No. 1 MONTREAL CANADIENS (47-25-10) vs. No. 8 BOSTON BRUINS (41-29-12)
These two teams have despised each other for nine decades and by the end of the opening round of the playoffs, that hatred will not have subsided.
This will be the 31st time the Canadiens and Bruins have met in the playoffs during their often-bitter 84-year rivalry. The Canadiens have won 23 of the 30 meetings so far. This series is such a big deal, Habs coach Guy Carbonneau met the Bruins 10 during his playing career with the Habs, a team that went 8-0 against Boston this season.
“It’s going to be a very intense series as it always is,” said Carbonneau yesterday. “Even though we played so well against Boston all season, anything can happen in the playoffs. Short series can be scary things. I can tell you, we are all looking forward to it, that’s for sure.”
The Canadiens outscored Boston 39-16 this season and Boston picked up only one points in eight meetings with Montreal – a 3-2 Habs shootout win on March 22.
Here’s an interesting thing to consider. When Neepawa’s Shane Hnidy showed up in a trade on Jan. 2, the Bruins started to play better defensive hockey. Boston went 23-13-8 down the stretch after playing the first three months with a mediocre 18-16-4 record.
As the Bruins defence improved, it’s play against Montreal improved, too. Despite an 8-2 blow-out on Jan. 22, the Bruins played three solid games with Montreal after Hnidy’s arrival.
The Habs play a lot like Detroit – big, European-style hockey, with crisp passing and plenty of speed. The grinding Bruins have to try to slow down the Canadiens in the neutral zone and not let them make that one extra pass they love so much.
And Tim Thomas, who has no games of playoff experience, has to play better than rookie Carey Price, otherwise…
Montreal in five games.
No. 2 PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (47-27-8) vs. No. 7 OTTAWA SENATORS (43-31-8)
The Senators are struggling and have a number of serious injuries. The biggest one to captain Daniel Alfredsson, but injuries to forwards Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly are not to be discarded as meaningless.
None are expected to return at any time during the opening round and head coach and GM Bryan Murray said Sunday that he believes the injury situation will result in all the “so-called experts" (that would include us, I guess) will all predict an easy Penguins victory.
“We don’t want to overplay the fact we have injuries,” said head coach and GM Bryan Murray on Saturday night. “We want to overplay the fact we have opportunities.”
Indeed, they do have opportunities, but against a very good Penguins team, a team that expects to have a healthy Sidney Crosby back for the first round, this is going to be a difficult assignment for the Sens.
It’s the second straight year in which the Penguins and Senators have met in the opening round and last year, Ottawa won the series in five games. (Thanks to our eagle-eyed readers for catching this mistake!)
This year it will be a different story, as the Pens boast a team loaded with offensive firepower – Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and of course a former Senator, Marian Hossa.
They also don’t have a goaltending problem (wonder how Ray Emery is feeling today) and while Marc-Andre Fleury might not be the best in the game, he always has Ty Conklin to bail him out.
Pittsburgh in six.
No. 3 WASHINGTON CAPITALS (43-31-8) vs. No. 6 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (42-29-11)
All you need to say is “Alexander Ovechkin” and you’ve just about said it all. The Capitals superstar – and he is, indeed, a superstar – led the league in goals (Maurice Richard Trophy) with 65, points (Art Ross Trophy) with 112 and will probably win the Hart Trophy, emblematic of the league’s most valuable player.
But the Caps also have Nicklas Backstrom, a sweet-playmaking centre who will be nominated for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, Mike Green, the most under-rated forward in the East, and three more tremendous Russians, Viktor Kozlov (like Ovechkin, a plus-28), Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin.
The cold war didn’t result in Russian planes bombing Washington; it resulted in Russian hockey stars bringing Washington to its feet.
The Caps head into the playoffs as the hottest team in the East. Washington has won seven straight and blown past the Carolina Hurricanes to claim the Southeast Division title.
Of course, that’s the real story. When Bruce Boudreau replaced Brandon’s Glen Hanlon as coach of the Caps on Nov. 22, Washington was 14 points behind the Hurricanes in the race for the Southeast Division lead. Saturday, with a big win over Forida, they not only caught Carolina, but passed them and earned the No. 3 seed. Caps goaltender Cristobal Huet won his ninth straight start on Saturday and i?n 13 starts since joining Washington, Huet is 11-2 with two shutouts, a 1.63 goals against average and a .936 save pct.
The Flyers, meanwhile, slumped through most of February and March but got their act together down the stretch. Philly finished the regular season with seven wins in its last nine games (7-1-1) and won the season with Washington (2-1-1).
Philadelphia did have more points than Washington (95-94) but the Caps have too much firepower and home ice advantage.
Washington in seven.
No. 4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS (46-29-7) vs. No. 5 NEW YORK RANGERS (42-27-12)
Yesterday, the Devils wrapped up the No. 4 spot in the East and gained home ice advantage in this series with a 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Rangers.
Now, to say the Devils won an important game and clinched home-ice is a big deal. But they were hardly dominant and that suggests this will be a very close series.
In fact, Martin Brodeur, who played 77 games this season and will probably win the Vezina Trophy and be nominated for the Hart Trophy as MVP, will be the most important player in this series.
The Rangers could very well have the better team, more scorers and more impressive offence (213 goals to 205 this season), but even though Henrik Lundqvist was one of the two top goalies in the East, the Broadway Blueshirts will have to find a way to overcome Brodeur, the best netminder in the game. How good is Brodeur when he’s on his game? Watch 10 of his best ever saves below.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-3ziU0xJ3A]
Of course, the Rangers did it all year. Although every game was close, New York went 7-0-1 against Jersey this season.
The series opens Wednesday night in Newark, N.J.
NY Rangers in seven.
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