Round 1 Analysis, Plus Round 2 Preview

This is why the Stanley Cup Playoffs are better than any other postseason in sports. Every game, every series can simply explode in a flurry of greatness. In the West, all the series started wild before finishing as they were expected to, whereas in the East all the series were just flatout insane throughout. I'm surprised I still ended up getting 6 out of 8 games correctly (although I only got one series right in the number of games played). So let's look back at the first round games, going in order from least exciting to most exciting:

8. Wings over Coyotes in 7 - Strange that a series that went all seven games was the worst one, and yes a lot of it does have to do with the fact that Detroit won. But the other problem was that out of seven games, 5 of them were not even close, including the critical seventh game. Both close games happened early in the series, both won by Phoenix, which really shows just how much Detroit really outclassed them. But hey, this was the lone series I got the winner and number of games correct.

7. Canucks over Kings in 6 - This started off as one of the better series ongoing, the first two games being split in overtime. The Kings started off extremely hot before completely blowing it in Game 4, when even with LOL Luongo Vancouver still stole the game bby netting in four goals in the 3rd period. From that point on the Kings had no chance. Quick lost his edge and the Nucks rolled over him. This is the prime example of the Western Conference series starting off great and then cooling down at the end (well, except for one).

6. Bruins over Sabres in 6 - Right amount of games predicted, wrong team coming out on top. The games did play out as expected, that being it would come down solely to who the hotter goalie was, and in this case Tuukka Rask prevailed over Ryan Miller. I don't like Boston, but I gotta give them props, as it definitely was not an easy task for a team with not much offense (on paper) beating Miller.

5. Flyers over Devils in 5 - Okay, can't comment too much on this because Versus decided not to show ANY of these games on TV, but I have it this high because 1)The Flyers won, 2) The supposed worst goalie in the playoffs ended with one of the best GAAs and Save %, 3) LOL Kovalchuk, and 4)LOL Brodeur. Sports Illustrated had Miller and Brodeur as the top 2 goalies in the playoffs, and they both went down in the 1st round.

4. Pens over Sens in 6 - The only reason this is so high is the triple overtime Game 5 that resulted in a Senators victory. 3OT games are awesome. Other than that, the Crosbys pretty much rolled over them and did nothing to indicate they wouldn't be back in the SC Finals.

3. Sharks over Avs in 6 - Yeah this ended in two blowouts by the Sharks in Games 5 and 6, but the first four games were excellent, all but Game 1 ending in overtime. This also had the funniest individual game in the playoffs with Dan Boyle scoring on his own net to give Colorado the win. Shame they recovered from that.

2. Hawks over Preds in 6 - Of course I'll rate a Chicago series high, but this was actually a really good series. Almost every game was decided solely by third period efforts. Niemi got two no-no's. This series had the best individual game, that being Game 5 when the Hawks scored a short-handed goal with 20 seconds left to force OT, where they would kill a 5 minute major penalty and proceed to win the game. And of course, the Hawks won, so that gets a couple extra points. But it was outclassed by one other series...or should I say one person in particular.

1. Habs over Caps in 7 - First, it's automatically an amazing series because it went seven games and the last game was close. Second, LOL Ovechkin. Fun fact: Every playoff series that Ovechkin has been a part of has gone seven games. The guy is just not a clutch performer, and I hate to say it but Crosby is better, period. He didn't even play badly, but he has yet to step his game up to another level in the postseason. Other fun fact: this is the first time ever that the 8 seed defeated the 1 seed in the 1st round after facing a 3-1 deficit in the series. And there is only one reason Montreal pulled that off, and his name is Jaroslav Halak. In the last three games he faced about 150 shots and stopped all but three, one in each game. Plenty of those saves were "HOW DID HE MAKE THAT SAVE" ones too. Halak was so good down the stretch that the NHL already made a History Will Be Made commerical with him in it. If he keeps playing like this Pittsburgh is in deep trouble, hopefully he does. With all that said, XFD Caps!


Well as you can see, the first round was nuts, and the second round can only get better with some great matchups looming. Let's make some predictions:

Pens over Habs in 6 - I heavily debated whether to push this to 7 games but I'm sticking with this. I don't think Halak can stay in God Mode for much longer, which means Montreal will have to step up other aspects of their game. Luckily for them, they've been doing well on both sides of the ice. Their top scorers are scoring plenty (Cammaleri especially) and the defense is blocking plenty of shots. However, they are dealing with Sidney Crosby who puts in cheat codes in the playoffs, and Marc-Andre Fleury rarely ever goes cold, so it will not be easy. I have Pittsburgh winning, but it can very much go the other way.

Flyers over Bruins in 7 - This will be fun. The Bruins are a physical team, the Sabres were not, and usually in the playoffs the better defense prevails. The Flyers invented physicality, so I expect lots of fights in this one. Now this pick is a stretch considering two of Philly's top 3 players are out for this series, and the other won't be around to take pucks to his face. Boucher will need to keep up his level of play, because I don't see Rask dropping. The key to this is that Philly players who are not primarily scorers have been scoring. Philly knows the best times to play D and play O, so I think they'll get the win here and meet up with the Pens for the third straight postseason.

Wings over Sharks in 7 - In the year that San Jose has REALLY been praying to get out of the 2nd round, they get stuck with Detroit. Now, I think they have the heart this time to really take it to them (well, Thornton and Marleau won't, mainly it will be Pavelski's line doing the damage), but it won't be enough. Detroit and San Jose performed about the same in the 1st round, only difference being that Phoenix was a much much better team, and that's all you need to know when picking who wins this series.

Hawks over Canucks in 6 - A lot of people are predicting this series will be a lot closer and more intense than last year. More intense I agree with, but I don't know about the former. Vancouver's offense is better this year but their D weakened a bit, and certainly it's much weaker than Nashville's was. Also, Luongo was better last year, both in the regular season and playoffs. All this sets up an easy win for the Hawks right? Well, if they feel like playing defense this series. They already started with a great move by putting Byfuglien back as a forward, because he was so bad at D and they also need him antagonizing Luongo. Hawks take this easily if they show up. Against Nashville only five people showed up for the whole series, that being Kaner (scoring), Niemi (barring one bad game which he still won) Seabrook (huge hits), and Hammer/Sopel (Sopel in particular killing himself over and over again with blocked shots). Now, Games 5 and 6 last series had more people producing like Tazer, Madden, and Hossa, so hopefully they're back in their groove for this upcoming matchup. Niemi will hopefully not have any games where he gives up 3 goals in 9 shots (but this kinda goes back to our defense needing to actually block shots). Personally I think we got this. Kaner hat tricks 7uongo again to win the series.


Best part so far? There's not even a break between the 1st and 2nd rounds, as the first game is tonight! It's one we need to watch closely too, as it is Wings/Sharks.