A few things I think I think part 2

Evaluation of the First Round of the Playoffs:

1) How badly did the Montreal Canadiens need Saku Koivu in games 3-6? If it wasn’t for Koivu’s untimely injury the Canadiens would have swept the Canes’. It’s unfortunate how some big momentum changes rely on a key injury. It’s the nature of the NHL I guess. I watched Koivu on the t.v. program The Score last night and he was in good humour and seemed positive about a full recovery on his eye. That’s good news especially after all the adversity he’s faced since coming into the NHL.

2) The Carolina Hurricanes my early favorite to win the Cup has little to no chance against the New Jersey Devils. Why? Because their d-zone coverage was terrible against the Canadiens. Sure the Cane’s can score like crazy and have the advantage over The Sens and Sabres with their playoff experience in Stillman, Weight, Recchi, and Brind Amour but what about their inexperience on the blueline. Mike Commadore would not be a top four defensemen on many other teams in the NHL, but he’s in that position with the Canes’. It’s Carolina’s sloppy play in their own zone that will be their undoing in the second round.

3) Put every other battle aside in this series of Ottawa versus Buffalo. It will be the one on one between the pipes that’ll decide the outcome: Ray Emery vs. Ryan Miller. The big x-factor in the series might be the recovery of the Dominik "The Dominator" Hasek, if Ray Emery looks to be losing late in the series. I’m warning Lindy Ruff and the Sabres now so they won’t be surprised when Hasek has a miraculously early recovery and suits up in this series. Because of the trendy disclosure of injuries around the league, masking and often deceiving the severity of the injury of a player, an early recovery in crucial time is becoming a trademark of big league sports.

4) Does Tim Connolly ever score an ugly goal? He’s becoming the Vince Carter of the NHL with his flashy moves and ridiculously soft hands around the net. Last night’s goal against Ottawa was superb!

5) Great first round for the Sharks against the Predators! Everybody on the team stepped up their play especially Patrick Marleau and Tesa Voskala. But the question most people are going to ask before tomorrow night’s second round game against Edmonton is when will Joe Thornton show up for the playoffs? We are all aware of Thornton's long history of playoff woes, but with the first round jinx finally past him will he have shrugged off the jitters to return to his regular season MVP form? The Sharks will need him to if they want to stay a Stanley Cup Contender. Ultimately the play of Thornton and Michael Peca, yes I said it Michael Peca will be the deciding factor for each team in this series.

6) Was the Oilers’ dethroning of the mighty Red Wings a fluke? Yes and no. The Oilers matched up very well with the Red Wings. Like the Sabres, the Oilers have four solid lines that skate and shoot really well. I mean come on Fernando Pisani hammering the nail in the coffin. Not many teams would have the talent in a 3rd line winger to pull off an upset against the best team during the regular season. If you look at the Wings though, they are purely a finesse team. They rely on their skills and passing abilities to kill you on the power play. The Oilers were careful not to take stupid penalties and Dwayne Roloson stepped it up and made key saves. If anyone thought this was an unlikely upset think about the Ducks three years ago or even the Canucks’ two game lead in a first round series four years ago when they won the first two in Detroit (Cloutier’s inexperience killed us the rest of the way). The Wings are always prone to being upset because of their lack of intensity. They don’t have enough speed and grit to stay close to a hard working team. The Edmonton Oilers outworked the Red Wings for every loose puck around the net and in the corners and in doing so easily came out on top. On the upside I like how Yzerman was optimistic about the future of the team after what was probably his last game in the NHL. He thought the upset would help the learning curve of Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, the team’s future stars. Comments like that show the unselfishness of the team oriented Hall of Famer Stevie Y.

7) Speaking of team Oriented Hall of Famers, Joe Sakic’s Avalanche looked solid against the not-so-confident Dallas Stars. Sakic proved yet again he still has plenty left in the tank. I was most impressed with Rob Blake, John Michael-Liles, and the rest of the d-core. They played phenomenal and really stepped it up for a blueline that was suspect during the regular season. Aaah, and of course Jose Theodore proved the critics, myself included, wrong. He’s truly a playoff performer. Hmm, I wonder now who will Marty Turco be auditioning for this summer? One team's loss means another team's gain. Turco has now sunk to ranks of Dan Cloutier: a solid regular season performer who *%&$'s the bed in the playoffs. I think Dave Nonis should phone up Doug Armstrong and make an offer. It’s worth a shot, don’t you think?

8) Game seven of the Ducks versus Flames series was as many sports writers claimed, arguably the worst game seven in NHL history. I would have to agree. You can’t get much worse than that. The Flames looked lifeless. It’s amazing how sluggish they looked in the most important game of their season. I mean the Flames are meaning of heart and soul in hockey. Was it that they were overly excited about the game, or maybe just maybe some of them looked in the mirror that morning and realized aside from Iginla and Kiprusoff the rest of them are really a bunch of AHL caliber plugs. Whatever the case, the lack of depth on the Flames roster revealed itself, as it was evident as early as midway through the second that the Flames were not going to win or even score a single goal in the 3-0 snooze fest at the Saddledome Wednesday evening.


First Round Record: 5-3

Second Round Predictions:

Did anyone else notice that in the Western Conference all the lower seeds advanced 5-8, while in the Eastern Conference all the higher seeds advanced 1-4?

Eastern Conference:

(1) Ottawa Senators versus (4) Buffalo Sabres

Although I cheated and watched game one in this series before making my picks I still think Ottawa will win in Seven.

(2) Carolina Hurricanes versus (3) New Jersey Devils

The Hurricanes will not be able to keep up with the hard working experienced Devils with tested playoff performers aplenty: Elias, Langenbrunner, Madden, Rafalski, Gomez and hmm a pretty clutch performer in goal: Martin Brodeur. Devils in Six.

Western Conference:

(5) San Jose Sharks versus (8) Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers may have knocked off the best team in the league but that’s no reason why the Sharks should be scared about a team they match up really well against. The Sharks will rely on their first two lines and their physical D who love to play the rough and tough game especially brutes Scott Hannan and Brad Stuart who’ll pound the Oiler offense like crushed pop cans. Sharks in Six.

(6) Anaheim Mighty Ducks versus (7) Colorado Avalanche

The Ducks looked so solid in grinding out the Flames. The way Ilya Bryzgalov is playing and the revival of Teemu Selanne not to mention having the best playoff defensemen in my opinion in Scott Neidermeyer, they should out work and out think the offensive minded Avs every step of the way. Ducks in Five.