The Florida Panthers and Seattle Kraken pulled off huge upsets in Game 7 on Sunday night to advance. Neither team receives much of a break as the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs start on Tuesday night with the Toronto Maple Leafs hosting the Panthers and the Kraken traveling to Dallas to take on the Stars.
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Both the Panthers and Kraken will again be underdogs in the second round. Will either team be able to bounce back from an emotional Game 7 win and steal a victory on the road on Tuesday night?
Let’s get to the picks.
During the Stanley Cup playoffs, The Athletic’s writers will make their straight-up picks. You’ll find picks, coverage and the latest odds here. Our in-depth NHL coverage is linked below the picks.
All odds from BetMGM and update live.
Game 1 – Panthers at Maple Leafs
Series odds: Maple Leafs (-165), Panthers (+140)
7 p.m. on ESPN, SN, CBC
For the first time since 2004, Toronto will play past the first round. And it’ll do so as big favorites against Florida after the Panthers crawled back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat Boston in seven games. The Maple Leafs knocked off the Tampa Bay Lightning in six games, including three overtime wins on the road. The Leafs won three of the four regular season games between these teams with three of the games going to overtime.
Toronto’s stars shined against Tampa Bay with Mitch Marner (11 points), Auston Matthews (9 points) and Morgan Rielly (8 points) leading the way. Goalie Ilya Samsonov didn’t play perfect hockey, but he made enough saves to help the Leafs win a first round series.
Florida won its first playoff series since 1996 last year and now looks to make it to the conference final for the first time since the Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final in 1996.
Matthew Tkachuk led the Panthers with 109 points in the regular season and led the team with 11 points in the first round upset of the Bruins. Defenseman Brandon Montour also had a great series against Boston scoring five goals and adding three assists. Toronto must find a way to slow down both in this series.
Game 1 – Kraken at Stars
Series odds: Stars (-190), Kraken (+155)
9:30 p.m. on ESPN, SN, CBC
Philipp Grubauer stole the show for Seattle to help the Kraken upset the Avalanche. Seattle also scored the first goal in all seven games against Colorado somehow getting off to a good start in every game and playing from ahead for the most part. Yanni Gourde, who won two Stanley Cups with Tampa Bay, led the Kraken with six points in the first round. No player scored more than two goals for Seattle in the opening round.
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If the Kraken are going to pull another upset, they’ll need to figure out how to score on Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger. He had a 2.01 goals-against average in the first round against with a .929 save percentage.
These two teams played each other thrice between March 11 and 21 in the regular season. Dallas won two of those games, with two of the three games going to overtime.
It feels like 2020 is forever ago, but the Stars did make the Stanley Cup Final that year in the bubble with some of these players. Stars coach Pete DeBoer has plenty of playoff experience and will have this group ready to handle Seattle in the second round.
More Stanley Cup Playoffs news
The Panthers pull off a playoff miracle: How they did it and why this run can continue
How did the Kraken knock out the defending Stanley Cup champions?
LeBrun: Maple Leafs legends on the end of the drought and what comes next — ‘They deserve this’
(Photo of Ryan O’Reilly and Matthew Tkachuk: Joel Auerbach / Getty Images)