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Semi-Final Playoff Predictions
by PuckStopsHere on 05/14/09 at 11:51 PM ET
Comments (14)
The second round of the playoffs is complete. I had a 2-2 record on my predictions. Add this to my first round predictions which were 5-3 and I have an overall 7-5 record. I am keeping above .500, but it is nothing spectacular.
Let’s travel onward into the semi-finals. Here are my predictions:
Pittsburgh defeats Carolina I am very surprised Carolina got this far. The clearest reason that Carolina does not have a team one might expect to make the semi-finals is their defence. It is built around players like Joni Pitkanen and Joe Corvo, who are not exactly all star calibre defencemen. Pittsburgh made the finals last year and offers the best one-two offensive punch in the league with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. The question mark in Pittsburgh is defence. How good will it be if Sergei Gonchar cannot play or is in a much weakened state due to his knee injury? Pittsburgh did not hold up well when Gonchar was out of the line-up during the regular season. Through much of the early regular season, neither the Gonchar-less Penguins nor the Hurricanes looked like they could be semi-finalists in the playoffs. It wasn’t clear either would make them.
Detroit defeats Chicago Of the three teams (Boston, Detroit, San Jose) that were at the front of the pack in the regular season standings, only Detroit is still alive. That makes them the Stanley Cup favorite at this point. They have weaknesses that a traditional Stanley Cup favorite shouldn’t have. Chris Osgood is not a particularly good goalie at this point in his career, but he has been satisfactory so far. The Red Wings have a pathetic 71.4% success rate on the penalty kill so far in the playoffs. That can be exploited by an opponent. Regular season MVP Pavel Datsyuk has not been a big contributor. I suspect we will learn he is playing with an injury after the Wings playoff run ends. That said the Wings are likely too much for a young Chicago team. Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith et al offer a bright hope for the future, but they don’t seem ready for prime time yet. Nikolai Khabibulin is another former cup winning goalie (to join Osgood) who has not been a top level goalie in this playoff run, but is still in the race. Detroit has too many key players in Lidstrom, Zetterberg, Hossa and Franzen that it is not likely Chicago can stop them.
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Comments
ah dont work about puckdaddy, hes just a tool who doesn’t like osgood.
Posted by ME on 05/15/09 at 02:15 AM ET
hopefuly we can see a penguin detroit final! 
Posted by Oilers Rock from Edmonton, Alberta on 05/15/09 at 03:08 AM ET
I hope Pens and Wings lose. I do not want to see a repeat of last year. *rolls eyes*
Posted by Adam on 05/15/09 at 06:09 AM ET
These matchups are horrid.
If nobody watched, is it a given that the games actually happened?
Posted by Siggy on 05/15/09 at 06:23 AM ET
These matchups are horrid.
Chicago-Detroit should be high-flying, spirited, loud-crowd, intense hockey. Carolina’s intriguing and you never know who Sid will punch in the nuts next, so there’s always that to watch for.
Posted by Stevis on 05/15/09 at 08:01 AM ET
Hopefully we get to see Datsyuk fight with his gloves on again.
It never gets old!
Posted by Jimmy from Windsor on 05/15/09 at 08:15 AM ET
Is there a more boring team in the NHL than Detroit?
Posted by Jimmy from Windsor on 05/15/09 at 08:16 AM ET
These matchups are horrid.
Hopefully we get to see Datsyuk fight with his gloves on again. It never gets old!
Is there a more boring team in the NHL than Detroit?
So much hate. So many frustrated guys whose teams are playing golf right now. That’s what never gets old.
Posted by OlderThanChelios from Grand Rapids on 05/15/09 at 08:36 AM ET
1) Cam Ward is 3-0 in game 7’s, and never lost a playoff series(6-0) Not bad, eh?
2) That said, the NHL needs the pens to be in the finals. Lok for the canes to find out what the caps did last series; they had better get stellar PK, else they will be heading back home early!
3) Out west the original 6 matchup should be fun to watch, but the Wings look headed for another sip from the Cup and the hawks won’t be able to prevent this.
Posted by fauxrumors from Here on 05/15/09 at 08:39 AM ET
Next person to mention anything about the refs helping the Pens win secretly wants to have sex with Sid Crosby.
Obviously your teams been beat by the Pens and you are bitter about it.
Who’s it going to be?
Posted by Jimmy from Windsor on 05/15/09 at 08:53 AM ET
Next person to mention anything about the refs helping the Pens win secretly wants to have sex with Sid Crosby.
The refs will help the Pens win. There I’ve said it. And I don’t care if the whole world knows.
Posted by Gary Bettman from Right behind my little baby boy, Cindy on 05/15/09 at 10:06 AM ET
Is there a bigger f*g than Jimmy?
Posted by Yakub from Portland, OR on 05/15/09 at 03:20 PM ET
“Chris Osgood is not a particularly good goalie at this point in his career, but he has been satisfactory so far. “
Oh come on now you really are carrying the Osgood hate bit far… Did he have a good season this year nope. But he did have a good one last year, yes and he has statistically been better than most so far this post season, so whats the point of the flak? I mean did the hockey god(tm) Brodeur steal a series - nope, did Luongo beat Chicago into submission no.
I think you can say the same of the Bulin wall he had good season this year but the last couple not so much and this post season his numbers are not better than Osgood’s and that is just not a function of shots - since they have faced about the same.
At this point you cannot really argue Osgood is a liability in this series.
Posted by Paul on 05/15/09 at 04:14 PM ET
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Osgood has been waaaaaaay better than “satisfactory”. While he probably isn’t the best goalie remaining, he has been very solid for Detroit.
Posted by Sp4r7an on 05/15/09 at 01:55 AM ET