Two Matchups already set. East: Montreal Canadiens vs. Tampa Bay Lightning West: San Jose Sharks vs. Los Angeles Kings The rest are pretty wide open right now with about 3 days or so left in the regular season. Should be an interesting finish.
Eastern Conference: Knows: All 8 teams are determined. Bruins and Penguins are the top 2 seeds with Boston taking the top spot in the East. As mentioned earlier Lightning and Canadians is set for the 1st round with home ice still in play. Unknowns: The 2 v 3 matchup in the other divison is up for grabs. It can be any combination of Rangers, Flyers and Blue Jackets with any of those teams having home ice. The wildcards will than be Red Wings and one of the those three teams and they can finish in any order so Boston and Pittsburgh's 1st round opponents are still up in the air. Western Conference: Knows: 7 of the 8 playoff spots are spoken for with the final wildcard spot going to either Stars or Coyoties. As mentioned before the 2 v 3 matchup in one of the divisons is set with Sharks having home ice against Kings. The Ducks are also one of the two top teams. Unkowns: The overall top spot is still in play between the Ducks, Blues and Avalanche with the Blues and Avalanche still in play for that divison title as well as the Avalanche and Blackhawks still in play for 2nd. Should be a fun final weekend to the season here with alot still up for grabs.
Quick note about the new playoff format. Gone is the old way of seeding teams 1-8 in each conference and then reseeding in the 2nd round so that the highest seed team faces the lowest seed team. Now only the divison winners and the wildcard teams in each conference are seeded so that the top divison winner faces the lower wildcard. The remaining first round matchups will see the 2nd and 3rd place teams in each division face each other. Gone is any sort of reseeding to pit highest seeds against lowest seeds and in its place is a format that sees divison foes facing each other in the 1st two rounds. Each 2nd round matchup will see the winner of the various 2v3 matches take on the winner of the matchup that pits their divison winner against the wildcard team.
East is all set. West has 2 match ups that will all be determined tomorrow. Anaheim Ducks vs. Dallas Stars New York Rangers vs. Philadelphia Flyers Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Columbus Blue Jackets Boston Bruins vs. Detroit Red Wings Still waiting on Colorado & St. Louis. If Colorado beats Anaheim tomorrow, they're playing the Minnesota Wild and St. Louis would play the Chicago Blackhawks. If St. Louis wins and Colorado loses, St. Louis would play Minnesota and Colorado would play Chicago.
Rooting for a Stars/ Pens SC Finals . I really don't care for the East , I guess Crosby will bring in ratings.
No doubt. I think we'll get that matchup in the 2nd round though. The Blues have been playing some horrible hockey down the stretch and will be without Backes. The Hawks were average down the stretch but that was without Kane and Toews. Both will be back for the series and I fully expect the Hawks to eliminate the Blues. As for the Avs, they get the Wild who they owned this season. Even without Duchene for the first round the Avs have much more offensive firepower than the Wild. On top of that the Avs have a much better goalie situation. To me that adds up to a short series for the Avs. Now as an Av fan, I hope the Hawks and Blues play a physical 7 game series while the Avs finish off the Wild in no more than 5 games. Gives the Avs enough rest to get Duchene back healthy for the 2nd round.
2014 Stanley Cup Playoff Predictions: Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Detroit Red Wings at Boston Bruins Boston followed up a Cup loss last season with the President's trophy this season. They are quite possibly the most complete team with the most multi purpose top 6, great 3rd and 4th lines that serve their purpose, a solid defense and great goaltending. This series will not be easy though as the Wings are playing great hockey down the stretch and are getting healthy. The Wings can match offense with the Bruins, but their D and goal tending will be their downfall in this series. Bruins in 6 Columbus Blue Jackets at Pittsburgh Penguins Not too high on the Pens heading into this series but they have a perfect opponent in front of them. The Blue Jackets are built on young talent that hasn't really been tested in tough conditions. The Pens should be more than capable of skating with the Jackets and their offense should be too much for Columbus to handle. Penguins in 5 Montreal Canadians at Tampa Bay Lightning The Lightning had to deal with so much this season and found ways to overcome. From the Stamkos injury to the St. Louis trade they found answers for it all. A big part of that was Bishop. He provided the Lightning with superb goal tending which kept them in most every game. The deciding factor for me is the injury Bishop got here in the last week. Even if he plays just how effective will he be? Canadians in 6 Philadelphia Flyers at New York Rangers This is going to be a physically intense series that should go the distance. I expect the offenses in this series to be a wash. The deciding factor should come down to the Rangers advantage in D and in net. Rangers in 7 Western Conference Quarterfinals Dallas Stars at Anaheim Ducks Dallas is a team that will be a handful moving forward, but at this point I just can't see them offering much of a challenge to the Ducks. I also worry about Dallas' ability to produce offense outside of Benn and Seguin. Ducks in 4 Minnesota Wild at Colorado Avalanche Even without Duchene for the opening round, the Avs have more offensive fire power than the Wild. That coupled with the Avs big advantage in net will be enough for Colorado to advance. Avalanche in 5 Chicago Blackhawks at St. Louis Blues If you had asked me two weeks ago I would have picked the Blues to reach the Cup. But they fell flat down the stretch and lost Backes. The Hawks have been average in that span but will be getting Kane and Toews back. I almost feel bad for picking against the Blues in what should have been their playoff coming out party but bad luck down the stretch will be their undoing. Blackhawks in 6 Los Angeles Kings at San Jose Sharks This should be the most entertaining series in the first round as both teams can do it all. This will be a close, high scoring series and I give the Sharks the advantage because of the home ice. Sharks in 7 Eastern Conference Semifinals Montreal Canadians at Boston Bruins It's not the playoffs if we don't see these two match up. This should be a great series with alot of history involved. The Canadians are real good and quite possibly the 2nd best team in the East this season. The problem is Boston is clearly the class of the east. Bruins in 6 New York Rangers at Pittsburgh Penguins This is the type of team the Pitt falls against. The Rangers have the defense and goal tending to punish the Pens and enough offense to beat the Pens. Rangers in 6 Western Conference Semifinals Chicago Blackhawks at Colorado Avalanche This should be a fun series with alot of skilled forwards on the ice. Duchene should be back in time for the semi's so offense should be fairly equal. The Hawks have the stronger defensive group but the Avs make up for that with better goal tending. This is another series that I see decided by home ice. Avalanche in 7 San Jose Sharks at Anaheim Ducks Even though the Ducks finished above the Sharks in the standings I see this series as a mismatch in favor of the Sharks. I don't see much difference in the way of defense or goal tending in either team, but the main difference comes on offense. I not only see more scoring depth in San Jose, but I see physical enough forwards to limit the Getzlaf/Perry line and if there not on I don't see much of a chance for the Ducks. Sharks in 5 Eastern Conference Finals New York Rangers at Boston Bruins Since I felt Montreal is the second best team in the east I don't envision the Rangers taking the series. However, they will still give them a battle as they are a mirror image of the Bruins, just not as good. Bruins in 6 Western Conference Finals San Jose Sharks at Colorado Avalanche As much as the fan in me would like to pick the Avs, I don't like the way we match up against them. The Sharks are to physical up front and will be able to keep our offense in check. San Jose also possesses enough offense to run up the score so I don't envision a low scoring series. Sharks in 6 Stanley Cup Finals San Jose Sharks at Boston Bruins Much like last year I found the Bruins to be the best team heading into the Cup. I expected them to take care of the Hawks but the opposite happened. Now, the Hawks were able to use there skill and athleticism to overcome the Bruins physical style. I don't think the Sharks possess those same traits, but I do think they can match up physically against the Bruins. Full disclosure, the Sharks have been a popular pick of mine for the past few seasons. If there going to do it this has to be the year. If not I can see them falling into a Vancouver situation the following season. Sharks in 7 Conn Smythe: Joe Thornton
I've picked the Sharks every year for the past decade is seems. Not this year. I think the Kings beat them in the first round. I have the Ducks/Bruins in the Finals with Boston winning in 6.
First HNIC montage of the Stanley Cup playoffs <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xtAeB7EhGv4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I don't know if I would say they escaped. They out shot and out played the Bolts. If anything Bolts were lucky it was a one goal game.
The way that game went, I think it hurts the Hawks in game 2 also. It's almost like St. Louis won 2 games instead of 1 with that W. Sharks looked really good. That team is pretty scary with all the talent they have. The only thing holding me back from picking them to come out of the west is their history of choking. But this might be the year they get it done. I really thought the Wild were going to win game 1. They blew that game just like the Hawks did theirs. I do like how the Wild match up with the Avs. I can see it being a 6 or 7 game series. I didn't get to watch much of the Rangers/Flyers game, but these 3 western conference match ups had some of the loudest stadiums I've heard on TV. I can't imagine how great it must've been to actually be at those games.
Glad the Blues could get the W. I don't think the loss will affect the Blackhawks negatively. They were in STL and even though they gave up the late lead, they still took the Blues into 3OT. I'm sure they will regroup just fine. I hope I'm wrong though. I'd love for the Blackhawks to be down after that loss and the Blues to take game 2 and go to Chicago up 2-0.