Round 2 of '09

I'm pretty stoked about the second round of the NHL playoffs starting. I'm surprised, but not saddened by the loss of two of my most hated teams, the Devils and the Sharks. Other than that the first round went as expected although the Rangers, (lead by Markus Naslund), gave the Capitals a harder time than expected. I think this next round is up for grabs. ANY team can win any series. I pick Vancouver, Anaheim, Boston and Pittsburgh but they could ALL be wrong.

Anaheim has a VERY hot goalie. I'd pick him if he were in ANY of my pools. I've been listening to the Anaheim games and Hiller's standing on his head. Getzlaf, Perry, S. Neidermayer and Pronger are all playing great. No surprise. But they've got a young guy and an old guy who might be the difference in this series, Bobby Ryan and Teemu Selanne respectively. I don't think Detroit has had enough Swedish saunas and massages to prepare them for the beating they'll take from Anaheim. They gave the Sharks nightmares. Thornton and Getzlaf even fought! And Detrpot's traditional big weakness will finally kill them. Osgood can really suck. I think he'll get scored on regularly. Anaheim in 6 is probably an upset.

Carolina doesn't get any respect. They have one of those teams that IS a team. Of course buddies Eric Staal and Ray Whitney are at the top of the scoring so far for the team in the playoffs. But tied with them is Chad LaRose? They have some players whose names a hockey fan might recognize, Cole, Samsonoff, Brind'Amour, but they have a pile of no-namers with more heart than talent. And in Cam Ward they have good goaltending. They beat the Devils and they could beat the Bruins too. But they won't. Boston is too strong and they have LOTS of names a hockey fan will recognize, Savard, Kessel, Krejci, Chara, Ryder, Recchi, Bergeron, Wheeler and Tim Thomas. Boston in 6.

I can't wait to see the Pittsburgh/Washington series. I hope they break a record for goals in a series. They've got the offensive guns to do it. But because it's the playoffs and everybody falls in love with defence at this time of year they both might start worrying more about the other team scoring on them than attacking, the scaredicat hockey that plagues the playoffs every year. I REALLY hope this doesn't happen because I wanna see, (or hear), guys like Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Green, Fedorov, Malkin, Crosby, Gonchar, Guerin and the other guys on their teams go crazy scoring! And I think it might happen. I don't think the goaltending or the defence is strong enough to stop it. I give Pittsburgh an edge because Washington is tired. I hope it goes 7 games but I think Pittsburgh wins in 5.

Vancouver and Chicago. I was super happy the way the end of the season went so that Calgary had to deal with the Hawks in the first round instead of the Canucks. They were the team that scared me. Young and hungry. But that could be said about the Canucks too. Although Chicago has some of the strangest name spellings in the league, (What kind of way is that to spell Taves and Bufflin?!), they've got some exciting players. Versteeg, Havlat, Kane, Sharp, Toews, Campbell, Byfuglien, Barker, Seabrook. I think they are the deepest team in the playoffs. And if the Boulin wall goes up the Canucks are in trouble.

The Canucks have DEFENCE. And they want to make Roberto Luongo into Richard Brodeur. And that's not the only parallel between the '82 Canucks and this year's team that can be drawn. Gradin/Sundin, Sundstrom/Henrik, Tanti/Daniel, Smyl/Kesler, Hlinka/Demitra, Edler/Molin, Mitchell/McCarthy, Bubla/Ohlund, Burrows/Williams, I could go on. Now I know some of these guys were injured and some came in '83 but this year's team brings me back to those days. What got the Canucks to the finals was L.A. beating the Oilers, King Richard being phenomenal every night and defence. I hate defence! In fact the way they beat the Hawks is by shadowing Denis Savard with defensive forward Gerry Minor. Savard was so frustrated he spit at a ref! Savard was a great talent. I hate the strategy of shadowing offensive stars. It makes for a boring game. Any kind of defence does! I actually WANT the Hawks to beat my favourite team and gain a victory for offense over defence. But I doubt that's the way this series will be played. I think the Canucks are strong enough to force the Hawks into playing defence and if so they'll win a 7-game yawner. Lots of close game kind of intensity, but not lots of action.

The thing is the Canucks have some players that are very underappreciated. They COULD probably make this an offensive and fun series to watch. Guys like Wellwood, Raymond, Edler, Bernier, Kesler, Bieksa, Burrows, they can play offense! I think there are some guys waiting to bust out here, especially Wellwood. But with the coach they have, I doubt it will be allowed. I'll be happy for the winner and sad for the loser of this series. But I'd rather see the Canucks lose 6-5 every game than win 1-0. That's just me.

I sure am missing Hockey Night in Canada right about now!