angryjay93 Posted January 24, 2007 Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 Eastern confernce: First Round #3 New York vs. #6 Montreal On paper, this looks like a pretty big mismatch when looking at the goals statistics. Mario Lemieux scored 173 goals to lead the league in goal scoring, while Montreal only put up 178 goals as a team. Montreal must find a way to stop Lemieux while at the same time scoring enough goals to stay in the games. With the likes of Pat Lafontaine, Rod Brindamour and Cliff Ronning, it seems unlikely Montreal will find enough scoring in order to ourscore Lemieux. Rangers in 6 #4 Hartford vs. #5 Ottawa What we have on our hands here is of a show of Russian super talent in Pavel Bure of Ottawa and Alexander Mogilny of Hartford. Both players had amazing seasons for their teams and were able to lead the way to the playoffs. Ottaw's supporting cast has done a bit more this season with the likes of Valarei Kamensky at forward and 2 60+ point producers on the blueline in Steve Chiasson and Al Iafrate. Unless Mogilny puts up a super human effort, he is in tough for it by having to face a more balanced Ottawa team that looks poised to make some noise in the playoffs. Sens in 6 Eastern Semis #1 Pittsburgh vs. #5 Ottawa Pittsburgh earned there bye this season by being the most consistent team by far in the East, the Pens are led by the likes of Kirk Muller, Joe Juneau, and Benoit Hogue to provide a scary line of offensive and defensive prowress. Patrick Roy anchors the net in Pittsburgh and should be able to keep the dangerous Pavel Bure at bay with some timely saves, but dont underestimate Bure's ability to make this series much closer than one would think at first glance. Pens in 6 #2 Philadelphia vs. #3 New York Philly is coming off a late surge to earn themselves a bye, but they will face the highest scoring player in the league as a reward. Dont forget though that Philly has a powerful offense in their own right with the likes of Dino Ciccarelli and Petr Klima. Philly's ability to match speed and defensive prowress should be enough to overcome the machine that is Mario Lemieux in a high flying series. Flyers in 7 Eastern Final #1 Pittsburgh vs. #2 Philadelphia Pittsburgh will provide a much different foe than the ones Philly faces in the first round. Instead of a one man brigade, its a whole team coming down the ice. The Pens can match personnel with the Flyers and will use their one timers and superior offensive creativity to create the edge they need to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. Pens in 5 Western Conference #3 St. Louis vs. #6 Vancouver St. Louis comes in with one of the stingiest defenses in the league, but they are coming up agains the high flying Canucks who gave the Blues everything they could handle in the season matchups. Steve Yzerman led Vancouver with his amazing 198 point season and he seems to have all the answers for the Blues defense. The Blues will need Grant Fuhr to find his magic against the Canucks or Tomas Sandstrom will need to have the series of his life in order to keep up with the high flying team from the Pacific Northwest. Canucks in 6 #4 Boston vs. #5 San Jose Mike Gartner alone is not enough to take down the most balanced and high scoring team in the league. That is why Boston will need their x-factor to come up huge in this series, Wayne Gretzky. If Wayne Gretzky can dance around enough on offense to create more room for Gartner and play masterful defense with sound body checks, then Boston will have a huge advantage in this series. If Gretzky is unable to be a difference maker Gartner will have to put up big game after big game in order to find a way to overcome the Sharks. Bruins in 7 Western Semis #1 Chicago vs. #6 Vancouver Chicago boasts a potent offense and an incredible defense lead by Ed Belfour and Glen Wesley. Chicago will prove to be far too much for the undermatched Canucks. Steve Yzerman is a great player, but it will be too much to ask him to beat the top team in the league all by himself. Blackhawks in 5 #2 Los Angeles vs. #4 Boston The perfect counter for the Mike Gartner-Wayne Gretzky combo is the defensive minded Kings who are led by the ever amazing Jeremy Roenick. Roenick will exercise his will against the Bruins defense and set up Brian Bradley for a boat load of goals. Mike Gartner will have a hard time finding space inside the LA defense which is among the leagues best. Kings in 5 Wester Finals #1 Chicago vs. #2 Vancouver This is the way its suppose to be, the top two seeds fighting it out for the right to play for the cup in the next round. Chicago's all around game with its high powered offense will be able to out trap the Kings who lack the offensive flare the Blackhawks have. LA will need to win low scoring games in order to take this series, but the Hawks are just too powerful in a 7 game series and their defense is too stout. Hawks in 6 Cup Finals #1 Pittsburgh vs. #1 Blackhawks Balance, defense, speed, and scoring ability will all be present in the cup finals. Chicago holds the cards in most of these catagories though as Sergei Fedorov and Russ Courtnall will exercise their will time and time again against Patrick Roy. Pittsburgh will put up a good fight, but in the end they will succumb to the offensive avalanche that the Hawks are capable of. Hawks in 5 Good luck to all and feel free to comment, there is nothing wrong with some debates. 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IAmFleury'sHipCheck Posted January 24, 2007 Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 J, extremely entertaining to read through and love the analysis. I don't think you focused enough on your offensive super power of your front 3 as you should have. Take your pick on your go to guy in that squad. Series going 7 I would agree with... outcome though, I think it's a toss up. But your modesty is noted. I think you also forgot to mention that you can expect Hartford to cross crease at every chance. Stop that and I predict Ottawa in 4. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokkeefan Posted January 24, 2007 Report Share Posted January 24, 2007 wow playoffs open and no one started series yet cmon boys speed it up im impatiently waiting for next season lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CamKneely Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 Open? What are you talking about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthurray Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 yea... playoffs are open. Dmitry said we can start playing games and emailing him the save state files. Hey, you're welcome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokkeefan Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 wow 2 days now and nothing for me to read or look at is this the old timers beer league lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaDonch44 Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 wow 2 days now and nothing for me to read or look at is this the old timers beer league lol i know what you mean... im signed in for 8 hours while at work and probably another hour at home... and im mostly checking to see whos online... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hokkeefan Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 actually i have noticed when the playoffs start alot of people seem to get nervous and hide for awhile Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAmFleury'sHipCheck Posted January 25, 2007 Report Share Posted January 25, 2007 AngryJay and I are scheduled to battle it out on Saturday afternoon. I hope everyone starts playing soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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