Left Handed Larceny

The Wild Wild West

by Eric Berkenpas

Believe it or not, the season is over! For me, it feels like it barely started but nonetheless, 48 games have been played by every team and it's time for the best time of the year, the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. As was proven last year, any team can emerge victorious and what happened in the regular season can almost entirely be erased from memory. The Los Angeles Kings had a less than stellar regular season last year but were able to turn on the jets from the start of the playoffs and cap off a 16-4 run with the ever coveted Lord Stanley's Cup. This year, much of the same craziness can be expected. There has been such a rise in talent coming into the league over the past several years that the playing field has been significantly leveled between 1 seeds and 8 seeds. There are no longer any guarantees and every team feels like they have a very legitimate shot at going all the way so without further ado, let's look into the matchups in the West and what to expect in the first round.

#1 Chicago Blackhawks vs. #8 Minnesota Wild

01/30/2013 CHI 2 @ MIN 3

03/05/2013 MIN 3 @ CHI 5

04/09/2013 CHI 1 @ MIN 0  

Photo cred bleacherreport.com

The Minnesota Wild definitely proved to be one of Chicago's toughest opponents in the regular season. They handed Chicago their first loss of the season and recovered from a mid season 5-3 loss in the third meeting where they lost a nail biting 1-0 game. If I were a Chicago fan, this would not have been the team I would have ideally wanted to play in the first round. The additions of Parise and Suter definitely added scoring from last year, going up from 2.16 goals per game to 2.54. Their goals against per game also went down from 2.76 to 2.64. Niklas Backstrom has been a horse all year, starting 41 out of 48 games and winning a league best 24 games (tied with Antti Niemi and Henrik Lundqvist). Minnesota has also been the second most disciplined team all year with only 153 minor penalty minutes. Staying out of the penalty box can sometimes be a make or break it aspect to a series. Against Chicago though, this may not prove to be that big of an advantage as Chicago does most of their damage during 5 on 5 hockey.

Photo cred commons.wikimedia.org

Regardless of matchups, the Blackhawks will prove to be a very formidable opponent for anyone. They have great young leadership in Jonathan Toews who can best be compared to Steve Yzerman. He plays a tough, gritty style of hockey but also has a ton of skill. Patrick Kane is one the the most talented players in the league and is a pure goal scorer at it's finest. Marian Hossa is one of the best in the business when it comes to carrying the puck, controlling the tempo in the offensive zone and making plays. The depth of the Hawks is definitely their strongest suit. Brandon Saad has really impressed in what is in essence his first year in the league and the third line, comprised of Michael Frolik, Marcus Kruger and Viktor Stalberg, may be the most potent third line in the league. On the defensive side of the rink, the Blackhawks are just as good. Duncan Keith, Michael Rozsival, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Nick Leddy and Brent Seabrook have made up one of the most dynamic defensive cores in the league. They have speed, offensive skill, great shot blocking and very good discipline and patience. There are no weaknesses and there are rarely breakdowns and if there are, the duo of Corey Crawford and Ray Emery has been more than enough to make up for it. From top to bottom, the Hawks are arguably the best team in the league and with the regular season they had, it's hard to not label them as favorites to win the cup. This is all without mentioning that they have one of the best coaches in the league in Joel Quenneville who has already won a Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks just 3 years ago.

Prediction: Hawks take the series 4-2


#2 Anaheim Ducks vs. #7 Detroit Red Wings

02/15/2013 ANA 5 @ DET 2
03/22/2013 DET 5 @ ANA 1
03/24/2013 DET 2 @ ANA 1

Photo cred www.annarbor.com 

The Red Wings are another one of those teams none of the top seeds wanted to match up with in the first round. They enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the West, winning their last 4 en route to clinching a playoff spot for the 22nd year in a row on the second to last day of the season. The Wings have struggled with consistency all year but a lot of that was due to getting used to life without Holmstrom and Lidstrom and to injuries. Currently, the Wings are almost entirely healthy and are playing their best hockey of the season. Their lineup is stacked with good talent and a ton of playoff experience and it all starts with Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg who are quite possibly the two-way hockey forward combos in the league which has been a huge bonus for the Wings in recent years. Johan Franzen took some time settling into Holmstrom's role in front of the net but has been excelling as of late scoring 7 goals in the last 8 games of the season. Jimmy Howard and the defense in front of him could prove to be troublesome but they have done it in the past so who's to say they can't do it this year with basically the same core of guys. Lastly, Mike Babcock has been here over and over and over again. He knows what it takes to win in the playoffs and that fact cannot be undervalued.

Photo cred aol.sportingnews.com

Anaheim for most of the season was challenging Chicago for the best team in the league. The same can no longer be said of them. They posted an average record of 7-5-1 in the month of April and were really floundering and looking more like the team everyone expected them to be at the start of the season. Viktor Fasth, who earned a contract extension midway through the season, seemed to lose his mojo, creating somewhat of a goalie issue that hadn't been present all season. Teemu Selanne seems to have finally hit the point in his career where his age now restricts his productivity. Enough about the bad though, let's cover the threat and powerhouse that the Ducks can be. Jonas Hiller is one of the best goalies in the league and will likely see most of the starts through the playoffs. Captain, Ryan Getzlaf, who earned a huge contract this season, had one of the best seasons of his career, if not the best. Corey Perry, who also earned an extension during the season, had a solid year as well as Bobby Ryan, Saku Koivu and breakout youngins, Kyle Palmieri and Andrew Cogliano. The true reason the Ducks enjoyed so much success this year is because of the play by their defense, namely Francois Beauchemin and Sheldon Souray who combined for 13 goals and 28 assists in the season. It is really hard to defend a team that has such offensively active and potent defensemen like this. Coach Bruce Boudreau fit this team like a glove as it looked a lot like what the Capitals had but with much more manageable players. The team isn't playing well right now and did lose back to back games against the Wings in the season, but should they get back to how they were playing earlier in the season, they will be very tough to topple.

Prediction: Detroit takes the series 4-1


#3 Vancouver Canucks vs. #6 San Jose Sharks

01/27/2013 VAN 1 @ SJ 4
03/05/2013 SJ 3 @ VAN 2 OT
04/01/2013 VAN 2 @ SJ 3

Photo cred www.nhlpa.com

This is one of those matchups where you almost have to favor the lower seed. The San Jose Sharks defeated the Canucks in all three matchups this year, albeit 2 of those at home where they are clearly much more comfortable playing. They are going to have to find a way to take one or two games on the road where they were only 8-14-2 in the regular season. The addition of Martin Havlat and the movement of Brent Burns to the top line has helped to make the top two lines much more dynamic and created more of a guessing game for opponents that they now have more than one potent line to find and answer for. The third line also poses an interesting threat with Joe Pavelski's presence along side the power forward, in Raffi Torres and speedy Tommy Wingels. It really makes for a tough matchup because Pavelski' skill has to be respected, Wingels speed has to be respected as well as worrying about the forechecking and physicality of Torres. Antti Niemi has been solid in net all year and has won a Stanley Cup before so he has the experience for what it takes. The defense is not as strong as the rest of the conference but they all split time pretty evenly to provide fresh legs each and every shift that can keep up with any line put up against them. Dan Boyle leads the group and has won a Cup with Tampa Bay so he, too, knows what it takes. In the end, though, this team is centered around their captain, Joe Thornton. He will be the key to whether or not San Jose can make a run. He is arguably the best playmaker in the league and can make a goal scorer out of anyone who can hit an empty net.

Photo cred www.theglobeandmail.com

Vancouver has had one of their worst seasons in recent years but still found themselves on top of the
Northwest Division, thanks to poor performances by their other division opponents. The strength of the Canucks is found almost entirely in their top line; Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin and Alexandre Burrows. All three players finished the season with double digit plusses and are one of the potent scoring lines to go along with their solid back checking. Beyond the top line, there are some question marks to be raised. There are some talented players but nothing really meshed well and no chemistry was created. Derek Roy was a good addition to center the second line with Ryan Kesler and Christopher Higgins. Zack Kassian is a skilled and gritty forward that plays a little bit different of a role on the 4th line than most players do which can catch teams off guard. The defense and toughness of Vancouver is their bread and butter though. Kevin Bieksa is due back after missing most of the last couple weeks of the season and he is always good for some big hits and can really mess with the minds of opposing forwards. Jason Garrison and Dan Hamhuis form a solid defensive pairing and the last pairing of Andrew Alberts and Keith Ballard can really pack a punch and both prefer to play the body over the puck. The 6 defensemen of the Canucks can really wear down forwards and make them second guess many decisions they would like to make for fear of taking a big hit. Where Vancouver will live or die is inside the crease. Corey Schneider has yet to prove he is a legitimate starting goalie and Roberto Luongo has never been good in the playoffs and is as much of a head case as any goalie in the league. If the Canucks can't put a capable goalie out there each night, they may not last more than 4 games in the playoffs.

Prediction: San Jose takes the series 4-1


#4 St. Louis Blues vs. #5 Los Angeles Kings

02/11/2013 LAK 4 @ STL 1
03/05/2013 STL 4 @ LAK 6
03/28/2013 LAK 4 @ STL 2

Photo cred bigstory.ap.org

This series on paper might look to be the most boring series of all 8. Both teams boast a "defense first" mentality that extends to almost every aspect of the game and every area of the ice, but none more deliberately than Ken Hitchcock's Blues. He is perfectly fine year in and year out to put up below average offensive numbers. He prefers forwards who have the ability to score, but are more geared towards the defensive side of the ice. David Backes is a perfect example of that and if Hitchcock could put 12 of him on each of the 4 lines, he would. Backes has the ability to score and make plays offensively but his bread and butter is in his ability to back check, create havoc in his hitting, create turnovers and even block shots. Every single defenseman is very good at closing down shooting lanes and preventing opponents from getting good shots off. On the offensive side of he rink, the Blues rely on capitalizing on a couple of their few scoring chances in hopes that their defense will only require 2, maybe 3 goals to be scored to get a win. The problem the Blues had all year which is the exact opposite of last year is good goaltending. Halak has struggled with injuries all year and Elliot was so bad that he had to be sent down to the minors. This left the starting job up to rookie Jake Allen who actually stepped in nicely and won his first 3 starts and 8 of his first 9 before faltering and being sent back down to the minors. Elliot was a completely new goalie when he came back and propelled his team in a big way to the #4 spot in the West and will likely be relied on the carry the load in the playoffs. This is the area that will make or break the Blues this season. When you play the type of defensive scheme that the Blues do, you need your goalie to step up when he needs to to make the saves he is supposed to. If he doesn't do that, then the defense is pointless and the Blues will be dismissed real quick.

Photo cred www.canada.com

The Kings are looking to repeat their performance from last year and come into the playoffs after having
completed a more successful regular season than last year. The end results, however, were quite different. Where last year the Kings struggled to find the net, this year they were much better, thanks in large part to Carter's 26 goals. On the flip side of the rink, Quick did not have himself a great season this year where last year he was the obvious runner up to Lundqvist for the Vezina. The Kings found their scoring touch this year with two very talented top lines and great leadership from Dustin Brown who really provides the fuel for this team with his hard nosed, big hitting, yet skilled offense. He lead the team in hits and also finished second in goals. Mike Richards plays very well with his former Flyers teammate, Jeff Carter and plays his strong two way hockey that makes his line both a potent scoring threat and a solid defensive group, making it very difficult to matchup well. The loss of Matt Greene in the first game of the season has a lot to do with the diminished defensive play of the team and the rise in goals against but Quick partially rediscovered his mojo three quarters of the way through the season and looks to be in good form entering the playoffs, which doesn't bode well for a St. Louis team that has trouble scoring goals. The game changer for the Kings will be if they can win a road game or two which, though they struggled with it in the season, they did not struggle with beating the Blues by a combined score of 8-3 in 2 games in St. Louis. If the Kings can take one or both of the first two games in the series, they will likely find themselves moving into the next round.

Prediction: Los Angeles tops St. Louis in a low scoring affair 4-3