Congratulations to the four NHL Western Conference teams for reaching the conference semifinals in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs. We saw a ton of surprises in the first round, but none bigger than the Seattle Kraken upsetting the defending Stanley Cup Champions. We also got to witness the Edmonton Oilers set a new first-round playoff record with their 57% power play rate. There’s no question that every team that has made it this far deserves to be here. Nonetheless, only two Western Conference teams will continue their dream while the other two will be sent packing. Let’s take a look at the matchups in the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference semifinals and makes some picks and predictions.

As always, you can send your love/hate tweets to me on Twitter @fuzzychris91. 

 

NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Western Conference Semifinals Predictions

Dallas Stars vs. Seattle Kraken

There aren’t many people that saw the Seattle Kraken getting past the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but here we are. They did it by playing a team game and getting scoring contributions from almost everyone. They have a balanced lineup, so it was hard for the Avalanche to slow down just one line. Couple that with no Gabriel Landeskog and the loss of Valeri Nichushkin, and it was just too much for Colorado to win Game Seven. Dallas on the other hand was able to get past Minnesota thanks to their elite defense. Jake Oettinger was elite and that trend should continue here.

The biggest edge for the Dallas Stars is their power play and their goal-scoring. They come into this series operating at 37.5% on the power play, which ranks them 4th, while the Kraken are way back at 14.3%. That is a huge gap between the two teams. We also don’t know if Jared McCann will be ready for game one, which leaves a huge hole up front. You don’t just replace a 40-goal scorer at this point in the year. The Stars also scored 3.50 goals against the Wild per game, which may not seem like a lot, but it is when you take into consideration just how good Filip Gustavsson was all season. The Kraken did get good performances from Philipp Grubauer, but can he really step it up and steal a couple of games for his team? The Stars have a ton of depth down the line and I can’t see how the Kraken are going to limit that. It’s a nice story to see an expansion team be successful in just a short period of time, but their dream run ends here. 

Prediction: Dallas in 6

 

Edmonton Oilers vs. Vegas Golden Knights

As usual, we got to witness Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl do spectacular things on ice in the first round. Los Angeles has two of the best shutdown centremen in the league, but when it comes to those two, there is no slowing them down. The Oilers also converted on 56.2% of their power plays, which is just mind-boggling when you think about how good Los Angels is defensively. Vegas on the other hand didn’t have to work too hard to get past the Winnipeg Jets. With the expectation of game one, Vegas was the better team on the ice, and it wasn’t even close. The question is now; can they do the impossible and slow down the two best players in the world?

As good as the Knights are, they are going to really have their hands full in this series. They may have played well in the first round, but as mentioned above, the Jets were just a terrible hockey team. They weren’t able to generate any offense and were down some of their key players. We can give Laurent Brossoit credit because he did play well, but there is no way he’s going to be as good in this series. Joonas Korpisalo is a good goalie and the Oilers made him look like Martin Jones from 2020. We also can’t forget just how lethal the Oilers are on the power play. Even if you don’t take any bad penalties, you’re going to get caught at some point hooking McDavid just because he’s blowing past you. They operate on a different level and no team this regular season, or playoffs, has found the secret sauce to slow them down. To be honest, there probably isn’t a way to slow them down outside of not taking a penalty.

The Oilers do have some things that they need to clean up, but they should be able to dominate most games for long periods of time. As long as they don’t cough up two-goal leads, they should be able to make quick work of the Golden Knights.

Prediction: Edmonton in 5

 

Check out our list of the best, and most trusted sports betting and fantasy sports promo codes from the top legal sites in your state.

Dominate your NHL DFS contests today with our DFS Playbook,  Player Projections, Lineup Generator & DFS Tools