Washington Capitals v. Les Canadiens de Montréal
How to put this politely? The Canadiens don't have a chance to win. I'm not talking about the series, I'm talking about a game. They will score some goals but that's mostly because the Capitals don't care since they will score more. A lot more.
Washington is too big, too physical, too fast and too skilled. There's no shame in this since that's pretty much the scouting report for them against any team. The Caps D isn't great defensively but they aren't really asked to be. Green, Poti and Corvo are puck moving defensemen who are an important part of the offense.
Their weakness is in goal but against the Canadiens that's not going to matter.
The Canadiens on the other hand have a solid goalie in Jaroslav Halak but he's going to be under early and constant pressure from the Caps. It's going to take heroic measures to steal a game, let alone the series.
Up front Plekanec, Gomez, Gianta and Cammalleri are okay but they are undersized for the most part compared to the Caps. They can't out physical the Caps and they can't outskate them, so I'm not sure what exactly there plan is.
The Canadiens have some size on the blue line with solid players like Hal Gill but here's what Ovechkin did to him in the middle of the season.
Gill is 6' 7" 240lbs.
There's still talk around the NHL that Russians don't care all that much about winning the Cup. Maybe so in some cases but does anyone doubt Ovechkin desperately wants to win it? That may or may not be enough to win it all but it if their talent fails them (and I doubt it will) it's enough to get them by the Canadiens.
One bit of fun, Tomas Plekanec did do a bit of ill-advised trash talking.
"It's not as though we are facing (Martin) Brodeur or (Ryan) Miller," Plekanec told La Presse. "They don't have a dominant goaltender. When you look at the goaltending matchup in this series it favours our team. I just believe that our goaltending is more solid than theirs."
"I'm not saying their goalies are bad. I'm just saying our goalies are better."
I'm taking the Caps in the sweep.
Buffalo v. Boston
My sure fire predication about this series: No one outside of these two cities cares about this series.
The main draw in this series is Ryan Miller. We all know what he did in the Olympics but the odds are Buffalo would have struggled for a playoff spot without him. With him they are the 3 seed. He plays well, they win. Fortunately for Buffalo he plays well most nights.
Boston was up and down but mostly down this season. They lost one of their best forwards, Marc Savard, to injury a few weeks back and haven't seemed quite right since then and they struggled to a 6 place finish.
My prediction for this old school Adams Division matchup? Buffalo in 6.
A couple of quick thoughts about last night's games:
• So much for home ice advantage. Only the Coyotes could make it stand up.
• All the games were decided by one goal. You have to love playoff hockey.
• Phoenix is a scrappy little team. They just keep coming at you on the forecheck. I think Detroit will figure it out in the end but that's going to be a fun series.
• Pittsburgh wasn't ready to play last night. There were some bad bounces against them but they need to get in gear. Quick.
• The Devils need to crank up the intensity. They just let Pronger stand in the crease on the 1st goal. Ilya Kolvachuck really wants to do well but tried to do way too much last night, it hurt his game. Marty wasn't bad but he wasn't great on the Richards goal and Boucher was good when he had to be early on. The Devils didn't sustain much offense until the final minute of the game
• The Sharks are no doubt talking about how they came back to tie it in the 3rd and lost on a fluke goal but you know deep down (maybe not that deep) they are thinking "oh God, not again". They of all teams needed to get off to a fast start and not give the kids on the Avalanche any sniff of winning the series. Well, it didn't work out that way. I thought they'd wait until the 2nd round to choke but I wouldn't be so sure now.
With home ice already gone in 3 of these series, game 2 in each of them is going to be huge. Can't wait.
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