Nick’s Western Conference First Round Picks

We pick up with the second part of my playoff preview looking at the Western Conference matchups in round one. The West is once again the class of the league with six 100-point teams, a few of which showed real dominance from start to finish this year. We’ll start with the Central division matchups, which feature what I think are the league’s two best teams.

(1) Nashville vs. (WC 2) Colorado

We kick things off with the President’s trophy-winning Nashville Predators, who will face-off with the surprising Colorado Avalanche. The Preds have been on the war path since opening night as they finished the regular season with 117 points, the most in the league. Colorado, meanwhile, is a great story this year as they have gone from the basement of the league to the postseason.

The Avalanche are keyed by MVP candidate, Nathan MacKinnon, who is coming off his best professional season with 97 points in 74 games.

The Av’s full-scale rebuild was expected to begin following the trade of Matt Duchene to Ottawa. But instead, they’ve played brilliantly in the second half and battled their way past St. Louis to clinch the 8th spot on the second to last day of the season.

Continue reading Nick’s Western Conference First Round Picks at Daily Rivals.