The Second Season Is Here

Well, after 1,230 regular season games and one memorable Olympic experience, the NHL playoffs are finally upon us. Some teams are surging in, while others are stumbling, but as long as you make the playoffs, you always have a chance. Let's take a look at the matchups, starting in the West.

(1) San Jose Sharks vs. (8) Colorado Avalanche

The Sharks are best in the West for the second season in a row, led of course by the much ballyhooed top line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley, as well as Dan Boyle at the point and Evgeni Nabokov in goal. Meanwhile, the Avalanche are one of the better stories in the league this year, rebounding from a last place finish in the West in '08-09. Peter Mueller, after sleepwalking through most of the year in Phoenix, has been rejuvenated in Denver, with nine goals and 20 points in 15 games with the Avs. Matt Duchene led all rookies with 53 points, and Chris Stewart continued his development as a sophomore with 64 points, second only to Paul Stastny among all Av scorers. The team MVP though is goalie Craig Anderson, who fashioned a .920 save percentage over 71 games. Even more impressively, he managed seven shutouts despite being peppered with an average of 31.6 shots per game. He may draw some Vezina trophy support.

This series will come down to the performance of the Sharks top line against the possible fatigue of Anderson. He seemed to stumble after the Olympic break, perhaps due to overwork. San Jose will need better performances from Thornton and Marleau than they got last year against Anaheim, and if Dany Heatley can't do better than his last playoff apperance in '08 when he was in Ottawa (one assist in four games), then the Avalanche have a chance to pull off an upset. Still, I think the Sharks are deeper, and I think San Jose will win the series in six games.

(2) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (7) Nashville Predators

The Hawks continued their rise, usurping the Central Division crown from the Red Wings. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews are only two of six 20+ goal scorers, and the tandem of Duncan Keith and Brian Campbell is a formidable one. There might be a question mark in goal, however. Cristobal Huet is paid as the number one, but his .890 save percentage is unacceptable, especially since the Hawks allowed an average of under 24 shots per game when he was in net. Antti Niemi burst upon the scene with a .910 save percentage and seven shutouts in 39 games, but he has no playoff experience.
The Predators are back in the playoffs after a one-year absence. They're a team that struggles to score goals, as only Patric Hornqvist and Martin Erat were able to surpass 20 goals. They also have had trouble with the special teams this year, finishing 24th on the power play and 28th in penalty killing. They do have two good goaltenders, though, in Pekka Rinne and Dan Ellis.
I'll take the Blackhawks to win, in five games. Chicago got some playoff experience last year with their run to the West Final. Plus, their offensive talent is much deeper than Nashville's.

(3) Vancouver Canucks vs. (6) Los Angeles Kings

Vancouver, of course, is led by the Sedin twins. Henrik rolled up 112 points on his way to the Art Ross Trophy, and his twin Daniel might have given him a run for the top if he hadn't missed 19 games with an injury. Besides those two, Alex Burrows, Mikael Samuelsson, Ryan Kesler and Mason Raymond all surpassed 20 goals. The defense is rather nondescript, with Christian Ehrhoff and Alex Edler at the forefront, but the Canucks have the best goaltender in the game, Roberto Luongo.
Out in Los Angeles, the Kings got off to a great start and coasted into the playoffs for the first time in eight years. 22-year-old Anze Kopitar is the star up front, with 81 points. Drew Doughty is going to be the backbone of the Kings for many years to come. At 19 years of age he recorded 59 points, third in the league among all defensemen. Perhaps more impressively, he recorded a plus-20 rating, leading all Kings' defensemen. Jonathan Quick is the man in net for L.A. He recorded 39 wins, sixth best in the NHL.

I'll take Vancouver to win in six. The Kings have precious little playoff experience, and though Quick is good, he's not in Luongo's league just yet.

(4) Phoenix Coyotes vs. (5) Detroit Red Wings

Like the Kings, Phoenix is making their first playoff appearance since 2002, when San Jose swatted them aside in five games. The Coyotes off-ice issues are well-documented, and coach Dave Tippett will be rightly honoured with the Jack Adams Award for keeping the on-ice ship afloat. The 'Yotes don't score a whole lot, with only Radim Vrbata breaking the 20-goal mark, and the original Coyote Shane Doan leading the team with 55 points. However, with probable Vezina candidate Ilya Bryzgalov standing tall in the crease, Phoenix doesn't usually need too many goals.

The Wings struggled for a good chunk of the year, mostly due to injuries and uneven goaltending. They put it together after the Olympic break though, when Jimmy Howard took over the number one spot and the roster started getting healthy. Howard was magnificent in his first full season in Detroit, with 37 wins and the fourth-best (with Montreal's Jaroslav Halak) save percentage in the league. On the blueline, ageless Nicklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski are the two stalwarts, though their numbers were somewhat lower than in most seasons. Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk continue to lead the offense, with secondary support from Tomas Holmstrom and Todd Bertuzzi, among others.

I think the Coyotes will take this one in seven. Phoenix is younger and fresher, and they have a better goalie in Bryzgalov.

Now let's take a look at the matchups in the East.

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens

The Capitals can score. A lot. Their 318 goals was the most by any team since 1995-96. They are, of course, led by the incomparable Alexander Ovechkin, who barely fell short of his third Rocket Richard Trophy in a row. Besides Ovechkin, the Caps also have his linemates, 40-goal scorer Alexander Semin, and 100-point man Nicklas Backstrom. Mike Green is the current incarnation of Paul Coffey, and Brooks Laich, Tomas Fleischmann and Mike Knuble are the best of the rest. If Washington does have a question mark, it's in goal. Jose Theodore was benched in last season's playoffs in favour of young Semyon Varlamov, and it's unclear as to who will get the nod to start the series.

The Habs, meanwhile, kind of stumbled into the playoffs after having the chance to finish as high as sixth in the final week of the season. Jaroslav Halak appears to be the man in net for Montreal, but he was very mediocre in the final two games of the season against Carolina and Toronto. Andrei Markov and Marc-Andre Bergeron are the linchpins on the NHL's second best power play unit, and Brian Gionta, Tomas Plekanec and Mike Cammalleri key the attack up front, with support from Scott Gomez, Benoit Pouliot and Andrei Kostitsyn.

I think the Caps will win in five. It pains me to say so, since I bleed bleu, blanc et rouge, but Washington is just too deep and talented up front and on defence, and though I think Halak is better than Theodore, the difference isn't great enough to cancel out Washington's advantages.

(2) New Jersey Devils vs. (7) Philadelphia Flyers

The battle of the Jersey Turnpike begins anew for the fourth time, with the Devils emerging victorious in 1995 and 2000, and the Flyers taking the last meeting in 2004. Martin Brodeur had another typical season; 75+ games, 45 wins and a .920 save percentage. They brought Ilya Kovalchuk over from Atlanta, and even in Jacques Lemaire's defensive system he still managed a point per game over 27 games. Zach Parise, Travis Zajac and Patrik Elias add offense up front, with Andy Greene the leader among defensemen.

The Flyers needed a shootout win over the Rangers in the last game of the season to make it into the playoffs. Goaltending has been the Flyers' bogeyman over the years, and this year they're relying on journeyman Brian Boucher to take them far, as Ray Emery and Michael Leighton are both out for the year with injuries. Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne and Daniel Briere are the core up front, with Chris Pronger, Kimmo Timonen and Matt Carle the main defensemen.

I'm picking the Devils to win in six. True, Brodeur hasn't looked all that great in his last few playoff years, but Boucher hasn't won a playoff game in ten years.

(3) Buffalo Sabres vs. (6) Boston Bruins

The Sabres bounced back from two non-playoff years to claim the Northeast Division title, and almost all of the credit goes to Ryan Miller, the probable Vezina winner. He rolled up 41 wins, five shutouts and a monstrous .930 save percentage. They need him to be great, because Buffalo doesn't appear to have that one game-breaking forward. Derek Roy, Tim Connelly and Thomas Vanek are decent enough, but they need Vanek to bounce back to his 40 goal season from '08-09. The defense is led by 19-year-old Texan Tyler Myers, who is a candidate for Rookie of the Year.

The Bruins finished with the fewest number of goals in the league, with only Marco Sturm passing the 20 goal mark. They will miss Marc Savard, who was rocked by that infamous Matt Cooke hit to the head. Zdeno Chara looms large, both literally and figuratively, on the blueline. Tim Thomas fell off precipitously from his Vezina season of '08-09, but Tuukka Rask emerged this season as a bona fide number one, and he will likely get the nod to start the series.

It looks as though this series will come down to goaltending. Expect a long series with precious few goals, and the Sabres coming out on top in seven games.

(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (5) Ottawa Senators

This is the third meeting in four years for these two teams, with the Senators decisively winning in five games in '07 en route to their Finals appearance that year, and the Penguins returning the favour in '08, curb stomping Ottawa in four straight on the way to a Finals appearance of their own. The Pens are the defending Cup champions, and of course they are led by the team of Sid & Geno. Sidney Crosby shared the Rocket Richard Trophy this year with 51 goals, and Evgeni Malkin added 77 points in just 67 games. Beyond that, though, the offense drops off rather severly. Young Jordan Staal and ancient Bill Guerin were the only other players with at least 20 goals, although Pittsburgh does have two prominent defensemen in Sergei Gonchar and Alex Goligoski.

Ottawa, after trotting out Ron Tugnutt, Damian Rhodes, Patrick Lalime and Ray Emery, among others in playoffs past, is hitching their hopes to Brian Elliott. He started the year as the number two, but due to Pascal Leclaire's annual injuries (and this season's mediocre play), Elliott is now the man. The Senators have played rather well in front of Elliott since he came up in the middle of '08-09, but this will be his first taste of playoff action. Longtime Sens Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, along with Mike Fisher are the top guns up front, with veteran Chris Phillips and teenaged Erik Karlsson leading the defense. Alex Kovalev will miss the playoffs with a knee injury.

Ottawa has rebounded nicely from the debacles of '07-08 and '08-09, but you always bet on the Cup champs until they're out, and thus, expect the Penguins to win in six.

Check back later in the week, when I focus on the career of Keith Tkachuk, who has announced his retirement, as well as a more general look at the careers of some other stars of the '90s, and their stats in context.