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Round 1 Recap, Round 2 Preview
Posted by tgirsch

ROUND 1 RECAP:

EAST:
¹Sabres 4, ⁸Islanders 1: (My pick: Sabres in 5, exactly correct!) Nobody really expected the Islanders to be much of a match for the Sabres, and that proves correct. I can only sit and suck on my sour grapes, knowing that my Maple Leafs (or even the evil Canadiens) almost certainly would have given the Sabres a better fight than that. And I’m surprised the Hockey Gods allowed the Isles even one win, what with their fans’ propensity for throwing shit out on the ice all the time. (As a side note, the “no-goal” near the end of Game 5 was a bad whistle, but since the whistle had blown, it was the right call.)

²Devils 4, ⁷Lightning 2: (My pick: Devils in 5, missed it by one game.) I’m actually surprised the Lightning put up as much of a fight as they did. And what was with Tortorella’s post-game news conference after game 5? If you’re not going to answer any meaningful questions, why bother showing up for the conference? Anyway, the Lightning still have talent, but they lack consistency. And Brodeur was, as ever, solid.

⁶Rangers 4, ³Thrashers 0: (My pick: Rangers in 6, overestimated Atlanta.) I fully expected the Thrashers to tank, but not like this. The Rangers aren’t that good, and the thrashers aren’t that bad. So what gives? As far as I could tell, the Thrashers were never in the series.

⁴Senators 4, ⁵Penguins 1: (My pick: Penguins in 7, oops!) So maybe the Senators are better than I thought, or maybe the Penguins just aren’t ready for prime time, or are too young to perform under playoff pressure. In any case, they got it handed to them.

WEST:
¹Red Wings 4, ⁸Flames 2: (My pick: Red Wings in 6, exactly correct!) As I expected, the Flames put up a fight, but just weren’t good enough. If not for Kiprusoff in net, the Flames would have been eliminated in no time. That team owes him their playoff salaries, not to mention a huge apology. (Why can’t the Leafs ever get goaltending like that? Not since Cujo, anyway. But I digress…) I still say the Wings are overrated, and seeded artificially high, but with the way the west is seeding out, they still could make the finals.

²Mighty Ducks 4, ⁷Wild 1: (My pick: Wild in 7, BIG oops!) OK, so I thought the Mighty Ducks weren’t as good as they obviously are, and that the Wild were better than they obviously are. Not much else to say about this, other than that I really screwed the pooch. Oh, and that it still looks to me like Giguerre is stretching the rules on goalie pad size. Somebody needs to look into that, like now.

³Canucks 4, ⁶Stars 3: (My pick: Canucks in 6, missed it by one game.) If you like goaltending, then this was by far the best series of the first round. It makes little sense, but for my money, Turco actually outplayed Luongo (himself no slouch), and still came out on the short end. Another team that owes their goalie an apology (although, to be fair, had the Canucks lost, the same could be said for Luongo). I wonder if Kiprusoff and Turco met at a bar somewhere to drink away their sorrows… I’m just glad that the evil Stars have been eliminated (even more for Modano to whine about — it’s what he does best), and that a team I like is still in it.

⁴Sharks 4, ⁵Predators 1: (My pick: Preds in 5; right number of games, wrong winner!) If there were any justice in the NHL, these teams would have been seeded 1-2, and would not have met until the Western Conference Finals, if at all. There’s a lot to be said about what happened here, but the main thing was that I slightly overestimated Vokoun and vastly underestimated Nabokov. From what little I saw, he was the star of the series, making several stand-on-his-head saves against virtually every good Nashville scoring chance. Kevin watched more of it, and says coaching was a factor, too — the Preds apparently tried to physically intimidate the Sharks, and the Preds aren’t the kind of team who can intimidate much of anybody (c’mon, Kariya? Forsberg?), even if the Sharks really were a team prone to that sort of intimidation.

My Round One Score: 5 correct out of 8 series.

ROUND TWO PREVIEW:
(Note: Even though the games have started already, I haven’t checked scores yet today at the time of writing this…)

EAST:
¹Sabres vs. ⁶Rangers: With the Sabres being from Buffalo, it’s not a question of whether they’ll break their fans’ hearts, but when. In this case, not yet. The Rangers have overachieved of late, but I think that ends here. The Sabres are a better team top-to-bottom. Sabres in six.

²Devils vs. ⁴Senators: It’s tempting to pick the Sens to choke here, based on their history. But based on what I saw in Round One, they were a lot more impressive than the Devils, despite Brodeur’s play. Sooner or later, you have to score goals. Ottawa can do this consistently, and New Jersey can’t. Senators in seven.

WEST:
¹Red Wings vs. ⁴Sharks: There has to be a big upset in here somewhere, right? To me, this is it. If the Sharks play near as well against Detroit as they did against Nashville, they should be able to beat these aging Wings. Plus, the Hockey Gods cannot tolerate that thug Bertuzzi advancing any further. Sharks in six.

²Mighty Ducks vs. ³Canucks: I’d love to be wrong about this, but I just think that the Canucks emptied the tank in Round One. They needed over nine games worth of hockey to eliminate the Stars, and their scoring was horribly inconsistent in so doing. The short break between that game and tonight’s game one will only amplify this disparity. Add in how good the Mighty Ducks looked in the first round, I think that the Canucks are dispatched with relative ease. Mighty Ducks in five.

As always, let me know why I’m full of shit.

April 25th, 2007 Sports, NHL | 14 comments