Buffalo (1) vs New York Rangers (6)
New Jersey (2) vs Ottawa (4)
Buffalo should handle the Rangers pretty easily; I don’t see any basis at all for hope for New York, who’re inferior to the Sabres in every respect. Jersey-Ottawa will be an interesting series in that it’s two teams with wildly different styles; Ottawa is a better team overall, arguably better than any team in the NHL, and certainly seemed to have a lot less trouble with Pittsburgh than Jersey did with Tampa. I don’t think Marty Brodeur can be asked to do the impossible, so I’ll go with Buffalo in five and Ottawa in six. Buffalo-Ottawa is what I expected all along. And it would be the best series of the yea.
Whew. Wings pull it off in double overtime, winning the series 4-2. Turns out the loss of MacLennan was just too much for them to take. Now we find out if we play San Jose, who repeatedly stomped the wings all season long, or Dallas who was repeatedly stomped by the wings all season long.
The Canucks traded an exciting brand of hockey for a defence first boring style with the intention of winning in the playoffs. If it doesn’t work tonight, their fans should be pissed.
I’m hoping the Sharks play the Red Wings (3-1 against) rather than the Ducks (3-5 against). One of the three games I went to this season was the 9-4 drubbing we gave Detroit. We’ll call it a preview if Vancouver wins tonight.
Woooohooooo! We made it out out the 1st round.!
We’re at least number 8!
We’re at least number 8!
Seriously though I am so glad we closed it out there. As ugly as that series was If it had gone to game seven, then which ever team won wouldn’t have been able to play until about game three of the second round series.
Likewise I’m hoping to draw Dallas (3-0-1) rather than the Sharks (1-3). Detroit has owned Turco since he entered the league. Not to mention the added bonus of watching the Sharks and Ducks beat each other to a pulp.
That said I’m not sure how nervous of San Jose I should be. The Detroit I saw during the Calgary series is not the Detroit of the regular season. These Wings actually check. We’re finally four lines deep on offense and everyone is backchecking. There’s still that 9-4 pounding though. Yeesh.
Canucks win, and look good doing it. Should be an interesting series v Anaheim. A great Brian Burke barnstorming team + great goaltending v defence and cycling the puck + great goaltending. Burke’s tried it before, but never with a defence this good. All four matchups look to be exciting. A vintage year.
Devils vs. Senators: Ottawa has a high powered offense and solid goaltending. New Jersey has one line, strong defense, and Martin Brodeur. I’m going with New Jersey. Defense and goaltending win championships and if Brodeur plays to form, the Ottawa offense is going to dry up. Devils in 6.
Rangers vs. Sabres: Oh it’s like picking which child I like best. I love the way the Sabres play, but the Rangers have Shanahan and he helped the wings win three cups. Did the Rangers outplay the talented Atlanta or did the Thrasher collapse? Did the Islanders find enough moxie to make their series tough, or are the Sabres not as good as they appear? Are the Rangers rested or rusted? This one’s a toss up. The Rangers are running high after their sweep of the Thrashers, but I think Buffalo is as good as their seed. Sabres in 7.
Canucks vs. Ducks: I watched a couple of the Dallas/Vancouver games, and it was some of the worst hockey I’ve ever seen. The passes were poor. The shots were average. The checks looked more like players not paying attention and running into each other. Not to mention Vancouver couldn’t find the stones to beat a Stars team known for collapsing until game 7. Anaheim made short work of the Wild, but that pesky rest/rust question comes in. I’m going with the Ducks. Luongo and the Sedins are the best thing going for the Canucks, but Anaheim has the defense to shut the twins down. Ducks in 5.
Red Wings vs. Sharks: Yeah. This was the match I was looking forward to. Razzafrazzin’ Canucks. The Sharks are have a great offense, power play, and two solid goaltenders. In the regular season, they owned the Red Wings. The playoffs are a different season entirely though. Detroit is playing their best hockey in a very long time, pouring shots on a strong Calgary team and essentially outeverythinging them. Without Kipprusof, the series would’ve been a sweep. The biggest thing for the Wings is going to be staying out of the penalty box. The Sharks power play ate the Wings for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Next is just maintaining the physical play and backchecking from the Calgary series. If they do that, then they just may stand a chance in this series. No prediction here. Just gonna hope for a good clean series.
This looks like the best second-round matchup. The Sharks match up well against the Wings. Both teams respect the other, and neither plays dirty. I promise you our backup goalie won’t spear anybody. In fact, Mr. Vesa Toskola might be key. In the aforementioned 9-4 Sharks win over the Wings, the Sharks were down 0-3 in the first period when Nabby was pulled in favor of Toskola. Nice luxury.
I’ll finally be able to watch my own team in HD now, too. Thanks NBC!
Did I mention VS. sucks?
I’m joining this thread very late, because I’ve been insanely busy at work, and I just expected to see this thread (or similar) in Cafe Society, where lots of other sports thread get posted. Anyhoo…
If there’s any justice, we’ll see a Sharks v. Ducks conference final. They were the best two teams in the West all season (my opinion); if you saw the game they played against each other the last week of the season, you know how exciting that series would be. I give the Ducks a slight edge in any matchup, but if San Jose is firing on all cylinders, it’s close.
I don’t know what to make of Vancouver. Not a bad team, certainly, just not very inspiring. I only see them getting through if Luongo stands on his head.
Detroit is OK, but I think they benefited from playing in a much weaker division. I know that you never can say in the playoffs, but I’ll be disappointed if SJ doesn’t beat them.
I’m not sure what to say about the East series, since because of the NHL’s retarded schedule we hardly got to see anything of those teams during the season. Buffalo and Ottawa seem like the teams to beat. I won’t be unhappy if either team reaches the finals. Just so long as my longstanding loathing of the Devils gets its pound of flesh.
By the way, I don’t think Vs. is so bad, at least as far as game coverage goes. They’ve improved immensely over last year. (The studio show/intermission report is not worth watching.) Nor do I mind the “bonus coverage” where they just pick up the CBC feed. In fact, it was nice to hear Drew Remenda on the HNIC coverage. (I always thought he did a great job on the Sharks broadcasts for many years, and was somewhat baffled when he left last year. Does anyone know, did he leave SJ for the HNIC gig, or did that come later?)
I really think that Buffalo is going out this round. The Rangers played awesome in the first round, while the Sabres did not look good against the Islanders. Sure, they won, but their defence was not very good. Their play reminded me a lot of last season’s first-round matchup between Ottawa and Tampa Bay. Ottawa won the series convincingly despite repeated defensive mishaps, but weren’t able to tighten things up in the second round. When goals were hard to come by against Miller, Ottawa quickly got themselves into trouble.
Devils vs. Senators: Devils in 6. Because I’m a damn dirty homer, that’s why.
Rangers vs. Sabres: See above. I hate the rangers. I hate them with a passion. I will never capitalize the word “rangers” and I have ensured that my spellchecker will not either. Sabres in 4 as some small bit of payback for the crease goal.
Canucks vs. Ducks: Canucks. In 7. Anaheim has too many weapons to lose this series, and a more numbers-oriented guy would pick Ducks in 6. But I have me a direct line to the hockey gods and they say that no team once owned by Disney will beat a Canadian team in this round.
Red Wings vs. Sharks: Wings in I don’t know how many. But organizational prowess counts for something.
