No surprises in the Western Conferences after two upsets in the first round, Chicago and Colorado eliminated Dallas and St Louis in 6 games to set up a conference final showdown. Chicago reached this stage last year, defeating cinderella story Columbus before winning it's first BRHL2 Cup. Questions of whether or not they'll be able to repeat that performance will be tough as they go against the #2 seed Colorado who convincingly defeated the Blues. Chicago will continue to depend on their offensive power as Nicklas Backstrom, though posting decent numbers, is outshined at the other end of the ice. Christobel Huet has been the story for the Avalanche and Chicago will need to solve him if they want to progress to the Stanley Cup Finals.

The Offense - Honours Even

Though outscoring the Avalanche by 11 goals in the playoffs, the offensive power of Colorado demonstrates itself with its strong two way play. Only Shawn Horcoff is the only minus player on the Colorado roster, though many of its stars are off the PPG average that is expected of Colorado. Evgeni Malkin has only posted 7 points in 11 games, hardly the scoring pace of a player of his ability. However, if Colorado want to upset the Hawks, Marleau will need to continue his timely scoring as each of his 3 goals have been game winners.

Chicago depends on a high amount of goals, even though they possess a star goalie in Backstrom, the Hawks have an offensively minded blueline which are prone to giving up the odd man rush the other way. Frolov and Lecavalier have been Chicago's top scorers, but they are just two of six players who have had ten points or more this series. However, this series could turn into a special teams battle as Colorado's #2 ranked powerplay goes up against the #1 penalty kill. Though Chicago has threatened on the powerplay, scoring eight times, the Avalanche have the second best penalty kill themselves.

The Defense - Winners - Chicago

The offensive ability of the Chicago Blackhawks is represented in multiple forms, Markov, Green, Streit and Visnovsky all pose an offensive threat. The Chicago blueline have combined for 5 goals and 30 assists, so the Avalanche must be aware of defensemen jumping up on the rush. Though offensively minded, the Hawks do possess two shutdown defensemen in Volchenkov and Skoula and must be aware of Volchenkov's willingness to hit anything in sight.

Colorado is dependent upon two blueliners for most of their production, Keith and Schultz have accounted for over 65% of points from the blueline. If Chicago can prevent these two from jumping into the rush, then Colorado will struggle to find offense. However, Calgary and St Louis failed to stop them, so Chicago may have to do with just limiting them to as few points as possible.

The Goaltending - Winners - Colorado

Suffice it to say that Colorado would not be anywhere near the conference finals without Christobel Huet. Though convincingly winning each series 4-1 and 4-2, the turning point in the second round series against St Louis came during two 2-1 victories in games 2 and 3 to take a commanding lead in the series. Huet has been unbelievable with a 2.07GAA and .920 SV%, a worthy Conn Smythe candidate if he continues this form.

Who wins the series?

So I am currently 8-4 with four bang on the money, Huet's form has been unbelievable so I think this has the possibility of being a long series. As Colorado has been surprising a lot of people (including me as I thought that the offensive juggernaut would eventually peter out). I'm going for a Colorado win in 7.