NHL Playoffs: 1st Rd. Predictions

As we enter the 2009/2010 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, Sporting Vancouver would like to go on the record with 1st round predictions.

Let’s start with the Western Conference:

1st seed San Jose Sharks vs 8th place Colorado Avalanche

Everyone, by now, knows all about the San Jose Sharks and they’re Jekyll and Hyde routine once the playoffs start.  During the 82 game regular season, the team dominates.  Joe Thornton is constantly at or near the top in league scoring, Evgeni Nabakov is a brick wall, and the tremendous depth on offense and defense overwhelms everyone in their path.  Then the playoffs start.  Nabokov turns into “NaboSIEVE”, Thornton runs and hides, the other 1st liners turn invisible, and the team doesn’t seem as tough as it did…the Sharks turn into the minnows.

This year they have added Dany Heatley to their front line, and look much better all around.  They are facing an upstart Colorado Avalanche who have surprised many teams with their youthful exuberance, speed, and quickness.  The Sharks will not be taken by surprise by this team.  They know what they are getting into.  They know the expectations on them to get to the Stanley Cup Finals.  They know they should easily beat the Avalanche.  That is why they will lose to the Avs whose young players just don’t know that they’re not supposed to win.

AVALANCHE in 7

2nd seed Chicago Blackhawks v 7th place Nashville Predators

The Chicago Blackhawks have gotten exponentially better each of the last 3 years.  Their young stars have developed, and gained a large amount of playoff experience.  This team appears poised to take the next step.  They have stars up front, led by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and on defence with Duncan Keith.  Their goal-tending remains a question and expect Nashville’s Renne to be the better goaltender in this series…but it just won’t be enough.

Blackhawks in 6

3rd seed Vancouver Canucks v 6th place Los Angeles Kings

The Los Angeles Kings are one of the big surprises in the NHL this season.  Their great young players like Anze Kopitar and Dustin Brown are now solid veterans and the core of the team.  Sprinkle in some veteran leadership with Ryan Smyth, and a superstar young defenceman in Drew Doughty and you have the stars aligning to create quite a team.  They have enough depth up front, enough depth on defence, and good enough goal-tending in Jonathan Quick to give the Northwest Champion Vancouver Canucks all they can handle.

The Vancouver Canucks have been dealing with serious injury troubles all season with among the highest man-games lost total in the league.  They have seen a revolving door on defense all year and continue to play without their top shutdown defenseman Willie Mitchell.  Their remaining defense are all banged up with each of them having missed some time to injury this season.  All-Star goaltender Roberto Luongo is having a below average season by his standards and looks to put it behind him with a clean slate in the playoffs.  Up front the Vancouver Canucks are as good as anyone in the league.  Look for Art Ross Trophy winner Henrik Sedin to combine with his brother Daniel to come up with at least one goal a game.  Contributions from Alex Burrows, Ryan Kesler, Mikael Samuelsson, and Pavol Demitra are critical as, no doubt, the Kings will be focusing all of their defensive energy towards shutting down the twins.  Penalty killing will be critical for the Canucks as they will, no doubt, find their way into the box quite often against this speedy LA team.

The Kings will be good, but look for Ryan Kesler to neutralize their top line.  At the end of it, the Canucks offensive depth will be too much for the young Kings to handle.

Canucks in 5

4th place Phoenix Coyotes v 5th place Detroit Red Wings

This is the battle of the 2 teams that nobody wanted to meet.  An upstart Phoenix Coyotes who no team has yet figured out, and a late surging and finally healthy Detroit Red Wings who have all the playoff experience in the world.

Right off the bat, you have to give the goal-tending edge to Ilya Bryzgalov and the Phoenix Coyotes.  This will be key as if they are to have any chance in this series they will need to have the better goal-tending.  How do you handicap the Wings’ chances?  They are built for the playoffs.  Pure and simple.  They should beat everyone they meet.  Problem is, they’re playing a very good, hard-working defensive team who, to put it bluntly, have basically been slapped together in the last number of months…even head coach Dave Tippet wasn’t hired until after training camp started.  They have been winning games with defense, goal-tending, and elbow grease all season. Then they added some scoring punch at the trade deadline with Wojtek Wolski and Lee Stempniak.  Now what?

This series will be very interesting.  In the end, I expect that the Red Wings, having finally gotten rolling, will find a way to eliminate the Coyotes (unless Gary Bettman has decreed that his team has team must win to keep them in Phoenix).

Red Wings in 6

Eastern Conference

1st seed Washington Capitals v 8th place Montreal Canadiens

Not many are giving the Montreal Canadiens any chance of winning this season.  After all the President’s Trophy winning Washington Capitals have run roughshod over the entire Eastern Conference for 82 games, even while missing Alex Ovechkin for 10 games where they still managed a 7-2-1 record.  Montreal proponents point to the Capitals’ goal-tending as the chink in their collective armour.  That’s like saying Scarlett Johansson’s feet aren’t that sexy.  Its minor and insignificant and nobody cares.   The Canadiens’ goal-tending with Halak playing at his best is, at best, only somewhat better than what Theodore can provide for the Caps.  For Montreal to have a chance here, the difference in goal-tending will have to be huge and their power-play needs to go lights out.   Yes, there is some doubt as to whether or not Capitals star centre Niklas Backstrom will be able to go to start this series but it won’t matter.  The Capitals are too good to not win this one.

Capitals in 5

2nd seed New Jersey Devils v 7th place Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers have given the Devils everything they can handle all season winning the season series with a 5-1-0 record.  They Flyers physicality and offensive depth should be enough to make New Jersey coach Jacques Lemaire worried.  The big difference here will be goaltending.  The Flyers goal-tending has improved with Brian Boucher stepping it up this year but the Devils have Martin Brodeur who is still proving he can get the job done.  The Devils difficulty traditionally has been goal scoring, though they feel they have addressed this with the addition of Ilya Kovalchuk.  This series will be interesting and will likely go the distance which facours the more experienced Devils.

Devils in 7

3rd seed Buffalo Sabres v 6th place Boston Bruins

This series will have excellent goal-tending with American goalies Ryan Miller and Tim Thomas.  You would have to give the edge to buffalo in net but Boston’s net-minder certainly can get it done as well.  This one will come down to Buffalo’s speed and scoring against Boston’s physicality and defense.  Home ice advantage could definitely prove to be important in this series as both coaches will look to get their match-ups with the last change.  This one is tough to call.  Will Bruins’ star forward Marc Savard return from concussion to help the team’s offense? Expect this one to go the distance…again, with the home team taking it.

Sabres in 7

4th place Pittsburgh Penguins  v  5th place Ottawa Senators

Ottawa goes into this series hoping to pull out an upset against Sidney Crosby and the defending Stanley Cup Champions.  They do so without one of their top scoring threats and prized off-season acquisition Alexei Kovalev.  Pittsburgh appears to have the edge in every category; goal-tending, defense, and forwards.  It would likely take a miracle for Ottawa to win this series.   That being said they have some grit and drive up front with players like team captain Daniel Alfredsson.  Unfortunately, this won’t be enough to counter Crosby, Malkin, and Staal.

Penguins in 5

Pre-season Prognostications and Predictions

Well, here we go.  Another hockey season is about to start.  Amidst the excitement of another winter chock full of hard hits, great goals, and spectacular saves, we bring you our take on the Canucks upcoming season and what we expect to see in the NHL’s 2009-2010 edition.

Let’s start by looking at the Canucks roster.  Many expected Cody Hodgson to make the team…he hasn’t.  Up until a few weeks ago, not many had even heard of Sergei Shirokov let alone pencilled him in to the opening day roster…yet here he is.  Henkrik has an “A”, newcomer Mikael Samuelsson is expected to give the top 2 lines a boost, and both Pavol Demitra and newcomer Matthieu Schneider will start the season on the IR.

Here is how your humble blogger here at Sporting Vancouver would line up the team if he were  Vancouver Canuck’s head coach Alain Vigneault…which, thankfully, he is not.

D.Sedin      H.Sedin      Shirokov

Many expect Alex Burrows to pick up where he left off last season by continuing his great offensive production on the wing with the twins.  However,  I think he would be more effective on another line and Shirokov has already displayed incredible chemistry with the twins after playing just two games with them.

Bernier     Kesler     Burrows

Yes, re-uniting Burrows and Kesler is the best thing for this team.  This threesome will offer strength in every aspect of the game, causing serious match-up problems for virtually any team they face.  Wether head-to-head with the other teams top-scoring line, or facing a shut-down line themselves, this option will free up the other lines to do some significant damage while doing some themselves.  This line will provide speed, hitting, scoring, as well as good defense.

Raymond     Wellwood     Samuelsson

This line can score a number of different ways.  Wether it be Raymond’s speed, Wellwood’s play-making, or Samuelsson’s shooting.   If this line can develop some chemistry look for them to put up big numbers against the other teams second or third defensive pairings while keeping the puck away from the other team’s first or second line.  Once Demitra comes back I would bump Raymond down to the fourth line and alternate with Hordichuk.

Hordichuk     Johnson     Rypien

What can we say about this line.  A great face-off man  and shot blocker in Ryan Johnson anchored by two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the league; both of whom love to hit.  This line will provide energy and keep the other teams off balance.  Once Demitra gets back Raymond can platoon in this unit against smaller, faster teams that don’t fight.

Mitchell     Bieksa

Re-uniting these two as the shut-down tandem is just the right thing to do.  Yes, Salo did seem rejuvenated when playing with Mitchell but I think these two together are just a mean piece of business that the other teams’ top lines will dread playing against.

Edler     Ehrhoff

I see these two possessing very similar traits.  Both have size, can skate, can move the, puck, can blast it from the point, and are strong defensively.

Salo     SOB

A puck mover with a stay at home guy.  This unit ensures that no matter which pairing the Canucks have on the ice, they are strong defensively.

Luongo

I think if I were AV I would start Bobby Lu in net…

The Canucks, in my opinion, are icing the most powerful and balanced team since the 1994 team.  Expectations are high in Canuck Nation this year with many prognostciators predicting them to rise above the Flames, Sharks, and Wings and get to the Stanley Cup final.  I am not quite convinced the Canucks will make the final.  I am not saying they can’t or won’t, but the competition in this conference is so steep, that an injury here, or a bounce there is enough to set you back.  I think this is probably the strongest team the Canucks have ever had based on high-end talent and depth.  I predict they will beat out the Flames for the division crown, finish second in the conference, and make it to the conference final.  I think they will face San Jose and that’s as far as I’m going with them for this year.  I think Nabokov when he is hot is good enough to cancel out Luongo’s contribution, Thornton and Heatley will outscore the Sedins, and the experience that Blake and Boyle offer from the back end will finally push the Sharks to the final and probably give them enough to hoist the cup.