NHL Western Conference: Round 2 Preview and Picks
By ARI BAUM-COHEN
So much for the feel-good stories.
All of the favorites won and all of the surprise teams are booking tee times after the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs. Hockey bettors are left with two interesting matchups: a battle between the decade’s two most dominant teams and a rematch of last year’s conference semifinals.
Detroit Red Wings vs. San Jose Sharks (+135, -150)
Season Series, 3-1 Detroit
The Sharks and Red Wings have only met once in the last 13 postseasons but that is largely due to San Jose’s playoff futility. Detroit and San Jose have combined for 12 division titles since the 1999-2000 season.
Both teams overcame first-round adversity. Detroit handled a resilient Phoenix Coyotes squad with a dominant Game 7 performance, while San Jose overcame own goals, bad bounces, and a terrific goaltending performance from Craig Anderson to take its opening-round series against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Red Wings have been getting great production from their top six forwards. Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg have combined for 11 goals in seven games.
Forty- year-old Nicklas Lidstrom will be relied on to shut down San Jose’s top line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley.
Joe Thornton has done his usual disappearing act in the postseason thus far, but luckily for the Sharks a different Joe is stepping up. Joe Pavelski leads the team with five goals and the Pavelski-Ryane Clowe-Devin Setoguchi line has been the Sharks’ best trio.
Rookie goaltender Jimmy Howard has not been spectacular, but made big saves at key times for the Red Wings. He finished the first round with a respectable 2.59 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.
Evgeni Nabokov had a shaky start to San Jose’s last series but finished strong, allowing four goals in San Jose’s last four games.
Series prediction: San Jose in seven games
Vancouver Canucks at Chicago Blackhawks (+130, -145)
Season Series, 2-2
Last year, 42 goals were scored in the six game series between these two clubs. This year’s version could have even more fireworks.
The Sedins dominated the Canucks’ opening round series, combining for 18 points in six games. But Mikael Samuelsson was the real story for Vancouver, scoring seven goals despite getting limited time on Vancouver’s top line.
Chicago was led offensively by the usual suspects, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane and Marian Hossa, who all averaged more than a point per game.
The Canucks rely heavily on their top four defensemen. Alex Edler had an excellent series and leads all Vancouver blueliners at plus-7. Christian Ehrhoff, Sami Salo and Kevin Bieksa also log big minutes for Vancouver and are key components of a fragile defensive corps.
For the Hawks, Duncan Keith has to be better. The Norris Trophy nominee registered just two points and was a team worst minus-4.
Roberto Luongo is having his worst year statistically as a Canuck. Despite making several highlight-reel saves in Vancouver’s opening round series, Luongo seemed to lose focus at times and posted a 2.92 goals against average and .893 save percentage.
Rookie goaltender Antti Niemi finished the Nashville series with a 2.15 goals against average and .921 save percentage. But he allowed the offensively-challenged Predators to score at least three goals four times in the series.
Series prediction: Chicago in six games