Hi, folks... sorry this is running a little late. As many of you know, Mrs. tmi3rd (yes, some of us morons actually suckered someone into marrying us) just delivered tmi4th, but let's get you going on tonight's Western Conference games...
#4 Phoenix vs #5 Detroit
Of all the teams nobody wants to play, it has to be Detroit. Remember that going into the Olympics, it didn't even look like they'd make the playoffs. They are arguably the hottest team in hockey right now.
Jimmy Howard has played himself into Calder Trophy consideration with a torrid finish, Nik Lidstrom seems to have thrown off the Rip Van Winkle disease, and the typical brilliance of the Detroit forward lines seems to be working again. Throw into that a Brian Rafalski (who carried Team USA offensively during the Olympics), Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Johan Franzen... what a nightmare for opposing teams.
Phoenix, on the other hand, has been nice and consistent all year... Dave Tippett is a lock for the Jack Adams trophy, Ilya Bryzgalov arguably should have been the goalie of choice for Team Russia, and there are no real names on the team! They're wards of the state for the NHL (and seem to have resolved their lease issues in Glendale), and were supposed to be average at best this year. Instead, a defensively responsible team with surprising scoring punch challenged for the Pacific Division.
This should be a very good series, but it's hard to pick against the Red Wings under the circumstances. This series could go seven, but I'm going to take the Red Wings in six.
#1 San Jose vs #8 Colorado
Colorado did the outrageous thing of giving their youngsters a lot of ice time and asking them to produce. And, produce they did! Craig Anderson played out of his mind this year, Matt Duchene is a Calder candidate, and guys like Paul Stastny and Milan Hejduk were reliable. Colorado seems a bit tired going into this series, but remains a dangerous team and kind of saw San Jose coming from a mile away.
San Jose seems like an obvious Stanley Cup contender... but they're San Jose. Plenty of depth... if Joe Thornton decides to show up, and if Dany Heatley can get going. Good in net- assuming Evgeni Nabokov doesn't have his classic meltdown somewhere in there. You have to love their blueline with Niclas Wallin, Dan Boyle, Rob Blake... and yet, they seemed to limp into the playoffs.
It may just be because I haven't had a good night's sleep since the baby came, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this could be a colossal upset. Let's go with Colorado in six.
Chicago-Nashville and Vancouver-Los Angeles tomorrow... and hopefully better rested.
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