First round fan votes raising plenty of eyebrows around Leafs Nation
The 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs matchups have been set, ladies and gentlemen, and there are some very intriguing round one matchups that really could go either way - especially in the Eastern Conference. Here are the Eastern and Western Conference round 1 matchups:
EAST:
Washington @ Florida
Tampa Bay @ Toronto
Pittsburgh @ New York
Boston @ Carolina
WEST:
Nashville @ Colorado
St. Louis @ Minnesota
Dallas @ Calgary
Los Angeles @ Edmonton
Hockey data analyst JFresh (@JFreshHockey on Twitter) polled his nearly 60,000 followers for their votes on how the first round matchups would unfold and, needless to to say, some of the votes raised a few eyebrows in Leafs Nation.
The results are arranged in order of the differential (expressed in a percentile) that separates the votes. Here's how the first round opponents measured up to one another in the votes.
It is actually quite surprising how many people have written off the Leafs against the Bolts. Not only do the Leafs have home ice advantage, but they finished ahead of the Lightning in the regular season and made, arguably, the more impactful moves at and ahead of the deadline.
Each team had a blowout win over the other this season, and each team also secured a narrow victory over the other as well, knotting the season series up at 2 wins apiece. The Leafs won more games in regulation, scored more goals, had a better goal differential and the Leafs had 7 players above 50 points to the Lightning's 5.
Both teams are incredibly deep, and the series is likely to be a lot closer than the vote might suggest that it will be. Listen. I know the Lightning are back-to-back Stanley Cup Champions, but I have a really hard time writing off the Leafs this year, given how dominant they've been this season. This year, we saw a much more resilient Leafs team and one who excelled against tough competition. I can appreciate why 64% of voters leaned Lightning, but I wouldn't be shocked in the least if the Leafs take this one in 6.
| POLL | ||
1 MAI | 658 ANSWERS First round fan votes raising plenty of eyebrows around Leafs Nation Who takes the round one series between the Bolts and the Leafs | ||
| Leafs in 4-5 | 83 | 12.6 % |
| Tampa in 4-5 | 28 | 4.3 % |
| Leafs in 6-7 | 483 | 73.4 % |
| Tampa in 6-7 | 64 | 9.7 % |
| List of polls | ||
