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Eight questions for the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs
Young gun John Tavares and the New York Islanders take on veteran Jaromir Jagr and the Florida Panthers in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Brian Babineau/Getty Images

Eight questions for Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

There is plenty of drama to be had as playoff hockey gets underway and Lord Stanley’s Cup becomes an even closer prize.

Here’s a look at some of the biggest questions centering around each first-round series of the NHL postseason.

Do the Red Wings have what it takes to get revenge on the Lightning?

The Bolts bumped the Red Wings from the playoff picture last season, and now Detroit has a shot at taking a series win of its own. Solidifying their 25th consecutive playoff bid, however, hasn’t exactly been an easy task for the Red Wings, as they battled with the Philadelphia Flyers for a Wild Card spot well into the final weekend of regular-season games before ultimately leaping the Boston Bruins for the third spot in the Atlantic.

But it has to be kept in mind that Tampa Bay isn’t the same team that defeated Detroit a year ago. The Lightning is without captain Steven Stamkos and star defenseman Anton Stralman. That means Tampa needs healthy contributions across the board to take some of the pressure off of Ben Bishop — who should have another big postseason between the pipes.

Will the Penguins' hot streak continue against Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers?

While the Pens found a way to make up for the absence of Evgeni Malkin, they will need to put an even bigger premium on defense in order to help out their goaltending corps. Both starter Marc-Andre Fleury and his backup Matt Murray have suffered head injuries in the last leg of the regular season, and the Pens’ best bet is to give them as much help as possible — not matter who starts in goal.

That doesn’t mean that the pressure is off Pittsburgh to score as many goals as possible on the Rangers. While they took three of the four tilts in the season series, the Penguins have a playoff past of getting halted by Henrik Lundqvist.

Are the defending champion Blackhawks still the favorite in their matchup with the Blues?

The answer to this question was an easy “yes” a couple months ago. But injuries and a couple extra losses knocked the Blackhawks out of first place in the Central Division. They face a St. Louis team that has battled injuries up and down its lineup all season but managed to leapfrog Chicago in the standings to take second place in the division.

Goaltending is a bit of a question mark on both sides of the ice. The Blackhawks hope Corey Crawford will be back to midseason form after being sidelined with injury for the better part of March. Brian Elliott got the nod to start Game 1 for the Blues since Jake Allen was previously injured but has yet to face Chicago this season.

After winning the Presidents’ Trophy, do the Capitals have enough gas in the tank for a deep playoff run?

There was plenty of concern over Washington at the latter part of the 2015-16 campaign. In the second half of what would become their Presidents’ Trophy-winning season, the Caps began to falter and lose games, even giving up leads.

Most media outlets still favor them to take the series over rookie standout Shayne Gostisbehere and the Philadelphia Flyers, but they will need to play the tightest they have all season if they plan to make a deep playoff run.

Does the wild ride continue for Jagr and the Panthers?

It’s cliché to chalk up the Panthers’ season to being “Cinderella-esque.” But there’s really no better way to describe how a young team headed by vets Jaromir Jagr and Roberto Luongo overtook the Metropolitan Division this season and never looked back.

Their first-round series against the New York Islanders is an interesting one. The Isles are scrappy but injured, but this series could be exciting. Thing could get even juicier if Florida can make it past the first round for the first time since the 1990s.

Can the Stars find the firepower from earlier in the season to upset the Wild?

At the start of the regular season, Dallas was scoring so many goals that it helped make up for the fact that its goalie tandem of Kari Lehtonen and Antti Niemi was giving up three or four goals a night in many starts. Of course, once the goal-scoring simmered, the wins weren’t as easy to come by.

Sure, the Stars are the favorite over a Minnesota team with a troubled season, but they’ll need to find that production up front to upend the Wild. (Getting a productive Tyler Seguin back wouldn’t hurt either.)

Is a first-round win over the Kings the biggest test of Peter DeBoer’s tenure as Sharks head coach?

It might have been enough for DeBoer and a rejuvenated Sharks team to make the playoffs in his first season behind San Jose’s bench. But then came the twist on the last day of the season. The Sharks would battle the Kings in a playoff rematch, the team that bumped them from the 2014 postseason after blowing a three-games-to-none series lead.

Members of the Sharks insist that the storied playoff collapse and the horrid 2015 campaign that followed it are in the rearview mirror. And while they are certainly a better product than they were two seasons ago, DeBoer will still have to lead the Sharks past a familiar foe set on embarrassing them yet again in postseason play.

Are the Ducks healthy enough to combat a strong Predators squad?

As if the abysmal start turned stellar midseason wasn’t bizarre enough, the Ducks were hit by a string of injuries just before the final week of the regular season. A handful of them were announced on April Fool’s Day, of all times.

With goaltenders coming back from injuries and a banged-up offense, Anaheim — who topped many preseason lists as a heavy favorite to make it to the Stanley Cup Final — will face a Nashville Predators team that quietly maintained a solid standing in the Central all season long.

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