Playoffffffffffffs a contrast of styles: speed goes against strength

Speed, heavy pressure and grinding hockey will all collide in the Stanley Cup playoffffs.

The 16 teams that open the playoffffs this week run the gamut of styles, and the one that comes out on top in June will again set a blueprint for the rest of the NHL.

It’s a copycat league that tends to follow the last winner, even as the pendulum swings from year to year.

If the Chicago Blackhawks win their fourth Cup in seven years or Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers shock the league to win their fifirst since 1990, speed will continue to be in vogue.

But if some team such as the Boston Bruins or Montreal Canadiens raises the trophy, maybe size and strength will be back as the recipe for winning.

“I n pl ayof f hockey i t ’s about all the little things: It’s battles on the wall, in front of the net,” New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. “All that stuffff becomes magnifified and there’s no small plays out there. A team that can compete and win those types of battles usually has a good chance of success.”

How to win those battles and dic t ate the st yle of a game or series varies drastically. The Pittsburgh Pen- guins won the Cup last year by relying on their depth, which again will be tested in the absence of top defenseman Kris Letang. The Penguins in the fifinal beat the bigger San Jose Sharks, who will try to shake offff late-season struggles to break through this June.

Also trying for the first Cup title are the Washington Capitals, who are built a little bit like the 2012 and 2014 Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, who forechecked hard and used their size.

But the Capitals have skill from Alex Ovechkin on down and speed throughout the lineup to play just about every kind of game out there.

“We have a blend,” defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “I think our skilled guys are, generally speaking, a little bit bigger. We have good goaltending and without the puck, if we have to, with the sys- tem we play, we can lock it down pretty well defensively, but we also have enough creative guys and speed guys that if the game turns into an up-and-down rushes type game, we have guys that can do that as well.”

On the way to the 2015 Stanley Cup Final, the Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning showed that speed and skill can win even though playoffff hockey has the reputation as a haven for mucking and grinding.

But even those teams could lock down defensively, something any championship contender must be able to do.

“We emphasize defense fifirst all the time,” said Minnesota Wild coach Bruce B o u d r e a u . “T h a t ’s o u r whole emphasis. ... I don’t know about my style. I got to believe whoever we play, they’re going to fear us as much as we fear them.”