Red Wings will win it all
Expect a hard fought series when Pittsburgh plays PhiladelphiaPublished 4/11/2012
Comments (0)Hard hits, glove saves and scoring the game winning goal that keeps your team playing.
Starting today, 16 teams will compete and only one will lift Lord Stanley’s cup by the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
The Stanley Cup playoffs are the greatest time of the year for hockey fans, where the biggest names step up or buckle under the pressure. This postseason is loaded with story lines and here are a few to keep an eye on.
Ready, Fight!
The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers are meeting in the first round of the playoffs, and if the regular season is any indication, there might be a fight or two. These teams are 300 miles apart in the same state, and have shown throughout the season that they do not like each other.
The series is loaded with star power, with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on the Penguins and Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell on the Flyers, and either of these teams have the talent to represent the East in the Stanley Cup. If physical hockey is what you want to watch, this is the series for you.
Déjà vu.
Last year, the Vancouver Canucks won the Presidents’ Trophy as the best team in the NHL regular season and earned a number one seed in the Western Conference. Fast forward to this year and once again the Canucks have done it again.
The expectations last year for the Canucks were high, with most Canuck fans having a Stanley Cup or bust mentality. The disappointment and the frustration showed when the Canucks lost game seven to the Boston Bruins, and it was like 1994 all over again when riots broke out in the streets of Vancouver. Do the Canucks have the same expectations as last year? Probably. Will they achieve their goal this year? That story has yet to be written.
Upset Alert.
When 15 seed Norfolk State defeated 2 seed Missouri, it was an upset of epic proportions that nobody could have predicted. In the postseason, the highest seeds are supposed to be the better teams and advance all the way through the playoffs to the Stanley Cup Finals.
But looking at each series, there is no guarantee that the higher seeds will advance.
In the West, Veznia trophy candidate Jonathan Quick will give the Canucks trouble, the playoff experienced Sharks will take on the playoff rookie Blues, the Blackhawks had more points than the higher seeded Coyotes and the Red Wings were once the best team in the league.
In the East, the Flyers have lots of talent, the Devils are playing a Panthers team that hasn’t seen playoff hockey in 12 years, the Capitals are a year removed from being the best team in the East and the Rangers could collapse under the pressure of being the number one team in the East. No team is guaranteed a series victory in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
If you have been reading this far, you are probably wondering what my predictions are.
In the East, the New York Rangers have played great hockey all year and I think they will live up to the number one seed, defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals.
I predict the Red Wings will defeat the Canucks in the West and then defeat the Rangers to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup. Now sit back on your couch, turn the television to hockey and enjoy the greatest show on ice.
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