NHL.com experts unanimously pick Canucks to defeat the Wild

Three experts from NHL.com picked the Vancouver Canucks to defeat the Minnesota Wild in the qualifying round.

The Vancouver Canucks will resume their 2019-20 campaign on Aug. 2, when they square off against the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 of the qualifying round.

If the Canucks get past the Wild, they’ll play in the round of 16 for the first time since 2015. The winner will either draw the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues or Vegas Golden Knights in round one.

The Wild took two of the three regular season meetings — though one of those victories came in a shootout. Vancouver finished just one point ahead of Minnesota in the regular season standings, but Zach Parise and company actually had three more regulation wins (30).

So even if the Canucks are the better team on paper (I explained that here), one should expect a very tight, back-and-forth series between the former Northwest Division rivals.

Experts at NHL.com are previewing each of the eight qualifying round matchups, with series predictions. On Wednesday, the preview for the Vancouver-Minnesota series was released. The experts — Pete Jensen, Rob Reese and David Satriano — unanimously picked the Canucks to win the qualifying round showdown.

Jensen and Reese both picked Vancouver to win a decisive fifth game; Satriano has them winning in four.

The Canucks have almost every advantage you can think of in this series: Superior scoring/forward depth, goaltending, speed, skill and star power. They also have the edge in the special teams department, with the fourth best power play (24.2 percent) and the No. 16 penalty kill (80.5 percent).

In comparison, Minnesota’s power play percentage of 21.3 placed them 11th, and their penalty kill was a lackluster 25th at 77.2 percent.

But in the NHL playoffs, anything can happen. Minnesota has had Vancouver’s number for the better part of the last five years, so this isn’t the most favorable of matchups for head coach Travis Green and company.

That said, if Markstrom and the young stars can maintain the excellent production they displayed in the regular season, Vancouver should have little problem earning a ticket to the round of 16.