Well, here we are. All 30 teams in action today and I’m ready to go out watch some hockey, hopefully a Leafs win and time to make some prediction.
Eastern Conference:
[ol]
[li]Ottawa[/li][li]Philadelphia[/li][li]Tampa Bay[/li][li]New Jersey[/li][li]Montreal[/li][li]Boston[/li][li]Florida[/li][li]Toronto[/li][li]Atlanta[/li][li]Pittsburgh[/li][li]Buffalo[/li][li]New York Islanders[/li][li]Carolina[/li][li]New York Rangers[/li][li]Washington[/li][/ol]
Western Conference:
[ol]
[li]Calgary[/li][li]Anaheim[/li][li]Nashville[/li][li]Detroit[/li][li]Vancouver[/li][li]San Jose[/li][li]Colorado[/li][li]Edmonton[/li][li]Dallas[/li][li]Chicago[/li][li]Minnesota[/li][li]Phoenix[/li][li]Columbus[/li][li]Los Angeles[/li][li]St. Louis[/li][/ol]
Ottawa over Philly in the Eastern Conference Final
Calgary over Detroit in the Western Conference Final
Calgary over Ottawa in a great All-Canadian Final.
I really don’t think that Calgary is going to do half as well as a lot of people seem to think. Yes, they’ve got great goaltending and defence, but I just don’t see enough offence for them to be a top-notch contender. If all of their role players can score like they did in the 2004 playoffs, then yes they are a contender, but history has shown that players like that usually tail off after one great playoff run.
Washington’s starting out the season at 120-1 odds of winning the cup, so… I don’t think you need to worry about a cushion for the Leafs there.
Anyway, BOOOOOOSTON! I think I may be the only Bruins fan in this city, and there’s a lot of Canadiens fans here. If I wasn’t a cute girl, I’d be getting my ass kicked six ways to Sunday tonight when Boston humiliates Montreal. Oh yah, I said it. It’s gonna happen, too.
HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY HOCKEY !
I’m excited. Sharks vs. the Predators. I predict the Sharks are going to stomp them flat. San Jose went 7-0 in the preseason. (Which is totally meaningless, but whatever) The Sharks are definitely making the playoffs, and I’m looking for them to be western conference champs this year. They have tons of speed, which is great under the new ruleset. (In case it wasn’t clear, I’m a Sharks fan)
Maybe if I knock myself on the head with a mallet I can fall unconscious for the next five hours rather than bouncing off the walls waiting for hockey to start.
Detroit finishing behind Nashville? Are you out of your mind? This is a team built on clutching and grabbing. Their goalie is a question mark. They added Paul “Often injured, plays soft, and is helpless without Teemu Selanne” Kariya.
I also think that it’s sweet you have Colorado in the playoffs above Dallas. They aren’t worth your sympathy though. Their defense is suspect. Their goalie is shakey. They are far from the offensive powerhouse that they used to be.
I think that Columbus and Edmonton will be the teams to watch out of the west. Not for the cup, but they are going to be much better than they’ve been. Either Calgary or Vancouver will win the conference. Anaheim is a question mark. Giguere has had one good season but was helpless in the last. Now he has smaller pads. They brought Selanne back, but how will Federov play?
In the East, I like Tampa and Ottowa. Toronto is too damn old (and this is coming from a wings fan, so I know from old) and Philadelphia is to slow and easily hurt. They’re no closer to the cup than in any of the previous seasons. And they still don’t have a goalie.
I think the Wings will do very well this year. Offensively they have Lang, Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Shanahan, and Draper (who has the speed for another career year). Add in Maltby, Holmstrom, Williams, and Yzerman and you have three good lines. Defensively, they have Lidstrom, Schneider, Chelios, and Fischer. They’ll be even better when Kronwall gets back on his feet. The goaltending situation could be better, but it’s as good as it was with Cujo in net. I’ll say Western Conference finals. They move the puck well and have speed and defense to spare. The cup isn’t a lock, but they have as good a chance as any this season.
Yeah yeah yeah. That makes it ever so much more credible. These are the same people who think that Detroit losing Hatcher was a bad thing. :rolleyes:
Sorry, but I’m still not sold on Vokoun being as great a goalie as they want him to be. Paul Kariya isn’t as great a player as his hype would indicate. Their defense consists of Kimmo Timmonen and everyone else. Fact is that they aren’t that much better than they were last season and they were scrapping for a playoff spot. They haven’t improved themselves any more than Chicago or Columbus have. Detroit is still a Conference powerhouse despite rumors to the contrary. They’ll likely make the playoffs at the expense of St. Louis, but I don’t think they’ll beat out the Wings.
Let’s not forget the impact of actually calling interference, hooking, etc. It’s kinda nice to watch skaters actually skate for once. Not to mention it makes the rink more open.
The Wings looked great. Whupped the Blues 5-1, chased Lalime, and were better than I expected defensively. Midway through the second St. Louis only had 8 shots. Dan Cleary impressed me most tonight. Hell of a pick up there. Damn near had a couple of goals and saw time on the penalty kill.
In the PIT/NJ game, Brodeur was spectacular. He didn’t keep a clean sheet, but it was still an excellent performance. Zach Parise (rookie, I think) also looked good for NJ. For the Penguins, Crosby looks exactly like he is, good but young. Made a real nice pass to set up the lone goal. Thibault looked pretty well like garbage in goal. Flopping around and generally looking confused.
Ottawa was flat today. I think that the early Toronto goal combined with all of the saves Belfour made in the first(and the one save he didn’t make :mad: ) really got to the Sens. They looked like a team that had been reading too many of their own press clippings and were thinking that the game should have been a cakewalk, so they got nervous when they were losing. Once Alfie tied the game you could see them really skating again, and they started to take control of the game. Penalties really kept killing our momentum, though. That’s not a criticism of the refs, just a statement of fact(although some of those penalties were terrible calls, most notably the first call against Toronto). I’ve been very much against both taking out the two-line pass rule and instituting shootouts, but I have to admit that removing the red-line did seem to help the flow of the game, and the shootout was very exciting. The rule limiting where the goalies can play the puck seemed to be mostly ineffective.
The Leafs played an excellent game, though. For much of the game their defensive coverage was stellar, but they did have some breakdowns and Ottawa made them pay. Allison was awesome(the shootout notwithstanding), Lindros got better as the game went on and Coliacovo really impressed me(I’ve expected him to be nothing more than the next Brian Berard, but he was solid tonight).
Another rule that I liked was the “You ice it. You can’t change lines.” rule. St. Louis tried to get past it twice by changing as the puck went down the ice, but the refs caught them and made the players come back out on the ice. I didn’t see nearly as much icing as I have in the past.
Lost in the hype over Sidney and his fancy assist was Alexander Ovechkin netting 2 for the Caps last night.
He also had a hat-trick in the pre-season. They get some production out of him, and have Kolzig show some of the old form, these guys aren’t going to be the basement dwellers that some have them as.