2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs: Semifinal Predictions

Here are my predictions for the Semifinals of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Eastern Conference
(A1) Tampa Bay Lightning vs (A2) Boston Bruins: This is going to be some series between two of the conferences best teams. The Lightning are coming off a five game series win over the New Jersey Devils. The Bruins are coming off an epic seven game series win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Bolts offense is awesome led by Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, and Brayden Point. The Bruins offense is awesome too led by Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, David Krejci, and David Pasternak. The Bolts defense is really solid led by Victor Hedman, Anton Stralman, Ryan McDonagh, and Mikael Sergachev. The B's defense is really good too led by Zdeno Chara, Charlie McAvoy, and Torey Krug. Both goalies for these teams are really good as well with Andre Vasilevskiy for the Bolts and Tuuka Rask for the Bruins. This is bound to go to distance, but I like the Bolts offensive depth to be the difference here as well as Vasilevskiy in net as he was great in the Devils series meanwhile, Rask wasn't great in the Toronto series.
Prediction: Lightning in seven games.

(M1) Washington Capitals vs (A2) Pittsburgh Steelers: Here we go. Take Three. The Capitals are coming off a six game series win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Penguins are coming off a six game series win over the Philadelphia Flyers. The Caps are very good offensively led by Alex Ovechkin, Nik Backstrom, TJ Oshie, and Evgeny Kuznestov. The Pens are great offensively led by Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Phil Kessel and Malkin will miss game one of the series due to a lower body injury. The Caps defense is very good led by John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov. The Pens are not as good defensively with a lot of departures from the last two years but Kris Letang and Olli Maata are still around. Braden Holtby earned his job back after Philipp Grubauer didn't do the job the first two games of the Columbus series and Holtby was very good. Matt Murray was good in net in the Philadelphia series, but he can be better. It feels like: Death, Taxes, Crosby beats Ovechkin in the playoffs and that will be the case again as the Pens advance to their third Conference Final in a row.
Prediction: Penguins in six games.

Western Conference
(C1) Nashville Predators vs (C2) Winnipeg Jets: This series is the best of the second round. The Preds are coming off a six game series win over the Colorado Avalanche. The Jets are coming off a five game series win over the Minnesota Wild. The Preds are great offensively led by Filip Forsberg, Viktor Arvidsson, and Ryan Johansen. The Jets are great offensively led by Patrick Laine, Blake Wheeler, Nikolaj Ehlers, and Mark Scheifele. The Preds have the leagues best defense led by Roman Josi, PK Subban, Ryan Ellis. The Jets defense is better than given credit for led by Dustin Byfuglien and Jacob Trouba. We have two Vezina Trophy finalists with the Preds's Pekka Rinne and the Jets's Connor Hellebuyck. This is bound to go to distance and the Preds with their experience will propel them.
Prediction: Predators in seven games.

(P1) Vegas Golden Knights vs (P3) San Jose Sharks: Here we have the most underrated series of the first round. The Golden Knights are coming off an impressive four game sweep over the Los Angeles Kings. The Sharks are coming off an impressive sweep of their own too over the Anaheim Ducks. The Golden Knights are solid offensively led by William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, David Perron, and Reilly Smith. The Sharks are really good offensively too led by Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture, Evander Kane, and Tomas Hertl. The Golden Knights defense is really good led by Nate Schmidt and Colin Miller. The Sharks defense is solid too led by Brent Burns and Marc-Édouard Vlasic. Marc-Andre Fleury might be the super early favorite for the Conn Smythe Trophy as he was outstanding in net in the first round. Martin Jones was superb in the first round as well. This is going to distance as well and give me the Golden Knights.
Prediction: Golden Knights in seven games.