There are several teams that can compete and win the Eastern
Conference Championship, but all eight teams in the Western Conference will
have to rely on a minor miracle to defeat the Vancouver Canucks.
In the first round of the Eastern Conference Championship
Washington was top seed with 107 points earned and will face the eight seed New
York Rangers with 93 points. Other matchups include the two seed Philadelphia
Flyers, with 106 points, hosting the seven seed Buffalo Sabres with 96 points.
Third seed Boston Bruins with 103 points will be hosting the Montreal Canadiens
with 96 points in one of the oldest and most heated rivalries in the history of
the NHL. The fourth seed Pittsburgh Penguins with 106 points, who endured a
tremendous amount of injuries, will host the Tampa Bay Lightening with 103
points.
The Western Conference had a wild last month to the regular
season with eight teams competing for six playoff berths. Only two points
separate the fourth seed from the eighth seed so numerous tie breakers were
used for the final seedings. The Top seed Vancouver Canucks with 117 points
will host the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Black Hawks with 97
points. The second seed San Jose Sharks with 105 points will host the seven
seed Los Angeles Kings with 98 points. The third seed Detroit Red Wings with
104 points will host the Phoenix Coyotes with 99 points. The fourth seed
Anaheim Mighty Ducks with 99 points will host the Nashville Predators also with
99 points.
Odds and bets for each series
Considering the NHL odds, the Stanley Cup is Vancouver’s to lose
and they are listed at a strong 3/1. Next are the Washington Capitals at 11/2,
San Jose Sharks at 7/1, Philadelphia Flyers at 8/1, Boston Bruins at 17/2,
Detroit Red Wings at 9/1, and the Pittsburgh Penguins at 11/1. Every remaining
team is listed at 20/1 or higher to win the Stanley Cup. There certainly may be
some upsets in both conferences, but all teams will be chasing the Canucks and
Capitals.
Western Conference
Vancouver hosting Chicago
The Chicago Blackhawks are the defending Stanley Cup Champions, but are
a far different team now than last year. They lack depth in several positions
and certainly miss the presence of Dustin Byfuglien and Andrew Ladd. They both
had huge post-season performances last year that just are not going to be repeated
by their replacements. Moreover, they have a goal tender in Corey Crawford, who
was not the No.1 goalie last season so experience in the net has to be suspect.
Vancouver was knocked out the past two seasons by the Blackhawks.
Canucks will be just too tough to beat, but at last the Blackhawks will have a
chance to defend their Championship for one round of play.
The Canucks are deep at all positions and ranked best in
offensive scoring, averaging 3.15 goals per game. Making matters worse for any
opponent is they also have posted the best scoring defense allowing just 2.20 goals
per game. Moreover, they have the best power play unit in the NHL scoring on
24.4 percent of their man advantage opportunities on the season. Vancouver had
the third best power play killing unit in the NHL allowing opponents to score
on just 14.4% of their man advantage opportunities.Take Vancouver in a sweep.
In game 1 of this series the Vancouver Canucks triumphed 2-0 over the Blackhawks with Roberto Luongo recording 32 saves and a shut out. The Canucks goals came from Chris Higgins and Jannik Hansen and they are still good to take the series in a sweep.
Game 2 came and went with the Blackhawks fighting back but still not good enough and the Canucks closed out 4-3 winners and took a tight 2-0 grip on the series and they took game 3 with a 3-2 victory.
So the reigning Stanley Cup champs were on the edge and staring into the post-season abyss. So what do they do? They go and win 7-2 to breath life back into their challenge and to ruin my sweep prediction. Dave Bolland was the star, with a goal and three assists.
Game 5 was the same story, different day as the Blackhawks once again destroyed the Canucks 5-0. With the numbers that have been posted in this series David Lawrence found it only fit to take the over on a total of 5.5. This failed to cash as Chicago's deadly offence was matched by it's equally effective defence as the Canucks failed to net a single point.
This series is getting ugly.
To seven it went! What a series and what a turnaround. Mentally it looks like the Canucks are down and out having lost game six in OT 3-4. What a heartbreaker that must have been and it looks increasingly difficult for the Canucks to get their heads in the right place for the all important matchup on Tuesday.
San Jose hosting Los
Angeles
About three months ago, the San Jose Sharks were not a playoff team, but
since then have been arguably one of the hottest teams in the NHL. They have
last year’s Stanley Cup winning goal tender in Antii Niemi, who went 26-4-4
during a stretch where he started all games between January 15 and April 6. I
do not see the Sharks having much a problem getting by the Kings.
San Jose ranks ninth in scoring offense averaging 2.96 goals per
game and rank 10th in scoring defense allowing 2.54 goals per game. The Sharks
have the second best power play scoring on 23.5% of their man advantage
opportunities. Their true weakness is killing power plays where they rank 24th
allowing opponents to score on 79.4% of their opportunities. This is somewhat
offset by the fact that San Jose is not an aggressive style of team and rank
25th in total minor penalty minutes at 287 minutes.
The Los Angeles Kings are going to have to play a near flawless series to
even have a chance of defeatong San Jose and advancing to the second round. The
Kings lost their leading scorer in Anze Kopitar to torn Achilles tendons and is
out till next season. They will also be without their second leading scorer
Justin Williams, who is out with a dislocated shoulder, but will be available
if the Kings could pull off the upset.
The Kings are very strong on disciplined play ranking 27th in
minor penalty minutes with just 279 minutes. This is critical to keeping the
San Jose power play off the ice and minimize those man advantage scoring
opportunities. The Kings have the fourth best power play killing unit allowing
opponents to score on just 14.5% of their man advantage scoring opportunities.
The Kings will be focused to shorten the game and get into the third period
with no more than a one goal deficit. However, I think that San Jose has too
many offensive weapons and the Kings defense will not be able to contain them
for a full 60 minutes. Sharks Advance.
Dave Lawrence picked the San Jose Sharks to take game 1, and his selection was correct as the Sharks went on to defeat the Kings 3-2.
The Kings however responded with a 4-0 victory on Saturday night to tie up the series (against the predictions of DavidL). Game 3 should be an interesting one to watch how NHL odds makers respond, being that the Sharks were favored in game 2, but were destroyed.
This series is proving to be one of the closest, game 3 sailed past the total and the Sharks rallied to win it 6-5 and go 2-1 in the series.
In game 4 the Sharks took an early 3-0 lead, and even the Kings' best effort wasnt good enough to catch them from there. It appears that the Kings had been playing better hockey, but luck had not been on their side lately.
David Lawrence had predicted the Kings to finally get their act together, but L.A. just only sunk deeper into the hole. San Jose extended it's series lead to 3-1 with the win over Los Angeles.
Having taken game 5 by a 3-1 margin the Kings were looking to even the series in game 6. It was not to be and the Sharks took an overtime win and with it a first round series win.
Well they chose to do it the hard way, but in the end the Canucks took the win in game 7 and move forward, knocking the reigning champs out in the process. Alex Burrows scored the winning OT goal to send the home crowd wild and no doubt send a wave of relief throughout the team.
Detroit hosting Phoenix
I’ll make this short. Detroit will win this series easily as they
have far too much fire power for the Phoenix Coyotes to contend for 60 minutes let
alone an entire series. Detroit will use its second ranked scoring offense,
averaging 3.12 goals per game, and put as much pressure on the defense as
possible to break them down and exploit missed assignments.
Phoenix ranks 12th in scoring defense, allowing 2.68 goals per
game on the season and rank a very weak 26th in killing penalties allowing
opponents to score on 21.6% of their man advantage opportunities. Detroit has
the fifth best power play unit scoring on 22.3% of their chances and will be a
dominant reason they advance to the second round.
Game one here ended as predicted with the Detroit Red Wings taking it 4-2 with late goals from Datsyuk and Franzen sealing the win.
In the second game of this series the Coyotes posted more points, three for the night. However, it wasnt enough to pass the four that the Red Wings snuck through, giving them the 2-0 lead in this series and expect the Red Wings to keep the momentum going with another win in game 3.
Game 3 went as expected with the final score 4-2 to Detroit. They had to survive a small fightback after going 3-0 early on but this series looks all but over.
Well we had the sweep and as I, and many others, thought it would be the Red Wings progressing. Last night they did it in style with a 6-3 win.
Anaheim hosting Nashville
This series is just too close to call in my opinion and neither
team has a legitimate shot at winning the conference. I will give a very slight
lean to the Predators based on their vast playoff experience of six appearances
in the past seven seasons. They have won just one of those series, but perhaps
the veterans on the team will be able to lead this team to a series victory. To
their advantage is the fact that they are one of the most disciplined and
mistake-free teams in the NHL and will be tough to defeat if they get a lead.
Problem is that they do not have the scoring power to always get the lead.
Predators took the early lead in this tight series with a solid 4-1 beating of the 'Mighty' Ducks.
Well, we knew it was going to swing back and forth and it did just that in game 2 when the Ducks came out fighting and skated away 5-3 winners. 1-1 the series goes!
Game 3 saws Nashville edge it 4-3, but the Ducks came back strong in game 4 with a 6-3 win to again tie this series. Currently it stands at 2-2 and we could well see this one go the seven.
Heading into game six, the Predators will have the series lead 3-2 after they took a 4-3 victory on Friday night after we had picked the Ducks to take the win. This gives them the chance to win the series Sunday night, or the Ducks could tie things up and have home ice under their skates if it should come down to a game 7.
The Predators win and go through! It finished up 4-2 on Sunday night, going over the posted total of 5.5 goals and the team from Nashville have won their first playoff series ever.
Eastern Conference
Washington hosting the New
York Rangers
This is a series that does have upset potential. The New York Rangers,
despite being the eighth seed, have a better scoring differential at +35 goals
than Washington with 27 goals. Not a major statistical point, but does show
that the Rangers have a slightly better offense and enough fire power to
compete equitably with Washington. History has shown that an eight seed can get
hot and advance deep into the playoffs.
The Rangers also have a goal tender in Henrik Lundqvist, who led
the NHL with 11 shutouts and when at the top of his game is the type of net
minder that can take a team on his shoulders and win.
This is the second season Washington has gotten the number one
seed in the Eastern Conference, but it was a roller coaster. They started out
14-4, but then won just 16 games over the next 40 games. At that point even the
well mannered Washington Post was starting to write them off as under
achievers. However, Alex Ovechkin led his team to an 18-4-1 record down the
stretch and surged over a reeling Philadelphia Flyers team to get the best
seed.
I have to question them simply because of the tremendous extremes
of performance levels throughout the season. Will the positive finish translate
into the playoffs or will a hot goal tender manage to shut them down? That is
the biggest unknown and the reason I like the Rangers in this series.
Well I still like the Rangers for the series, despite them letting me down with my game one pick. It was a very close game with the Caps needing a goal in OT to take it 2-1.
Not liking the Rangers so much right now, 2-0 to the Caps in game 2 and 2-0 to the Caps in the series.
New York dug deep in game 3 and brought the series back to 2-1, but they took a sucker punch on Wednesday night losing 4-3 2OT. The Caps look to have one skate in the next round.
That one win was not enough to jump start the Rangers engines though, as once again the Capitals routed them 3-1 and closed out the series in 5 games.
Philadelphia hosting
Buffalo
I like the Philadelphia Flyers in this series despite their minor
collapse down the stretch. Despite losing the top seed, the Flyers are very
deep on offense and have seven players, who have scored 19 or more goals on the
season. The Flyers did win just one game in April against arguably the worst
team in the NHL the New York Islanders. Still, the playoff bell is about to
ring and the pedigree will rise to the occasion. Flyers advance.
Mike Richardson called for a 5-3 win by the Flyers in game one and to take the series in seven. He was right that the Sabres would score, but wrong with the assumption that the Flyers had an answer. Buffalo took the game 1-0.
As Mike predicted, the Flyers bounced back in the second match, scoring five goals compared to the four scored by the Buffalo side.
Well he has backed the Sabres in game 3 over the Flyers, Richardson reckons its gonna be 2-1 Buffalo in the morning.
2-1 Flyers! Boucher was the big difference and the Flyers skated out as 4-2 winners.
This is another close series and in game 4 the Sabres blanked the Flyers and skated out 1-0 winners. Honors even at this point 2-2.
As this series nears it's end, the Sabres went up 4-3 as the under dogs in game 5. Mike Richardson called the score correctly, just had the teams switched, as he predicted the Flyers to win.
Back and forth, back and forth. Just like the series between the Canucks and the Hawks, this one is going to the wire. On Sunday the Flyers closed out a thriller with an OT win 5-4 and now we get a seventh game.
In the end game 7 was not as close as we had hoped. The Flyers really took it to the Sabres and won 5-2 to move on to the next round.
Boston hosting Montreal
This is the best matchup of the NHL first round series full of
historical games that rank among the best in NHL history. Nothing has changed
and although I think Boston will advance it is going to be their toughest
series in their trek to the Stanley Cup finals.
That is correct. I like
Boston to win the Eastern Conference at 9/2 odds.
Boston ranks fifth in offensive scoring averaging 2.98 goals per
game and second best in scoring defense allowing 2.30 goals per game. By
comparison, Montreal ranks 21st in scoring offense averaging 2.60 goals per
game and rank eighth in scoring defense allowing 2.51 goals per game.
Montreal has a decent power play ranking seventh scoring on 19.7%
of their man advantage opportunities. Boston is a disciplined and mistake-free
team that has allowed just 46 power play goals that ranks ninth best in the
NHL. I think the Boston Bruins have the better offense and will play strong team defense
that will frustrate the Montreal Canadiens.
Craig Tattan, the UFC handicapping guru, has turned his talent to NHL and liked the Boston Bruins in game one. The Canadiens, however, held them off and too a 2-0 victory.
Craig Tattan continued to test his luck with the NHL deciding to take Game 2 under 5 points. Boston fell again, as the Canadiens took the 3-1 victory, keeping under the 5 points as he had called.
Well it was good to him in game 2 so why not in game 3? Boston is not living up to their pre-playoffs billing and Craig likes a low scoring game again.
Game 3 went to 6 goals and over the total. Boston finally showed some fight and about time too. Now are we about to witness a turn around and see Boston take the series?
Game 4 saw the Boston Bruins fight back from a 3-1 deficit in the second period, to tie things at four in the third period. Only two minutes into overtime Bruins' Michael Ryder snuck in the game winner. Craig was set on the under here as well, but this game saw a flurry of shots as 9 found the back of the net and pushed way over the total.
Things are now tied at 2 games each.
Well game 5 went to second OT but it was the Bruins who claimed the 2-1 victory and tonight they go for the killer blow against the Habs in game 6.
2-1 in game six, with a little controversy from the refs but we get another game 7 in this thrilling open round of the 2011 NHL Playoffs. Boston is at home tonight for game 7.
And Boston takes it! Just like I said they would... but no time to get cocky, for me or the Bruins, they have a tough test now in the Flyers in the next round.
Pittsburgh hosting Tampa
Bay
The Pittsburgh Penguins have played without the best scorers in
the NHL in Sydney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for most of the second half of the
season, but still managed to earn 106 points. They also have a goal tender
coming into top form. After a horrid start to the season, the former No.1 pick
on the 2003 draft, Marc-Andre Fleury got back to making saves and ended up in
the top-10 in wins and save percentage.
Tampa Bay is the only team in the Eastern Conference playoffs
with two scorers with 90 or more points. This is not going to cut it in this
conference where far stronger defense is present on nearly every other team.
Tampa Bay ranks 21st in scoring defense allowing 2.85 goals per game.
The Penguins have far too much team balance and will focus their
defense on shutting down the Lightnings’ offensive threats. Moreover, the
Lightning have one of the worst team save percentages and acquired a 41-year
old net minder from the Islanders in Dwayne Roloson. So, obviously, endurance
and fatigue will be a significant factor the Lightning’s goal tender. I like the Penguins to advance.
It was a convincing start to the series for the Penguins and I like them even more to get past the Lightning now. They recorded a shut out against Tampa Bay and took the game 3-1.
Well it was an even more convincing 'start' for the Lightning who shocked the Penguins in game 2 with a 5-1 beating and who take to home ice tonight in game 3.
Home ice but no dice! Penguins take a 2-1 lead in the series with a tight 3-2 victory.
Looking good for my play on the Penguins to advance, last night they closed out another close win to make it 3-1 in the series and just one more tick in the W column will move them on.
With the series nearly over, the Penguins were slaughtered as the Lightning struck, and boy did it strike. Tampa Bay ran away with an 8-2 victory, bringing them new life in this series.
Lightning does strike twice! Tampa, with the help of Downie, have forced game 7 with a 4-2 win and tied the series 3-3.
Wow, Lightning surprised me good! 1-0 in game 7 as Roloson does it again!