betED.com - The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
May 7th, 2008 - The Game Changer
Whatever God Gary Bettman prays too, he or she has been getting some serious knee time from the littlest commissioner of late because of the way the NHL postseason has unfolded.
The Final Frigid Four is set and each team has a great story ? maybe enough of a story to have the main steam media pay some attention and to even draw some non-hardcore eyes to TV to take in the games.
In the East ? it?s pretty much a dream match-up with two storied franchises with a heated interstate rivalry facing off against one another.
Out West, the product of Hockeytown USA takes on the team that?s been the most exciting in the playoffs.
And there?s even a Chosen One who will be front and center. Sidney Crosby is the star the league has been looking for and he?s finally (he?s only been in playing pro for three years) advanced far enough in the show to warrant serious Stanley Cup attention.
It?s gonna be ?all Sidney all the time? as Crosby will be the focus of the league?s press machine. As Gretzky did before him, Sid the Kid will get more face time than all other players combined.
And along with his lethal linemate Evgeni Malkin, and with strong goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins are heavily favored in the Conference Finals.
Should they be? The had an easy time against the Senators in the opening round, but Ottawa had imploded at the end of the regular season and make it into the postseason only because of their strong play ? in September. More impressively they rolled through the Rangers who themselves took out a tough Devils team in their first round. That makes the #2 seed in the East 8-1 thus far and they now get the lowest seed left playing, the #6 Philadelphia Flyers.
Can a team with the Flyers legacy ever be described as a ?Cinderella? team? Better not. Dave ?The Hammer? Schultz might punch somebody in the face in protest. But they were supposed to be in a rebuilding phase and not expected to make it out of the regular season. Yet they did and surprised Alexander Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals in seven games and then shocked the world by upsetting the East's #1 seed, and Canada?s last hope, the #1 seeded Montreal Canadiens. (That?s 14 years and counting for a team from the Great White North not to win a Stanley Cup by the way. No Canada!)
The Game Changer in this series should be in net for the Penguins. Fleury has the best regular-season save percentage of .921 of any other goaltender left standing and he leads all goaltenders with a post-season save percentage of .938.
It was a great run for the Flyers but with Crosby setting up Malkin and Fleury stopping pretty much everything that comes his way?
Penguins in six
(And they have the added bonus of having Gary praying for them to make the finals.)
In the Western Conference Detroit takes on Dallas, and this seems to be easy picking at first glance.
The Red Wings had the best regular season record in the league and after struggling in the first round being stretched by Nashville to six games; they put it in another gear against Colorado, sweeping them in four. A goaltender switch from Dominik Hasek to Chris Osgood seemed to have been the impetus. Osgood is now 6-0 and has the second best playoff goals-against average at .937.
Conversely, Dallas is a surprise to everybody. Having not made it out of the first round since the 2002-03 season, they were the heavy underdogs in both of their earlier series. Nobody, except perhaps their mid-season GM pickup Brett Hull picked them to get this far. Just thinking about it, Hull is so honest, even he would have to admit he thought they had no shot.
In the first round, Dallas took out the defending champion Anaheim Ducks in six, but they made it look relatively easy. Against San Jose in the second round, things got a lot tougher however. Four of the six games against the Sharks went into overtime, with Dallas winning three of them - including an unbelievable four-overtime game in the series finale.
There is a convention in hockey thinking that the secret to success in the hockey?s postseason, which is considered the toughest slog in sports, is a combination of great goaltending and overall team grit. Goaltenders can steal games for a team, as Turco did against the Sharks, and a veteran team can win a war of attrition by grinding their perhaps more talented opponents down.
That?s been pretty much the playbook for the Stars thus far, and there is no reason to suspect they cannot keep it up against Detroit.
The Game Changer in this one should be Turco. Still on a high from his almost miraculous play thus far, he?ll be well rested as he takes on the Wings and Osgood. Osgood has been good, but Turco?s been better.
Dallas in Seven
Gary Bettman should be a happy man these days as his poster boy has an excellent shot at making it all the way to his first Stanley Cup final.
But the players that matter most for each of these teams are in the nets.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Bet NHL Hockey Stanley Cup Playoffs at betED.com here!
May 7th, 2008 - The Game Changer
Whatever God Gary Bettman prays too, he or she has been getting some serious knee time from the littlest commissioner of late because of the way the NHL postseason has unfolded.
The Final Frigid Four is set and each team has a great story ? maybe enough of a story to have the main steam media pay some attention and to even draw some non-hardcore eyes to TV to take in the games.
In the East ? it?s pretty much a dream match-up with two storied franchises with a heated interstate rivalry facing off against one another.
Out West, the product of Hockeytown USA takes on the team that?s been the most exciting in the playoffs.
And there?s even a Chosen One who will be front and center. Sidney Crosby is the star the league has been looking for and he?s finally (he?s only been in playing pro for three years) advanced far enough in the show to warrant serious Stanley Cup attention.
It?s gonna be ?all Sidney all the time? as Crosby will be the focus of the league?s press machine. As Gretzky did before him, Sid the Kid will get more face time than all other players combined.
And along with his lethal linemate Evgeni Malkin, and with strong goaltending from Marc-Andre Fleury, the Penguins are heavily favored in the Conference Finals.
Should they be? The had an easy time against the Senators in the opening round, but Ottawa had imploded at the end of the regular season and make it into the postseason only because of their strong play ? in September. More impressively they rolled through the Rangers who themselves took out a tough Devils team in their first round. That makes the #2 seed in the East 8-1 thus far and they now get the lowest seed left playing, the #6 Philadelphia Flyers.
Can a team with the Flyers legacy ever be described as a ?Cinderella? team? Better not. Dave ?The Hammer? Schultz might punch somebody in the face in protest. But they were supposed to be in a rebuilding phase and not expected to make it out of the regular season. Yet they did and surprised Alexander Ovechkin and his Washington Capitals in seven games and then shocked the world by upsetting the East's #1 seed, and Canada?s last hope, the #1 seeded Montreal Canadiens. (That?s 14 years and counting for a team from the Great White North not to win a Stanley Cup by the way. No Canada!)
The Game Changer in this series should be in net for the Penguins. Fleury has the best regular-season save percentage of .921 of any other goaltender left standing and he leads all goaltenders with a post-season save percentage of .938.
It was a great run for the Flyers but with Crosby setting up Malkin and Fleury stopping pretty much everything that comes his way?
Penguins in six
(And they have the added bonus of having Gary praying for them to make the finals.)
In the Western Conference Detroit takes on Dallas, and this seems to be easy picking at first glance.
The Red Wings had the best regular season record in the league and after struggling in the first round being stretched by Nashville to six games; they put it in another gear against Colorado, sweeping them in four. A goaltender switch from Dominik Hasek to Chris Osgood seemed to have been the impetus. Osgood is now 6-0 and has the second best playoff goals-against average at .937.
Conversely, Dallas is a surprise to everybody. Having not made it out of the first round since the 2002-03 season, they were the heavy underdogs in both of their earlier series. Nobody, except perhaps their mid-season GM pickup Brett Hull picked them to get this far. Just thinking about it, Hull is so honest, even he would have to admit he thought they had no shot.
In the first round, Dallas took out the defending champion Anaheim Ducks in six, but they made it look relatively easy. Against San Jose in the second round, things got a lot tougher however. Four of the six games against the Sharks went into overtime, with Dallas winning three of them - including an unbelievable four-overtime game in the series finale.
There is a convention in hockey thinking that the secret to success in the hockey?s postseason, which is considered the toughest slog in sports, is a combination of great goaltending and overall team grit. Goaltenders can steal games for a team, as Turco did against the Sharks, and a veteran team can win a war of attrition by grinding their perhaps more talented opponents down.
That?s been pretty much the playbook for the Stars thus far, and there is no reason to suspect they cannot keep it up against Detroit.
The Game Changer in this one should be Turco. Still on a high from his almost miraculous play thus far, he?ll be well rested as he takes on the Wings and Osgood. Osgood has been good, but Turco?s been better.
Dallas in Seven
Gary Bettman should be a happy man these days as his poster boy has an excellent shot at making it all the way to his first Stanley Cup final.
But the players that matter most for each of these teams are in the nets.
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Bet NHL Hockey Stanley Cup Playoffs at betED.com here!
