The greatest time of the year is upon us yet again. The 2013-14 Stanley Cup Playoffs are here and have already yielded some surprising results.
Both the Eastern and Western Conferences are stacked with Stanley Cup potential. But who will win Lord Stanley’s Cup?
Since there was no issue last week, I was pretty bummed that I could not share my predictions with you all in a timely manor.
However, I will still share my predictions for the first round of the playoffs that I created before the playoffs started.
I guess you, oh interested reader, will have to take my word for it on these predictions. I swear these have not been altered in any fashion from two weeks ago!
Frank’s First Round Predictions
Western Conference:
COL v MIN COL in 6 games
STL v CHI CHI in 6 games
ANA v DAL ANA in 5 games
SJS v LAK SJS in 6 games
Eastern Conference:
BOS v DET BOS in 5 games
TBL v MTL TBL in 5 games
PIT v CBJ PIT in 5 games
NYR v PHI NYR in 7 games
NHL Playoffs Update
Though this article will not cover the games played on April 21, 22, or the 23, due to the printing process, I will cover what I have seen prior to April 21.
In the West, hard fought battles are urging. In the Colorado-Minnesota series, the utilization of each teams’ speed has been prevalent.
Both games have been hard fought battles and both were battled out until the very end. However, Colorado claimed each victory.
Colorado’s talent, speed, and veteran leadership has given them the upper hand in the series and will beyond this series as I see Colorado going far in the post-season.
Guys like Paul Stasny, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O’Reilly, Erik Johnson, and Semyon Varlamov have given the Avalanche the competitive advantage over the Wild and will continue to do so.
When skilled center Matt Duchene comes back from his lower-body injury the Avs will be at full strength.
The Avs will defeat the Wild; I have no doubt in my mind. Just for the record, I can also see the Avs going to the Cup this season…guess we will see!
The Chicago-St. Louis series has also been a thrilling pair of games. Both games were extended into overtime as the defensively sound rivals vied for offensive superiority.
The Blues have claimed both victories in overtime as the Blackhawks struggle to hold off their offense.
The Hawks have given up late two 3rd period leads, which have sent the teams into two overtime battles. The first game went into triple overtime in which the Blues defeated the Hawks.
This series is growing more and more physical as frustrations arise. Chicago’s Brent Seabrook was suspended for three games after violently colliding with Blues’ captain David Backes. Backes was quite shaken up on the play and is unlikely to come back in the next few games.
If the Hawks can hold onto their leads, tighten up on defense, and start to play with some consistent intensity, the Hawks will bounce back. I still believe, with coming back to Chicago for games 3 and 4, that the Hawks will gain enough momentum to overtake the Blues and win the series.
In the Anaheim-Dallas series, Anaheim has taken the upper hand. Anaheim currently leads Dallas 2-0 in the series (as of April 20, 2014).
I was able to watch most of game 1 of this matchup and was unimpressed with Dallas’ performance.
Dallas has come up one goal short in each game. Their next games are scheduled for April 21 and April 23.
I do believe that Dallas is capable of finding some luck with the talent they possess, but I see Anaheim taking this series in 5 games. I stand by my prediction.
The West Coast rivalry between San Jose-Los Angeles is always great. This series contains a lot of emotion, pride, and most of all, talent.
Both teams are extremely talented and have been for the past few seasons. However, LA has been struggling thus far in the series.
San Jose leads the series 2-0. LA’s goaltending and defense have played in key role in their lack of success of late. The Sharks have scored 13 goals in just two games on the Kings.
If the LA Kings can regroup defensively and start to put more goals in net, they can make this series interesting. Regardless of how many games it takes, I still believe the Sharks will take the series.
In the East, most of the series are less one sided. A great matchup between two Original Six teams, Boston-Detroit, has yet to disappoint.
The Bruins have held off the Red Wings for the most part of the series, but lost Game 1 in a late third period goal to a magnificent snipe from “The Magician” himself, Pavel Datsyuk.
The Bruins surged in Game 2 with some nitty-gritty goals that lead them to their first victory of the series. As far as I am concerned, the Bruins will no doubt win the series.
The Tampa Bay-Montreal matchup has proven me wrong. I thought the Lightning were going to handle the Canadiens with little problem.
However, that is not the case. The Habs have taken it to the Lightning and have claimed a 3-0 standing in the series.
If Tampa can get back to their way of play that they demonstrated in the regular-season then I think Tampa can take Montreal to Game 7.
In the Pittsburgh-Columbus series, Columbus is definitely the underdog. However, Columbus has taken a stance to fight harder than ever to make franchise history.
The Blue Jackets earned their first playoff victory in history and will hopefully continue to do so.
It would be great if Columbus can prove me wrong, but I still believe that Pittsburgh will prevail.
Lastly, the great New York-Philadelphia series has been nothing short of great playoff hockey.
The series is tied at 1-1. Each team has beaten the other pretty well in each of their bouts.
Both teams have demonstrated great playoff hockey energy, which will continue to make this series great to watch. I still have the Rangers winning this series in 7 games, and man do I hope it comes down to that!
Frank Markasovic
Sports Editor