[NEW YORK, NY] -- The great two-month
journey to crown a new Stanley Cup Champion begins this evening, so
here is one man's view on what will take place in the first round of
the NHL Playoffs.
Eastern Conference Quarter Finals
(1) Boston Bruins vs. (8) Montreal
Canadiens
This will mark the 32nd post-season meeting between these two Original
Six clubs, with the Canadiens having won 24 of the first 31 series.
Last spring, with the roles reversed and Montreal at the top of the
conference and Boston happy to have found their way in to the
playoffs, the Canadiens won a hard-fought series in seven games.
Not this year, Les Habitants. Not even for your 100th anniversary.
The Bruins are far superior in every facet of the game, most notably
defensively, and in goal where Tim Thomas provides Boston the
consistent elite play required in the playoffs that Montreal can only
dream about with erratic Carey Price between the pipes. Don’t be
surprised to see Jaroslav Halak make a start or two in this series for
a desperate Canadiens team.
Boston will be methodical and patient in their approach. Zdeno Chara
will be a force, and Phil Kessel, Marc Savard, and company will break
down Montreal with an effective transition game. It will be at times
nasty, but the Bruins will win those battles, too.
Prediction: Bruins in 5
(2) Washington Capitals vs. (7) New York Rangers
Alex Ovechkin under the bright lights of Broadway. The NHL could not
have hoped for a better scenario in the opening round for its
charismatic superstar.
Ovechkin has already been filling reporters’ notebooks with quotes
about the foul odors at Madison Square Garden, as well as the size of
Henrik Lundqvist’s equipment, perhaps trying to rattle the seemingly
unflappable Rangers’ netminder. The Rangers can only hope that
Ovechkin won’t soon be filling reporters’ game stories with
descriptions of his incredible goal-scoring feats and celebrations,
also.
To keep Ovechkin and his high-flying friends---Alexander Semin,
Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green---in check, Lundqvist is going to
have to be the best player in the series. Considering the fact that he
has carried the weight of his low-scoring team on his shoulders
throughout the regular season, Lundqvist just might be able to steal
this series for the Rangers.
He will need help, of course. Young defensemen Marc Staal and Dan
Girardi will become household names throughout the NHL if they can
help the Blueshirts contain Ovechkin and sneak an upset. But someone
is going to have to find a way to score for the anemic Rangers.
Impending unrestricted free agent Nik Antropov, agitating Sean Avery,
clutch veteran Chris Drury, and Energizer Bunny Ryan Callahan just
might score enough to fill that scoring vacuum.
Prediction: Rangers in 6
(3) New Jersey Devils vs. (6) Carolina Hurricanes
If the playoffs had started three weeks ago, I probably would have
told you that the Devils would be the Eastern Conference’s
representative in the Stanley Cup Finals. That’s how well they were
playing as a team, infused with the extra jolt of confidence that
getting Martin Brodeur healthy and back between the pipes had brought.
However, after a tremendous sprint to the finish line---as well as a
team-wide drop in level of play by the Devils---the Hurricanes might
just be the team to beat in the East. Like the Devils, they boast a
roster full of Stanley Cup winners, and they have an elite goaltender
in Cam Ward, who enters the playoffs perhaps playing his position
better than any of the other goalies still standing in the field of
16.
The addition of Erik Cole at the trade deadline helped boost the game
of linemate Eric Staal, who finished with 40 goals for the ‘Canes.
Much will be expected of Staal, though don’t be surprised if a trio of
forwards flying under the radar (Chad Larose-19 goals, Matt Cullen-22
goals, and the enigmatic Sergei Samsanov-16 goals) prove to be
difference makers in this series.
However, Zach Parise of the Devils blossomed into a legitimate star
this past season following a 45-goal, 94-point campaign, and captain
Jamie Langenbrunner (29 goals) is the kind of player who will do
whatever is needed---in true Devils fashion---in order to secure
victory.
This is going to be an extremely close and exciting series, one in
which a fluky goal and/or special teams play could provide the
slimmest of margins for victory.
Prediction: Hurricanes in 7
(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (5) Philadelphia Flyers
This is going to be an absolute war, right from the first drop of the
puck in Game 1. These two intra-state rivals do not like one another,
and that dislike only grew when the Pens took out the Flyers in last
year’s Eastern Conference Finals.
Pittsburgh enters the playoffs playing their best hockey of the
season. The switch in coaches from Michel Therrien to Dan Bylsma
certainly sparked this team, as did the return of defenseman Sergei
Gonchar from a season-long injury and the acquisitions of forwards
Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin.
Then, of course, there are the wondrous talents of Evgeni Malkin and
Sidney Crosby. Malkin led the league in scoring with 113 points and
Crosby finished third with 103. And both superstars are hungry to take
a Pens team that fell in the Cup Finals last year to Detroit all the
way this spring.
If there is one team in the East that can come close to matching
Malkin and Crosby’s talents at the center ice position, then it is
Philadelphia. Jeff Carter was the second leading goal scorer in the
NHL this year with 46, and captain Mike Richards (30 goals) might just
be the best two-way forward in the league this side of Detroit’s Pavel
Datsyuk.
Both teams are deep and highly-skilled. While Danny Briere, who was on
fire down the stretch of this injury-marred season, might be a
difference maker for the Flyers, goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury could
sway things in Pittsburgh’s favor.
Either way, this will turn into a nasty, contentious series very
quickly, and will continue to escalate over the next two weeks.
Philly’s propensity to take more penalties than the opposition (they
were the most penalized team in the league this year) could very well
be their undoing.
Prediction: Penguins in 7
Western Conference Quarter Finals
(1) San Jose Sharks vs. (8) Anaheim
Ducks
The President’ Trophy-winning Sharks have been on a mission all season
long, but they knew that they would face a team playing its best
hockey in the first round because the number eight seed would have to
be playing very well at the end of the season to beat out so many
competitors.
So the Sharks get the confident Ducks in another battle between fierce
intra-state rivals. Certainly Anaheim, with their recent experience of
having won the Stanley Cup only two seasons ago, poses a major threat
to San Jose. And with the Sharks’ track record of failing to meet
post-season expectations a yearly ritual in San Jose, those Sharks
could be ripe for an upset.
This series will feature two of the best defense corps in the entire
NHL. Scott Niedermeyer, Chris Pronger, and Ryan Whitney may get more
of the pub for Anaheim, but San Jose’s group led by Dan Boyle, Rob
Blake, and Brad Lukowich might be just as good, especially when you
count the very underrated Marc-Edouard Vlasic into the mix.
San Jose is deeper up front, though Anaheim’s top line of Ryan Getzlaf,
Corey Perry, and Bobby Ryan is as good as it gets. However, get past
that threesome, and Anaheim’s forwards can’t contend with players like
Ryan Clowe, Joe Pavelski, and Milan Michalek, who populate the second
and third lines for the Sharks.
The most interesting call for Anaheim will be if coach Randy Carlyle
starts JS Giguere in goal based on his Cup-winning and Conn Smythe
Trophy-winning resume, or if he goes with Jonas Hiller, who has been
the better goalie of late.
Prediction: Sharks in six
(2)Detroit Red Wings vs. (7) Columbus Blue Jackets
I have been on the Blue Jackets bandwagon all season long, and like so
many others, thoroughly enjoyed their making the playoffs for the
first time in franchise history. They have a terrific coach in Ken
Hitchcock, the likely Rookie of the Year in goalie Steve Mason, a fun
youthful squad, and one lone superstar in team captain Rick Nash.
Is that enough to defeat the defending Stanley Cup Champions, who
quite often did not play their best this season and yet found a way to
win 51 games and earn 112 points?
Likely it is not.
These Red Wings are a veteran bunch who know when and how to turn up
the intensity when needed. And now is that time. This team lives and
breathes for post-season hockey. So now is their time.
Detroit is much deeper, both up front and on defense, and they boast
some of the best players in the game---Nicklas Lidstrom, Marian Hossa,
Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg---and some of the best support
players in the sport---Brian Rafalski, Mikael Samuelsson, Niklas
Kronwall, Jiri Hudler, and Johan Franzen.
So many of those second-tier players would be stars for Columbus.
The Blue Jackets best chance for an upset is in goal where veteran
Chris Osgood has been shaky much of the year for Detroit, while Mason
has been outstanding for Columbus. Osgood, though, does have a track
record of ratcheting up his play come the post-season.
Prediction: Red Wings in 5
(2) Vancouver Canucks vs. (6) St. Louis Blues
Here is another feel-good story as the St. Louis Blues come out of
nowhere the final few months to make a tremendous surge into the
playoffs. Like Columbus, the Blues are an easy team to like,
chock-full of gritty young talent like T. J. Oshie, David Backes, and
Rookie of the Year candidate Patrik Berglund, and a red-hot goalie in
Chris Mason.
The Blues will make life very difficult for the Canucks. They will
forecheck aggressively and will routinely crash the crease of
Vancouver’s elite netminder Roberto Luongo. The Blues will take the
body, and they will rely on Mason’s excellence in goal.
Vancouver, though, might just be on a mission this spring. Luongo is
the best goaltender in the league who has not won a Stanley Cup, and
that certainly motivates the proud Luongo. In addition, this may be
the final go-round in Vancouver for the Sedin twins, who are both
unrestricted free agents this summer after both scored an identical 82
points in the regular season.
And certainly Mats Sundin (only 28 points in 41 games) will be quite
motivated to chase the ever-elusive Cup because his return is no
guarantee either.
On a team full of big names, it just might the less heralded Alex
Burrows, Alex Edler, and Ryan Kesler who could swing this series in
Vancouver’s favor when all is said and done.
Prediction: Canucks in 6
(3) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (5) Calgary Flames
Several weeks ago the Calgary Flames, fresh off acquiring center Olli
Jokinen and defenseman Jordan Leopold at the trade deadline, seemed
primed for a long post-season run. Now injuries have curtailed the big
expectations and Calgary is faced with a stiff first-round test in the
Blackhawks.
The Flames do have elite skill up front, led by captain Jarome Iginla
(35 goals and 89 points). Michael Cammalleri will be a force to be
reckoned with in the playoffs, coming off a 39-goal campaign. And the
return to health of the speedy Rene Bourque (21 goals in 58 games) is
a big boost for the Flames.
However, Calgary is beat up on the backline, where Robyn Regehr is out
and Dion Phaneuf is hobbled. Expect Chicago to attack, attack, and
attack some more with their talented forwards Martin Havlat, Jonathan
Toews, Kris Versteeg, and Patrick Kane. Defenseman Brian Campbell will
try and make up for a sub-par first year in Chicago, and he can
certainly help the attack, as well.
The goaltending match-up between Calgary’s Miikka Kiprusoff and
Chicago’s Nikolai Khabibulin---a rematch of the 2004 Stanley Cup
Finals when Khabibulin’s Tampa Bay Lightning KO’d Kiprusoff’s Flames
in seven games---will be intriguing. It pits two ultra-competitive
veterans, who both are known to greatly raise their level of play in
the post-season. The winner of this individual duel just may decide
the series.
Prediction: Flames in 6
Jim Cerny,
former play-by-play voice of the New York Islanders, is
a Columnist for TheFourthPeriod.com and the New York Correspondent for The
4th Period Magazine. He is also the beat writer for
NewYorkRangers.com, and hosts NHL Live on Sirius/XM Radio
and The NHL Network.
