Which 12th Seed Will Go the Furthest In the NHL Playoffs?

With both the Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks advancing they have pulled off the biggest upsets so far.  But which team will go further now that they have made it to the playoffs?  I will break these teams down, not with their regular season stats, rather with their qualifying round stats.

Offense

So when it comes to scoring, there has been no short of it for the Blackhawks.  They currently sit 2nd in goals per game average.  The Canadiens haven’t been half bad either as they sit 11th in that same stat.  Remember these stats are out of only 24 teams because the other 7 aren’t playing right now.   All in all, neither team has done bad when it comes to scoring, it’s just the difference of decent versus great between the two.  

Backend C(10)  BH(20)

The defense is a different story.  The Hawks were plain bad on the backend.  Granted you have to remember they were facing an outstanding offense with some incredible forwards such as Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.  Montreal also faced a good offense but not as great as Edmonton’s that the Hawks had to face.  The Habs didn’t do bad on the backend against the Pens as they sit 10th in GAA whereas Chicago was 20th.  So Montreal has done better so far.

Special Teams

This one’s back and forth as the Blackhawks did better than the Habs on the power play while the Habs did better than the Hawks on the penalty kill. 

Who is more exciting?

At first when these qualifiers started I would have said the Blackhawks.  I am less sure now but I am still picking them here.

Who is Each Team playing?

Well, we don’t know that yet.  Depending on when you read this though, you may be able to just look and see.  If not, the potentials for Montreal are the Lightning or Flyers.  For Chicago, it’s the Golden Knight or Avalanche.  

Prediction

This is hard for me.  However, I am going to pick the Chicago Blackhawks at least for now.