The anticipation is building as the Philadelphia Flyers gear up to face the Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and the nature of the rivalry makes it a unique matchup around the NHL this year.
The Flyers were 43-27-12 this season, and the Penguins 41-25-16, but despite the very similar overall record and identical total of 98 points, the Penguins appear to be slight favorites in the matchup.
After all, they do still have the star power of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Erik Karlsson, complemented by the likes of Kris Letang, Egor Chinakhov, Rickard Rakell, Anthony Mantha, and Bryan Rust.
The Flyers' star power is a bit younger and far less experienced; players like Trevor Zegras, Matvei Michkov, Porter Martone, Jamie Drysdale, Cam York, and even Rasmus Ristolainen will all be seeing playoff hockey for what it is for the first time in their careers.
Four of 11 experts polled by the NHL Network picked the Flyers to win the series against the Penguins.
I'll insert myself into the conversation here and make it five of 12; I predict the Flyers will survive and eliminate the aging Penguins in seven games.
Starting goalies Dan Vladar and Stuart Skinner can both be a bit boom-or-bust, and while Skinner has been here before with Edmonton, he wasn't particularly conducive to their success.
Vladar, meanwhile, went into this season preparing solely to be a No. 1 goalie to take advantage of opportunities like this one. We already know Skinner can and will come up short when needed.
Michkov and Martone ended the season for the Flyers on a tear, so as long as they can maintain that play to some degree, they can score against the Penguins' weaker matchups with no issue.
Sean Couturier's line will likely see the bulk of the defensive matchups, with Christian Dvorak, Martone, and Travis Konecny mixing in along the way.
Additionally, the Flyers have a stronger defense overall.
Jamie Drysdale has improved by leaps and bounds, and Emil Andrae has quietly been excellent this season.
Travis Sanheim can account for Karlsson, and Letang is out of his depth now at his advanced age.
This series between the Flyers and Penguins will ultimately be decided by the special teams, where the Flyers have struggled the most all season.
Philadelphia's penalty kill was ice-cold to finish the season, and the power play was its usual dreadful self aside from some promising moments sprinkled in here and there.
If the Flyers can simply stay out of the box, they won't have that issue, and the rest is up to them playing mistake-free hockey against vets who know very well how to punish them for errors.