They are the hipster team right now because of their drafting and that they are an NHL Southern market and that they have a lot of good players without a big hole in their team.
But they aren't a team that scares you. They don't have any of the NHL's true elite players. Heiskanen might the closest they have, but lets face it most people aren't picking him over Makar, Fox, Hedman, Hughes. Robertson and Hintz are players that often get a reputation as underrated offensive players around the league, but they aren't even facing up to Stone and Eichel, let alone what a potential matchup with McDrai would like like. Oettinger has had a mediocre year and right now isn't the player he's known as.
Their young players are good, but not ready to carry them yet and they aren't like Bedard level guys either.
I wholly disagree. They aren't my cup favourite, and I don't think they are a good match-up to beat Vegas, but they are not a paper tiger, they are one of the best teams for this years' playoffs.
They have a coach who lacks the adaptability to not only adjust to counter their opponents abilities, but to also do so when they are against a team that matches up favourably against them stylistically. Sure, that's a heck of a big ask, but winning the Cup is a heck of a big ask. They don't have a proven, consistent elite playoff goaltender, and with one of their D-Men not being a 10+ minute serviceable d-man + lacking an elite defensive forward who can eat big minutes, even with a good #1 D like Heiskenen, league-best depth, a good coach, veteran presence like Pavelski, and strong offensive weapons like Robertson, they don't show the ability to adapt to a team who matches up so favourably versus them, who also has their best offensive player playing to his peak in the playoffs, clutch high-end fwds performing clutch, a #1D, veteran presence, no d-men who can't eat minutes as well as high-end D who can eat lots of minutes, and a selke-calibre fwd who can eat minutes. Their goaltender, though unproven, especially in big games/high-pressure, appears to be reasonable to consider at least league average to this point.
If they win this series, they have a good shot at reaching the finals, but aren't my pick for the cup. But Vegas is positioned better compared to them.
So is Dallas - on paper this should be a very close series.
Yes, Dallas
is stacked, but I disagree that on paper this should be a very close series. On paper I think this series favours Vegas to a pretty strong extent.