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Anaheim Ducks vs. Nashville Predators: The Ducks started out as a hot mess before the Christmas break.
The last two National Hockey League champions don’t exactly have a gilded path back to the Stanley Cup. And, oh boy, are they a treat.
JAROMIR JAGR, FLORIDA: Who doesn’t like watching Jagr chug along at 44?
If you’re not sure what I’m talking about, let’s dig into it.
It’s finally here. The Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues face off Wednesday night at the Scottrade Center in Game 1 of their first-round series.
For Ovechkin, this year’s playoffs could be career defining when it comes to discussions of his abilities to lead a team to playoff success. If the Blackhawks could steal Game 1 without Keith, a world of pressure would sit squarely on the Blues, who haven’t always handled it well.
This is the only bracket in which I believe any of the four teams can advance to the conference finals. All three of these games could wind up overlapping, and NYR-PIT and CHI-STL will definitely overlap regardless. “Obviously we have a history with St. Louis”.
In the West, the top-seeded Dallas Stars will open against the Minnesota Wild.
In the first round, Chicago will be in a road series against the Blues, a 107-point team in the regular season. He’s such a good player and if you don’t think he’s a force to be reckoned with, I don’t know what game you’ve been watching lately. Not only will this be the 23rd straight season that a Canadian team doesn’t bring home the Cup, but for the first time since 1970, they won’t even have the chance to. Then they made a coaching change, and everything came together. I like Roman Polak’s physical addition to a back end that already could skate. So that scheduling quirk is off the hook. “It’s not necessarily getting the highest-skilled guy, because we’re skilled enough”. Washington had 12 goals in the four games while the Flyers had 10.
Pittsburgh Penguins (Metro – 2) vs. St. Louis to win in 7. The team ranked seventh in shots per game, averaging 30.7 shots per game.
DREW DOUGHTY, LOS ANGELES: Playoff-level Doughty is something to behold. Doesn’t seem right does it? Except it’s a Saturday in urban California.
The sheer breadth of the event – especially in the opening round – poses its challenges for NBC Sports Group, including the coordination of a rotation of six NEP mobile units and working alongside – and in collaboration with – regional sports networks that own in-market exclusive rights to games in the first round. The only way you’re drawing anyone in is at a bar, and you’re intentionally limiting your viewership by thinking that way. This is just extremely poor planning, and it’s so obvious … to everyone except those making the schedule. “They’ve got some really good depth, they’re a good defensive team and they’ve got some game-breakers”. The Flyers have played with heart and passion down the stretch, and the team had to give it all it had to even make the playoffs.
“I don’t think it goes away until you make it go away”, MacLellan told reporters Monday. But the image of the team in the past was one that was going to beat you up and throw you done. This is good for the game and business. Weaknesses? Not many. They are the Cup favorites for a reason, and they are the deepest and most balanced team of the Ovechkin era.
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A day after clinching its playoff berth with a 3-1 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday, Philadelphia closed the season with a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders. It’s just head-slappingly stupid. With a schedule which is so spread out, what’s the point of having divisions or conferences? No matter who wins, though, the excitement begins tomorrow evening at 7pm, and will be non stop until the final horn sounds in June and the winning team raises that trophy of trophies, Lord Stanley’s Cup. They rank 20th in the league, at just 80.5%.
