NEW JERSEY
VS.
CAROLINA

OTTAWA
VS.
TORONTO

WASHINGTON
VS.
PITTSBURGH

PHILADELPHIA
VS.
BUFFALO

COLORADO
VS.
VANCOUVER

DETROIT
VS.
LOS ANGELES

DALLAS
VS.
EDMONTON

ST. LOUIS
VS.
SAN JOSE
Thursday, April 26
Familiar first-round matchups, new champ?
Al Morganti
Special to ESPN.com

To borrow from that legendary hockey historian Britney Spears: "Oops, they did it again."

The key word at the start of these playoffs would be "again" as three of the four first-round matchups in both the Eastern and Western conferences are repeats from last season's first round.

Patrick Roy
Colorado's Patrick Roy could be celebrating in June.
In the West, Dallas will have a playoff meeting with Edmonton for the fifth consecutive spring. In addition, Detroit-Los Angeles is a repeat of last season's first-round round series, as is a very intriguing battle between San Jose and St. Louis. The lone "new" first-round pairing is top-ranked Colorado and eighth-seeded Vancouver.

Back East, the Philadelphia-Buffalo series is a rematch of last season's first round and marks the fifth time in seven seasons the teams have met in the playoffs. In another first-round replay, Washington faces Pittsburgh, the seventh time since 1991 those teams have played. Ottawa meets Toronto for the second consecutive season, while the top-seeded and defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils get a new first-round opponent in Carolina.

However, no matter how familiar the framework, when you actually play the games and connect-the-dots, the result is very often a different picture than what was expected.

For example, one expectation last spring was that whichever team survived the West would roll over the team from the East in the Stanley Cup finals. Instead, the Devils survived a scare from Philadelphia in the conference finals, coming back from a 3 games to 1 deficit, and then knocked off the champion Stars -- in Dallas. The Devils arrive looking robust, hungry and every bit like a team ready to defend their title, but there is much peril between now and June 11, the last possible date for a game in the finals.

The big questions
  • Can the Devils repeat, and will they have much competition coming out of the East?

  • Will Ray Bourque finally get to hoist the Stanley Cup?

  • Can the Stars become the first team since the Edmonton Oilers (1983-85) to reach the finals in three consecutive seasons?

  • Will the additions of Teemu Selanne in San Jose or Keith Tkachuk in St. Louis have a major impact?

  • Can Felix Potvin engineer an improbable upset?

  • Will first-year goalies Roman Cechmanek, Evgeni Nabokov or Johan Hedberg wilt under the pressure?

    Also earning votes...
  • Will this be the last time you see: Joe Sakic or Patrick Roy in a Colorado uniform; Dominik Hasek in a Sabres' sweater; Pierre Turgeon wearing the Blue note; John LeClair in the Flyers black and orange; Mats Sundin wearing the Maple Leaf, Jaromir Jagr in a Penguins jersey, or Doug Gilmour in any team's jersey?

  • Will the Avalanche management accept anything but a trip to the finals from coach Bob Hartley, or another seventh-game loss to Dallas? Will coaching changes be made in Toronto (Pat Quinn), or San Jose (Darryl Sutter) if those teams do not advance?

    Handicapping the Western Conference
    Once again, the West appears to be a two-class system, with the bottom half of the draw serving as an appetizer for the top teams. Then again, it was in the West last season where the top team in the regular season was ousted in the first round when the Sharks bounced the Blues.

  • Colorado-Vancouver: In the first round, the Avalanche should have little trouble with the Canucks. There is a tasty sidebar issue of coach Marc Crawford coaching his Canucks against the team that he led to the Stanley Cup in 1996 -- but that is hardly a driving emotional issue to buttress and upset.

    The Canucks arrive at the playoffs without their best player, Markus Naslund (knee surgery) and the team with the biggest goaltending question. And it's not as if the Canucks have to choose between Jacques Plante and Terry Sawchuk -- we're talking a decision between Bob Essensa (four playoff victories since 1989) and Dan Cloutier, who has never even appeared in the playoffs.

    This should be a nice warm up round for Rob Blake to get back into shape, and Patrick Roy to get his game tuned up perfectly.

  • Detroit-Los Angeles: While the Avalanche deal with the Canucks, the Red Wings have a more interesting matchup with the Kings and Felix Potvin, the goalie who left Vancouver as a cooked veteran only to be reborn in Los Angeles.

    The Kings have circled the wagons since Blake was traded, and they have excelled because Potvin (13-5-5 in LA) has provided a margin for error that was missing with Jamie Storr or Stephane Fiset.

    If you must take a shot at a first-round upset take a long look here. The hot goalie theory might hold for a round with Potvin. There is also a game breaker in Ziggy Palffy, and a crafty coach in Andy Murray. Then again, the guy behind the other bench is Scotty Bowman, and he can roll out four potent lines.

  • Dallas-Edmonton: The Stars will be attempting to reach the finals for the third consecutive season, and once again they open with the Oilers. And, once again, you can expect that when it's all over, Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock will be telling everybody how hard it was to beat the Oilers. He is getting very good at throwing roses on the spring grave of the Oilers, and it should be no different this spring.

  • St. Louis-San Jose: The Blues and Sharks are facing a crises series. Whichever team loses, the ownership is likely to take a close look at the team's direction and timetable for winning, with free-agent Pierre Turgeon truly under a microscope in St. Louis.

    This will be a fascinating matchup of teams that made big changes late in the season, with Keith Tkachuk being added in St. Louis and Teemu Selanne in San Jose. It was also be a prime test of goaltending, with Roman Turek attempting to undo the damage of last spring's loss to San Jose.

    This time, the rookie is on the other end of the ice as Evgeni Nabokov starts for the Sharks.The Sharks could get a bonus with the return of Vincent Damphousse (shoulder surgery) to offset the presence of Pavol Demitra, who missed last spring's series because of a concussion.

    Down the road
    The guess here is that the Avalanche and Stars purr through the first round, the Red Wings have to struggle to get past the Kings and the Sharks take the full seven games to send the Blues to another spring of despair.

    After that, we see the Avalanche getting past the Sharks and then Stars beating the Wings -- otherwise how could their be another seven-game series between the Stars and Avalanche? And in this one, expect Roy and the Avalanche to find a way to get to the finals.

    Handicapping the Eastern Conference
    The Devils have somehow managed to stay amazingly healthy since last spring when they won the Cup and as long as they are healthy, they should mush through the East this year.

  • New Jersey-Carolina and Ottawa-Toronto: Neither the Devils nor the second-place Senators should have much trouble in the first round, where the more intriguing matters involve a check-mate series between Buffalo and Philadelphia, and another spring dance involving Pittsburgh and Washington.

  • Philadelphia-Buffalo: The Flyers are 3-1 in the four recent playoff meetings between the teams. This season, the Flyers will also be starting the playoffs with their sixth goalie in six years -- Ron Hextall, Garth Snow, Sean Burke, John Vanbiesbrouk, Brian Boucher, and now first-year star Roman Cechmanek.

    Cechmanek was the back up to Dominik Hasek when the Czechs won the 1998 gold medal, and the two have combined for 21 shutouts this season (11 for Hasek and 10 for Cechmanek, who has also beaten the Sabres four times this season).

    Unlike past seasons, the Sabres are a lot more than "Hasek and pray for a goal." The Sabres and Flyers went into the trading deadline with a similar problem: The Flyers knew they could not sign star Eric Lindros, while the Sabres had the same issue with captain Michael Peca. Neither was traded, but the Sabres went out and signed two veterans to help their scoring depth, adding Steve Heinze from Columbus and Donald Audette from Atlanta. It is unlikely either will be signed as a free agent for next season, but at that time the Sabres can trade Peca and get more help.

    In the meantime, Heinze and Audette are likely to be the difference in getting Buffalo past a Philadelphia team that will sorely miss center Keith Primeau.

    The Flyers biggest hope -- after a Cechmanek solo, is that John LeClair, who will be a free agent after this season, and Mark Recchi rediscover their lost scoring touch.

    Also, with this very possibly being Doug Glimmer's last playoff tour, expect him to howl through at least a round or two.

  • Washington-Pittsburgh: The Capitals' playoff history is pockmarked with losses to Pittsburgh in the playoffs, and wouldn't you know that in the season Lemieux decides to return, he'll be right back in the Caps' face for the playoffs.

    Perhaps GM George McPhee saw this matchup coming when he got Trevor Linden in the late-season trade with Montreal. But the biggest advantage will be goalie Olaf Kolzig in nets for the Caps and, presumably Hedberg in goal for Pittsburgh.

    Normally, you lean toward the side of defense in the playoffs, but what is normal when Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr are involved? The Mario story should have at least one more chapter, and if this is to be Jagr's final year in Pittsburgh because of financial considerations, don't expect it to end in the first round.

    Down the road
    After the first round, expect Hasek and the Sabres to get past Ottawa in the next round, and watch for what could be the most entertaining series in the playoffs if Pittsburgh plays New Jersey. Unlike past meetings, this time the Devils have the wheels and the permission to go right at Pittsburgh -- and there will be no stopping the Devils on their road to the finals.

    Last season's finals between the Devils and Stars took awhile to heat up to a true boil, but if Colorado and New Jersey meet it will be a cauldron from the start. Brodeur vs. Roy, Joe Sakic's free agent status (along with Roy), Ray Bourque's chance at a Cup, Scott Stevens against the Colorado forwards, the match up of Sakic's line against Arnott, Elias and Sykora. ...

    The fuzzy picture from here shows the Avalanche with the Cup, but that picture of Sakic with the trophy could just as easily be Hatcher, or Stevens, or Yzerman.

    Al Morganti covers the NHL for ESPN.

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