It’s no secret that to be a Stanley Cup contender, a team needs experience. The post-season is unforgiving. Any team that’s going to survive needs veterans who can lead their teammates through adversity, keep early success in perspective and, if nothing else, actually grow decent playoff beards (sorry, Sid).
But just because a team needs those seasoned vets doesn’t mean the young guns aren’t looking to contribute as well, and it certainly doesn’t mean they can’t. As the NHL playoffs kick-off, here’s a look at a few rookies poised for a big post-season.
Nathan MacKinnon – C/RW – Colorado Avalanche
To say 18-year-old phenom Nathan Mackinnon was a large part of Colorado’s complete turnaround this season would be to put it mildly. The first overall pick of the 2013 draft is a favourite for the Calder Memorial Trophy as the league’s rookie of the year. His 63 points was tops among rookies, and his 24 goals were good enough for a first-place tie with Tampa Bay’s Tyler Johnson. Those totals also placed the forward fourth in team scoring as the Avalanche went from a 29th-place finish last season to the winners of the realigned central division and the team’s first playoff appearance since 2010. That year saw the Avs ousted in six games in the first round at the hands of the San Jose Sharks. This year, a surprising Colorado team is looking for a much deeper post-season run, and they’ll need MacKinnon’s stellar play to continue in order to make that happen.
Ondrej Palat – LW / Tyler Johnson – C/RW – Tampa Bay Lightning
After each playing 14 games last season with Tampa Bay, this one-two rookie punch was dynamite for the Lighting for the entirety of this year (excluding Palat missing the season finale with an upper body injury). Palat’s 59 points led the team, and Johnson’s 24 goals were topped only by Valtteri Filppula and Steven Stamkos, who each had 25. The pair skated on a line with Stamkos in the last five games of the regular season; the trio combined for 11 points as the Bolts went 4-1 and ended the season on a four-game winning streak. If head coach Jon Cooper keeps that combination in the first round, Tampa Bay will be leaning heavily on the line to power the offense. With regular starting goalie Ben Bishop out for game one of Tampa’s match-up against the Montreal Canadiens, these rookies, along with Stamkos, will need to solve Habs star goaltender Carey Price to balance the scales and give their team a chance to advance past the first round.
Torey Krug – Defence – Boston Bruins
Torey Krug broke into the league on a memorable post-season performance last year, posting 6 points in 15 games and becoming the first rookie defenceman in league history to score four goals in his first five playoff games, eventually finishing with six points in 15 games on Boston’s Cup run that fell just short. The 23-year-old continued to show a scoring touch this season, with 40 points in 79 games to lead all rookie defencemen by a considerable margin, and sit fourth behind MacKinnon, Palat and Johnson. Given the importance of special teams in the playoffs, it bears noting that Krug finished the season tied with David Krejci for the team lead in powerplay points with 19, including six of his 14 goals on the year. Krug will be looking to pick up where he left off in his post-season career, doing what he can to chip in on a heavily favoured Bruins squad.
Frederik Andersen – Goaltender – Anaheim Ducks
The 24-year-old native of Denmark won the starting job from a struggling Jonas Hiller in the final weeks of the season, and it’s anticipated that he will get the nod for the first game of Anaheim’s first-round tilt with the Dallas Stars. The 2012 third-round pick (originally a 2010 seventh-round pick by the Hurricanes before being re-entered in the draft) appeared in 28 games with the Ducks this season, starting 24 of them and finishing with a 20-5-0 record, the most wins by any rookie goalie this year. Andersen’s 2.29 goals-against average and .923 save percentage were both better than Hiller’s, 2.48 and .911, respectively. After a year in which the team won a franchise-record 54 games to finish with the best record in the western conference and the second-best record in the league, Anaheim has high expectations headed into the playoffs. There have been questions as to how far the Ducks can get in the post-season with relatively unproven goaltending, and Anderson will have to answer those questions – and try to keep his teammate Hiller on the bench – with his play.
Other rookies to keep an eye on this post-season include Valeri Nichushkin (Dallas Stars), Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks), Chris Kreider (New York Rangers), Hampus Lindholm (Anaheim Ducks), Olli Maatta (Pittsburgh Penguins), Michael Bournival (Montreal Canadiens), and Darcy Kuemper (Minnesota Wild).
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