After being well-rested after their shock sweep of Colorado, Columbus now head to Michigan to face the 2nd place Red Wings. Is another sweep on the cards or will Detroit led by their young stars and Chris Pronger be able to hold them off?
Detroit had a difficult 6 game series with the Calgary Flames, where defensive consistency was a problem. Though they never scored less than 2 goals in a game, and had 5 games of scoring three or more, the Detroit defense was worrisome conceeding between 1-6 goals throughout the series.
Columbus swept through Colorado without any problems, easily brushing aside the power of Malkin, St Louis and Horcoff. The Columbus defensive pair of Anders Erikkson and Brendan Witt did an amazing job on the Colorado top line and will now have to contend with Detroit's top line of Getzlaf, Cammalleri and Sykora.
Special Teams
Through the six game series, Detroit averaged nicely on both the powerplay and penalty kill. Though ranked 7th overall, it's the 5th best powerplay of the active playoff teams. Cammalleri and Getzlaf both had two powerplay goals as Detroit went 6 for 34. The penalty kill was also successful, clicking at over 90% which leaves it ranked 3rd. Led by Chris Pronger, they managed to negate Calgary's advantage with the extra man. One worrying stat is that they were averaging 23.5 PIM a game.
If this series becomes a special teams battle, then Columbus will need to improve their powerplay. 3rd last amongst active playoff teams and despite have 31 opportunities, the Blue Jackets only scored three times. Two of the three were scored by Richard Zednik with the third being from Stephen Weiss. The bright spot for Columbus is that they had the best penalty kill in the first round, with a spotless 100% efficiency. They also conceeded the least amount of PIM a game, averaging just over 12 minutes a game.
If this series becomes locked in a special teams battle, then Columbus will have to capitalized on the undisciplined play of Detroit or else the better powerplay of Detroit will eventually exploit the Columbus penalty kill.
Prediction
This is surprisingly a tough decision, do I go with the obvious favourites in Detroit or do I go with the underdog in Columbus? If Buffalo is upset in the seventh game tonight, then I'll pick Detroit in 6 games. If Buffalo goes through to the next round, then Columbus in 7. I have my reasons for it depending on the Buffalo-Carolina series so don't bother asking why.
yep i think they will barring a injury to a key player.. they won game three with weiss gone for 2+ periods... vokoun is a beast this playoffs... how lopsided would chicago vs columbus look on paper lmao....
I'm not quite dead yet. It's only 2-1 boys. I think I went down 2-1 in my first round series as well.
-- Edited by Ianintheam at 16:39, 2008-05-12
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"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
Well, although we are winning 2-1, we have to agree, it's never over. We're adopting the same attitude this series as last, 1 game at a time. Detroit's a solid team ad you can never count them out. As for the slipper, well, hopefully it doens't get to small soon...lol
"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
Thanks guy's. We're really surprised but extremely proud of our team. Playing Chicago is going to be tough and we know it. We're siting in Myrtle Beach right now and this just made our trip a little sweeter....lol. Good luck to Chicago in the next round!!
other than acquiring a star (80+) goalie, i don't see how you could improve your team much further ian... vanek's rerate will be a bit of a downer, but getzlaf and sykora's ratings should improve...
Actually, Im banking on Fleury's rating to improve to a star goalie. His numbers are pretty good, and taking the team all the way to the cup should help put him over the top.
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"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
I think if I can get another top 6 veteran, and a strong backup goalie, I should be able to improve where I left off this year. The strength of this team will be the defense for sure.
Projected Lineup:
Center: Getzlaf Morrisson Avery Comeau
Left Wing Vanek Ruutu Talbot Rucinsky
Right Wing Sykora Cammalleri Armstrong Haydar
Defense CFP Colin White Brent Burns Brooks Orpik Dustin Byfuglien Bruno Gervais
Goalie MA Fleury
All that, plus 10-15 million in cap room to play with.
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"Theres also talk of creating more room at the end of the rink by making the nets more shallow, which would be accomplished by encouraging them to spend all their time listening to pop music and reading Twilight books."
