On Wednesday, the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars will open their first-round series, the first playoff meeting between the teams that will participate in the 2020 Winter Classic. (NBC must be thrilled.)



In preparation, here are our thoughts on the matchup:



Adam Vingan: This playoff series intrigues me, Sean. We have two teams that endured their share of adversity, but no one in the Predators’ front office called the team “fucking horseshit” (at least publicly). One day after the Stars shut out the Predators in December, Jim Lites put Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin on blast. How have they responded? From afar, it seems Seguin got the message more than Benn.



Sean Shapiro: It’s been quite the season in Dallas. The drama all began on the morning of Dec. 27. Before playing the Predators, Stars coach Jim Montgomery called out the team after the morning skate, saying he was embarrassed with its recent performance. The day after shutting...