2007 NHL Playoffs - 2nd Round Predictions

The day after the Canucks’ fantastic Game 7 win, I thought I’d do a few predictions for Round 2. I didn’t bother doing a first round prediction since…well, I thought everything was rather obvious in the East and everything was totally unpredictable in the West. Let’s face it…this year ANY team in the West has a chance to win the Cup while only Buffalo and maybe New Jersey (when is Marty Brodeur not a contender?) has a shot in the West. Atlanta’s too inexperienced, the Islanders too weak at everything, the Lightning too questionable in goal and the Penguins…well, they just weren’t going to win against the Sens.

The West was just a coin-flip. Every single team had a dominant goaltender in net, every single team with the exception of maybe the Canucks and the Wild has dominant forwards and maybe except for the Predators, every team has a top notch defensive corp. Any team in the West would’ve swept the four losing teams in the East.

That being said, let’s look at the eight teams who aren’t playing golf yet.

Buffalo Sabres/New York Rangers

Buffalo is an amazing team to watch. They have four strong lines that are all fast, they can all score and in net, they have All-Star Ryan Miller. Their President’s Trophy win was well deserved as they are probably the best, most balanced team in the NHL right now. There are almost no holes whatsoever in the Sabres. If I really had to nit-pick…their blueline is solid but not spectacular defensively as their goals against is middle of the road but they’re tops in goals for. Um…backup goalie Ty Conklin kinda sucks but he’s unlikely to see any playing time.

The Rangers are formidable but inconsistent. When Jaromir Jagr plays at the top of his game, there’s no one in the league stronger on the puck and few more creative. They’re a good team and perhaps it’s unfortunate that they ran into the best team in the NHL in the second round. The Sabres got over their first round jitters and some superhuman goaltending from Rick DiPietro (who won that game by himself for the Isles) and will make the sweep.

Buffalo in four

New Jersey Devils/Ottawa Senators

New Jersey has the best goaltender in the world in Martin Brodeur. Yes, Roberto Luongo is just as freakin’ awesome but for this season, Brodeur reigns supreme. Brodeur doesn’t have the best stats so far in the playoffs but let’s face it, the two guys that lead in that department were playing in a very defensively-minded series. Brodeur’s numbers are amazing considering he’s playing against a team with two of the top scorers in the regular season with Rocket Richard winner Vincent Lecavalier. He faces a similar threat in the second round in the Ottawa Senators who have a number of offensive threats, led by 50-goal scorer Dany Heatley and captain Daniel Alfredsson. I hear that Jason Spezza guy isn’t bad either.

Offensively, New Jersey isn’t much of a goal scoring team but they have come alive in the playoffs and pose a serious threat to goalies on the other end of the rink. Ray Emery is a better goaltender than Johan Holmqvist and the Sens are better defensively than the all-attack Lightning so expect fewer goals from New Jersey. Scott Gomez and Zach Parise lead all scorers in the playoffs but hey, it’s against the Lightning. Ottawa is very similar offensively to the Lightning with much focused on their top players and Brodeur has come out on top before. It will be a tight series but I’ll give it to Brodeur and New Jersey’s superior defense.

New Jersey in seven

Detroit Red Wings/San Jose Sharks

While every team in the West is a contender, Calgary was not going to win that series. They had been playing poorly to end the season and rumors of the players not listening to Jim Playfair spelled out their demise. Detroit did not have to play that well to beat them and they didn’t. Dominik Hasek had a great season posting a 38-11-6 record but he also faced very few shots on average as Detroit’s gameplan all year has been to prevent shots before they get to their aging goaltender. This might work against the dysfunctional Flames but probably not the Sharks who beat a team arguably better than the Red Wings in the Predators.

The Sharks have some serious firepower up front with captain Patrick Marleau and big Joe Thornton as well as the emergence of Milan Michalek and Ryane Clowe. The rest of the team hasn’t been slouching either. Mike Grier has been a physical force and the acquisition of Craig Rivet from the Canadiens and super-rookie Matt Carle have provided the Sharks with a formidable blueline offense.

The Sharks have gone with Evgeni Nabokov in net and despite an average regular season, he has been very good in net. The Predators are a better offensive team than the Red Wings, although the Wings have been scoring well against a better goaltender in Miikka Kiprusoff. However, as a matchup, the Sharks are the stronger team.

San Jose in six

Anaheim Ducks/Vancouver Canucks

From an objective point of view, things do not look good for Vancouver. The Ducks disposed of the Wild in five and will be well rested while the Canucks just finished a hard fought seven game series against Dallas that just ended yesterday. The Ducks also have the best top two defensemen in the league in Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger. They’re not offensively challenged either led by ageless wonder Teemu Selane and speedy Andy McDonald. The Ducks are also a much more physical presence, leading the NHL with the most major penalties for fighting…by a lot. Especially without Matt Cooke in the lineup, the Canucks lack any sort of physical presence with the except of small but hard hitting Jeff Cowan.

However, the Canucks have Roberto Luongo and he is magical. He hasn’t been beaten three times in a row since December and there are few goaltenders who can match his skill. While Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Ilya Bryzgalov have been very good, neither are as good as Louie. While the top three Duck blueliners are better than the top three from the Canucks, Vancouver boasts probably the best top six in the league. That, in addition to Roberto Luongo make the team very hard to score on.

Offensively, many of the top Canuck forwards have been invisible although give credit to Marty Turco who stood on his head in Round One. The Canucks are not a high scoring team and rely on defensive prowess to win games. However, if everyone plays to their potential, the Canucks are also very good offensively, led by the virtuosity of the Sedin twins and spiritual captain Trevor Linden, who steps up in the playoffs. Actual captain Markus Naslund will need to elevate his game and someone needs to fill in for Matt Cooke’s physical play because the Ducks don’t play nice like the Dallas Stars. As a team, the Canucks are almost unpredictable but if the team that played the last 40 minutes of Game 7 shows up, the Canucks have a good chance. Otherwise…

Anahiem in six

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my full feed RSS and follow me on Twitter!

del.icio.us Digg Reddit Netscape StumbleUpon