NHL Playoffs First Round Preview: Western Conference

Edmonton Oilers vs. San Jose Sharks

Quite like the series between Pittsburgh and Columbus, the clash between the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers will see a conference powerhouse sent home in the early stages of the fight for the Stanley Cup.

Lead by young superstar Connor McDavid, Edmonton is poised to elongate their most recent playoff run, the first since they went to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006.

The reigning Western Conference Champions will have something to say about this, however, as they are lead by playmaker Joe Pavelski and Norris Trophy favorite Brent Burns. They look poised to repeat as the top talent coming from the NHL's brute force oriented conference.

In their five-game season series, we saw San Jose take the first two meetings, but as the season progressed and Edmonton began to position themselves as noisemakers in the West, we saw a complete turnaround with Edmonton taking the final three matchups.

It's safe to call this series the biggest toss up of any in the first round of the playoffs. These two teams not only play a similar style of hockey, but they're equally as good at it.

Our metrics have given San Jose just a slight edge over Edmonton on neutral ground, with nERD metrics of 0.26 and 0.24, respectively, showing us that either team could outperform its counterpart on any given night.

In terms of series probabilities, we give Edmonton a small edge. As it stands, the probability that the Oilers win the series in any fashion is 51.03%.