NHL Conference Finals

Western Conference Final: Los Angles Kings vs. Phoenix Coyotes

 

The Conference Finals have been nothing short of extraordinary. The Los Angles Kings have been the biggest surprise of this postseason. The eight seed has not only beaten the President Trophy Winners and the second seed St. Louis Blues but they beat them into submission in convincing fashion. This is what separates them from any other 8th seed that has made it to the Conference Final. Their young forwards are playing as if they have been in the league for an extra three years instead. Dwight King and Jordan Nolan fore-check hard and give the LA Kings a tremendous amount of depth. Their strong fore-check doesn’t only come from those fourth liners, but also their skilled players such as Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown and Anze Kopitar. The backstop of the Kings force has been solid and quick, very fitting that we are talking about Jonathan Quick. When your goalie is playing so well it is much easier for a defense to have confidence in playing which in turn makes it beyond difficult to get a goal past the LA Kings.

 

The Phoenix Coyotes have also surprised the NHL world by using the same scheme as the LA Kings. A strong defense, great goal-tending and big fore-checking by the forwards. Mike Smith has been beyond impressive, he currently has stopped 87 shots in the first two games against the Kings. With the LA Kings having a commanding 2-0 lead in the series, the Coyotes have to get back to want made them successful in the postseason. The Phoenix snipers need to have more shots on Jonathan Quick, Radim Vrbata, Shane Doan, and Ray Whitney can fire it from all over the ice and with some traffic it can get difficult for Quick. The goals they have scored on Quick have been on turn-overs from a strong fore-check or great defense-men jumping up on the plays like Keith Yandle and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.

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Eastern Conference Final: NY Rangers vs. New Jersey Devils

This series is currently tied at one and could be just a back and forth brawl. The New York Rangers are getting excellent goal-tending from Henrik Lundquist and blocked 26 shots in their Game 1 win of the series but this team is the number one seed for a reason and have not shown the amount of offensive firepower that they have. Although their scorers have had timely goals I feel that they could bring more urgency from guys like Brad Richards and especially Marion Gabroik. The defense of Ryan, Giradi, Staal and Del Zotto have been playing MVP style hockey in my opinion. Of course that kind of defense is not as noticed throughout the league but it’s very much recognized by coaching. Speaking of coaching by this time don’t you think that John Tortella would be used to losing by now. The team has gone to two Game 7’s in the previous series which means they have lost a total of six games, seven if you include last night but every time that happens his attitude is the pits. I would not doubt that there could be a problem with this in the future and if the Devils pull out this series there might be lots of finger-pointing in the front office.

 

The New Jersey Devils have been riding on a high from a Game 7 win in OT against the Florida Panthers in the first round which boosted their confidance to play even better which showed up when they destroyed the Flyers that didn’t show up in that series. Now they have strong hitting, a strong defense and great offensive power from Ilya, Clarkson, Henrique, Elias and Parise. Three of these guys were 30 goal scorers during the regular season and unlike the Rangers top scorers they have come to play much harder. Although I would call as an exception to that rule of Ilya, who plays like a Jekyll and Hyde from one period to another. Martin Brodeur is riding on a high and is playing very well but he is still 40 and it shows with some of the mis-plays he has made in net. But let’s not forget, he is a future hall of famer and for what he lacks in talent (due to age) he makes up for in smarts. If the Devils can stop crying and falling looking for penalties which I noticed them do a couple of times last game they will easily win this series. To be fair the same goes for the Rangers which also did the same that last two games. I think the refs have noticed and will be letting a lot of the little things go for the rest of this series and let them play it out.

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2nd round near an end

Welcome back sports fans. Analysis for the 2nd round of the playoffs.

 

Could you believe it? The NHL playoffs continue to have stories that just baffle you. The eight seed L.A Kings went on to sweep the St. Louis Blues in very convincing fashion. The Kings are skating harder, faster, and quicker than most teams competing for the Stanley Cup his year. The stars of the Kings are lead by their captain Dustin Brown who scored the game winning goal in Game 4 against the Blues to complete the sweep. The pulse of this team though was been with Jonathan Quick who has answered the bell at every call. The St. Louis Blues though had a tremendous amount of trouble in really testing Quick as their offense seem to stall out at the wrong time.

The team brave enough to battle the Kings have already been chosen. The Western Conference Final is going to be hot his summer as to join the Kings will be the Phoenix Coyotes. An incredible story as a franchise that has been threatened to being relocated multiple times, then bought out by the NHL, and finally finding ownership. The Coyotes use a style of hockey that did not give the skilled players of the Nashville Predators much room to create offense. The goalie Mike Smith calls it Coyote Ugly, to go along with his creative handshake with back up goalie and his defense, this team is a force to be reckoned with.

Back East its a much different story. A tight series between the N.Y Rangers and the Washington Capitals have allowed us to witness a tying goal in the dying seconds to then win it in OT a minute later; a triple OT winner; and more with Game 6 & possible Game 7 in the works. Dale Hunter has coached this Capitals team almost perfectly. He uses his star players with optimal and efficient ice-time then plays his third and fourth line guys hard for a strong defensive front. Braden Holtby has been a beast in net but he can only stop so many, in order for the Caps to have success in Game 6 & 7.

The N.Y Rangers are playing sound, tough defensive hockey which contributes to their success. Led by strong offense, special teams and king Henrik the Rangers seem to be the team to beat. This style of hockey is also shown by the L.A Kings and the Phoenix Coyotes, so those could be some very interesting matchups in a potential Stanley Cup Final.

Across the way, the New Jersey Devils have their star players shinning at the right time. After a hard fought series with the Florida Panthers, the Devils players began to take nothing for granted and other players began to step up and play much better than their own potential. That is really what it means to be in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Using a strong defensive trap and Martin Brodeur playing ten years younger, the Devils have shown a way to take a 3-1 series lead on the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers will be without Claude Giroux for tonight’s elimination game which means the rest of the Flyers must step up their game and Bryz must be better. The Devils have not poured shots in Bryz so he must be better and the Flyers defense must be tighter.

Right now the success for teams in the playoffs have been using a defensive trap, blocking shots and playing tight defense and then using a counter attack with a strong fore-check to create those chances for just enough goals to win. A possible recipe to hoist the coveted Stanley Cup, only time will tell.

NHL Playoff Preview Eastern Conference

With the first night of the playoffs wrapped up and the second night awaiting in the wings, here are my predictions for the Eastern Conference first round match-ups.

1.) NY Rangers VS 8.) Ottawa Senators

– An interesting combination here as I have heard many experts say not to count out the Senators because this could be an upset in the making. Well sorry but I really don’t think so. The Rangers have too much fire power and all the right key players stepping up. Marion Gaborik, Ryan Callahan on offense, tough guys like Marc Staal and Dan Giradi on defense and King Henrik in-goal. Those guys come to play their game, forget the upset.

– The Senators will have to hope for mistakes and missed chances by the Rangers to pull this one-off. Plus they will need stellar games from Eric Karlesson and Kyle Turris for a chance. This is the NHL Playoffs so anything is possible.

– Prediction Rangers in 5

2.) Boston Bruins VS 7.) Washington Capitals

– In order for Washington to pull off an upset than their star players that have been non-existent during the entire regular season, Nickalus Backstrom, Mike Green and Alexander Semin must return to their offensive power strong from last year’s regular season and find a way to bring it in the playoffs. I feel that this team does not have the leadership roles to bring that talent to the next level in the playoffs.

– The Bruins are expected to win and with young guys like Brad Marchant and Tyler Seguin having a great regular season, look for them to continue that tear in the playoffs. That will happen because of players like Milian Lucic, Patrice Beregon and Zdeno Chara that have been here before and won. As long as Tim Thomas does not struggle expect the Bruins to win this one with their physical play.

– Prediction Bruins in 6

 

3.) Florida Panthers VS 6.) New Jersey Devils

– All eyes expect an upset in this series and they could be right. Three 30 goal scorers, Ilya Kovalchuk, Zach Parise and David Clarkson. A hall of fame goaltender in Martin Brodeur, how could this team be stopped especially with the late season tear they went on. But if their main forwards do not score, this team needs to reach deep for some secondary scoring which has been on and off.

– The Panthers ride the emotion of a twelve-year absence from the Stanley Cup Playoffs and South Florida will be rocking!!! The scoring from their big three of Stephen Weiss, Thomas Fleishman and Kris Versteeg must show up to get a series win. If not it will come to secondary scoring which has also been tough to find. Jose Theodore has to play playoff style to keep up with Marty and the slight edge I see is the scoring D-men of the Cats. If Brian Campell, Jason Garrison and Kulikov can get some points and play big the Cats could advance.

– Prediction Florida Panthers in 7

 

4.) Pittsburgh Penguins VS 5.) Philadelphia Flyers

– The Penguins are running on all cylinders and are expected to make a huge push, especially with Sidney Crosby back and Evegni Malkin just playing out of their minds. Pens have some many important offensive and defensive pieces that flow very well together which make them very hard to beat. The only issue is that they drew that Flyers in the first round, a team that also has all the same cards they do.

– Philly must bring that physical presence to get under the skin of the Pens superstars. Expect Scotty Hartnell, Wayne Simmons, Zac Rinaldo to step up the hard-hitting and traffic in front of Marc-Andre Fleury. It just seems that all the expert reports of Pens players complaining too much will actually not help their case and give the Flyers the advantage. This prediction was before last night’s game but that last sentence does prove the result of a 1-0 lead the Flyers now have.

– Prediction Flyers in 7