
COLORADO AVALANCHE
Why to root for them: It’s hard not to root for the Avalanche to crash and burn just so people can stop saying the Stars lucked into beating them in last year’s Stanley Cup Final run, but watching Nathan MacKinnon go head-to-head against elite forwards on teams likely to make it past the first round might be worthwhile. (Might is doing a lot of heavy lifting there.)
ST. LOUIS BLUES
Why to root for them: If an older, slower, defensively-oriented team could win, why not the Stars?
VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS
Why to root for them: Their pre-game shows are unmatched in the NHL.
MINNESOTA WILD
Why to root for them: The Wild finally have a rookie phenom making the hockey world pay attention to Minnesota in Kirill Kaprizov. Makes up for the past 20-plus years of mediocrity in the State of Hockey, I guess.
CAROLINA HURRICANES
Why to root for them: They’re fun. They have talented players and Andrei Svechnikov is worth the price of admission alone with his lacrosse-style goal attempts and sneaky scoring threats. They play a balance of offense and defense and rookie goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic could battle with the likes of Jake Oettinger in the future.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Why to root for them: Cold hard truth: Stars fans won’t be rooting for the Predators. Instead, they’ll be re-living that time John Klingberg ended their postseason run in overtime and imagining which Hurricanes player will be that hero this year.