After a thrilling 7-3 regular season ending win for the Canucks over the Flamers, with Henrik putting up 4 assists to wrap up the Art Ross trophy over some doofus from DC, I'm just giddy for the opening round of the NHL playoffs. Are you ready? Three out of four LSF hockey teams made the playoffs (sorry, Andrew), so you'd have to figure one of us will make the Stanley Cup finals, right? Let's take a quick look at the first round LSF matchups and make some predictions!
-- Buffalo v Boston: Dear God, the Sabres have to win this series, right? There is no way that Tim Thomas is going to beat out Ryan Miller, right? Wait, wait, the Bruins won four out of six against Buffalo in the regular season? Uh oh, is Brandon getting nervous? Keep this in mind: The Bruins are ranked 30th in goals scored in the NHL this season and they still won't have Marc Savard. This series will also be a stingy special teams battle, with Boston and Buffalo ranking on top of the penalty kill table, but you'd have to expect that Vanek and company will rise above Chara and such.
ESPN Prediction: BUF in 7.
My Prediction: BUF in 6.
-- Chicago v Nashville: I'll be willing to be that Jon Davis is A) Playing World of Warcraft right now, B) Still showing off his swolen ankle as a battle wound from our thrilling 4-3 shootout win in our roller hockey season opening, and C) Thinks the Hawks are going to sweep this series against the Preds. Chicago won four of six regular season games against Music City, and looks strong with the options of Huet or Niemi between the pipes. Add to that the fact that Chicago allow the least shots on goal in the NHL, and you have a nice combination of situations here. The Preds, meanwhile, finished 24th on the power play and 28th on the penalty kill. Now I'm starting to see a sweep. With the salary cap looming for Chicago after this year, you have to figure now is there time...to advance to the West finals and lose to Vancouver! Slam!
ESPN Prediction: CHI in 5.
My Prediction: Same.
-- Vancouver v Los Angeles: Ah, this is what I've been waiting for. The Canucks put up a nice regular season, despit tons of injuries and so so Luongo at times. Having the lading point scorer in th NHL didn't hurt. Way to go Henrik! The big question mark is Bobby Lu. Will he play like he has recently? Or, will we see Luon-gold again? The Vannies had six players with 25+ goals, and a balanced attack lends well to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Kopitar is really the only explosive offensive force in LA. If he's down for a couple of games, we easily walk off with a series win. And, you think Luongo has had his confidence shaken lately? Jon Quick was winless in his final 8 outings this season, creating a little more of a question mark between the pipes than for us. While we still have a banged up blue line, that has kind of become our team identity, and I don't see how we could lose this in a seven game series. ESPN disagrees, but I think that is just to be cool.
ESPN Prediction: LA in 7.
My Prediction: VAN in 6.
Thursday, we have Buffalo & Boston going at 4, Vancouver and LA going at 7, and our roller hockey game against the Hornets going at 8:30. Quite an exciting day.
-- Sent from my Palm Prē
3 comments:
I meant to say "I'd be willing to BET that Jon Davis..." Damn this infernal cell phone keyboard.
I am at school you ass not on WoW. Yet the other options you posted are quite true.
just the fact that you called it "WoW" makes you the ass, my friend.
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