The NHL playoffs are the best time of the year when round one rolls around. Every night we have the privilidge of watching 3-4 incredible hockey games. Unfortunately as we move through the playoffs the intensity ramps up, but the frequency of games ramps down. This a reminder that we are moving closer and closer to the long long off-season. That's the beauty and the sadness of the NHL playoffs.

Loooking at the playoff brackets take shape as we move into the second round, it’s hard to imagine the Chicago Blackhawks not repeating as Western Conference Champions. The Blackhawks open up their second round series tonight against the Minnesota Wild, and the Blackhawks are heavy favorites from this perspective.

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild are a decent team with some very good players. But beating Colorado in the first round, and taking seven games to do so, is more damning than promising. The Avalanche had a great season no doubt, but it is obvious they were winning games they shouldn’t have been winning. There is nothing wrong with this, at the end of the day all that matters is the number under the ‘W’ column in the standings. Nonetheless, the Avalanche were never a threat in these playoffs.

Looking at the Wild, their goaltending is the weakest of any team remaining in the playoffs (Yes less reliable than Stanley Cup winning goaltender M.A. Fleury). Nothing against youngster Kuemper, he has potential to be a very solid goaltender, but we all witnessed how Game 7 went in the first round. He is not there yet, and cannot be relied upon to win a series for you. Enter Ilya Bryzgalov; similarly unproven, erratic, and known for letting in the softies. These two goaltenders give the Wild a rocky foundation from the net.

They have some great players spread throughout the lineup though. On defense Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon were very decent in the first round. Suter in particular was effective at shutting down the top offensive players on home ice.

This Chart from extraskater.com highlights how the defenseman were deployed against the Colorado Avalanche in round one. The ‘bluer’ the bubble, the better the performance. We can see that the defense performed admirably in this series for Minnesota. But this must be cautioned with their competitors. Colorado is a terrible puck possession team, one of the worst in the entire NHL. Chicago is a whole different animal, and these bubbles will start to lose their shade of blue as the second round gets underway. Scandella had an incredible first round, but how will he fare against the bigger and more experienced Chicago Blackhawks…

Up front Minnesota has a legitimate NHL star in Zach Parise, along with some solid complementary players. Koivu, Pominville, Granlund and Moulson can all put the puck in the net. But the question becomes who can be relied upon to go head to head against the offensive firepower that Chicago has?

This chart also from extraskater.com illustrates the usage of Minnesota’s forwards in the first round. From this we can see that the hard zone starts were going to Brodziak, Niederreiter and Haula. But essentially, Minnesota was running their big guns against the big guns in Colorado. This will no doubt be the strategy once again against Chicago, however it will be far less successful. If you had to choose between the top 6 in Chicago and the top 6 in Minnesota, who would you choose?

Chicago Blackhawks

The Blackhawks took down a legit Stanley Cup contender in the St. Louis Blues in round one. They had their fair share of issues against the Blues, no doubt about that. But St. Louis is a far better team than the Avalanche. Chicago took down a giant in the Blues, and now they move onto an inferior opponent in round two.

The goaltending advantage goes to Chicago, even though Crawford has some shaky moments, he is a solid goaltender with Stanley Cup pedigree. He is the one goalie in this series that you can rely upon to win the “big game” so to speak. Advantage Chicago.

The defence of Chicago boasts Brent Seabrook, Duncan Keith, Nick Leddy, Niklas Hjalmarsson and so on. They are a superior group to the Minnesota Wild.

The player usage chart here displays some less impressive colours no doubt, however the quality of competition was a huge factor. The Blues are a superior team to Colorado, thus they were able to push the pace against Chicago far better than Colorado was able to do against Minnesota. They went up against a very physical top 6 from St. Louis and while they had their troubles, they won in the end. Seabrook was out for three games in that first round series, and Chicago still found a way to win, that says a lot about the depth of this defence. Advantage Chicago.

As for the forwards of Chicago, Toews alone presents the ultimate playoff performer, Kane is an incredible talent that hasn’t even had his best game yet since returning from injury, don’t forget the rest of this team. Sharp, Hossa, Shaw, Saad, Kruger, these are solid players. The scariest part is that this is essentially the same forward group to win the Stanley Cup a year ago. They know what it takes to win. The importance of experience is up for debate, but when push comes to shove you want a guy that’s been there and seen it all before. Chicago has a team full of those guys…advantage Chicago.

Wrap Up

The Blackhawks are the heavy favorites in this series. They should be able to close out Minnesota within five games. This will allow them a huge advantage moving forward in the playoffs. They will have extra rest and they are healthier then they have been all season long. Meanwhile the Ducks and Kings are set to battle. That will be a war. Two big teams that are going to try and bury their opponents physically night in and night out. That takes a toll, especially if it is a long series. Chicago cannot look beyond the Wild as that would lead to disappointment and a second round upset. However, the Ducks and Kings are going to war and whoever emerges, will be emerging bloody, damaged and nowhere near 100%.

Assuming the Blackhawks make easy work of Minnesota and escape unscathed, the Blackhawks will be poised to win their second consecutive Western Conference Championship and play for Lord Stanley once again.

Images within sourced from extraskater.com and getty images.