matchup armchair II
April 23rd, 2008 by Iani went 6-2 in round one but with the way that the NHL gives the remaining lowest seed to the remaining highest seed then that’s going to mean that anything short of perfection will most likely hurt your bracket for a playoff pool. as an example, i’m entered into Dobber’s playoff pool (forced to actually and i’m not allowed to win) and you can’t change your picks after the start of the playoffs but my Eastern Conference is all screwed now because i got Was/Phi wrong. instead of Pitt facing Wash in the 2nd round they now face NYR and i had overloaded my picks off Pitt/NYR with the hope they’d meet each other in the Conference Final. anyway, i won’t be winning that now i don’t expect. i wouldn’t have been eligible to take home a prize anyway but still … just like you, i want to win. the other matchup i got wrong was Ana/Dal but i distinctly remember saying that was going to be a major war anyway. people really underestimate Marty Turco, and that’s a mistake. the Sharks need to watch out now, the Stars have a swarming defensive system and they should get Zubov back at sometime this round. more on that later.
Philadelphia (6) vs. Montreal (1) - originally i wanted the Rangers to take it to Montreal in the 2nd round but that ain’t happening now. i think the Flyers are going to get a serious wakeup call here, these Habs are not the Washington Capitals. Montreal has a better all around attack, an elite power play, a strong defensive system and a young stud goalie that wants to keep proving himself. Kovalev and AKost are going to dominate this series and they’ll show the chinks in the armour of D-men who played over their heads in the first round (i’m thinking of Modry and Hatcher primarily). i still like Braydon Coburn to contribute some and Daniel Briere will still lead the Flyers in scoring but he’ll be passed fairly easily in the playoff scoring race. i see this lasting 5 games, maybe 6, and the Habs will be home and cooled out watching an offensive shootout in the other Eastern matchup.
New York Rangers (5) vs. Pittsburgh (2) - this will be a war. i think that MA Fleury will show significant stripes and prove that he’s the equal of any tender in the East (yes i said it). there’s going to be lots of scoring but the BIG save, the CLUTCH save will happen off MAF’s equipment in the end. i’m loading up on these guys in my playoff pool where you can only select players for one round and then never use them again. i’m picking Malkin, Crosby, Jagr and Gomez and i only get 8 selections this round. it’ll go 7 games and i’m thinking there’ll be a lot of 5-4 games with the Pens coming out on top at home in the 7th game.
Colorado (6) vs. Detroit (1) - this is the matchup that the Wings wanted, quite frankly they didn’t want to have to face any of Calgary, Anaheim or Dallas if the chips had fallen that way. i think this has the potential to be fairly offensive too but the Wings allow so few shots that i wonder if this series will turn into a pure defensive struggle or not. Sakic and Forsberg will lead like everyone knows they will but they’ll be outshone by Lidstrom, Datsyuk, and Zetterberg. Detroit in 6 games.
Dallas (5) vs. San Jose (2) - there is all sorts of potential for this series to blow up in the Sharks faces. if they thought Calgary was tough then they haven’t seen anything yet. the Stars play essentially the same game as the Flames except they’re better at it. i see Morrow pounding Campbell against the end boards on every dump-in chance he gets at him and if Campbell fights his way through that like he did against Calgary then he could still be a good option this series. once he gets out of his own zone with the puck though he’s going to have face blanketing defensive forwards and a mix of skating puck control D with some muscle that can finish the job that Morrow didn’t finish. Dallas plays a more intimidating game than Calgary does and they’ve just finished blanketing the champs into submission. if you like hard-nosed hockey then this’ll be the round to watch. originally i planned for the Sharks to beat Anaheim this round but right now … give me the Stars in 7.
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