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The fatal flaws for every Western Conference playoff team

Brent Burns and the Sharks will need to get their power play rolling again if they hope to return to the Stanley Cup finals. Rich Graessle/Icon Sportswire

It takes a talent-loaded team effective in many facets of the game to make the postseason, but no team is perfect. After all, there can be only one Stanley Cup champion. Every team has an Achilles' heel, and the postseason is often when those weaknesses are exploited.

We identified every team's fatal flaw, the statistical area that could prove to be its downfall and lead to a failed playoff run. They don't say the Stanley Cup is the hardest trophy to win in all of sports for no reason, and as playoff teams chase those final 16 wins this spring, they will have to rise above the lesser areas of their games.

Let's look at the statistical downfall that could send each of the Western Conference teams to the links earlier than expected this spring, from the 50-win Chicago Blackhawks to the No. 2 wild-card Nashville Predators: