Though the GMs share a friendly rivalry off the ice, when it comes to the playoffs there will be no handshakes between Ian MacDonald and Gareth Evans until the series ends. The Blues went 4-1-0-1 against the Wings during the regular season, outscoring the Wings 21-17.
Forwards
The St Louis Blues have three of the top six scorers in the league so it's an easy choice to who gets the nod for the edge in forwards. Eric Staal led the Blues in scoring against the Wings, accounting for 4 goals and 6 assists in the 6 games being held off the scoresheet only once. The Blues also have the option of moving Jason Arnott, currently third in goals scored, onto their second line with Todd White. The balanced scoring that Arnott and Staal provides gives the Blues two deadly scoring lines. Manny Malhotra centres a strong checking line with Jason Chimera and Dan Carcillo. While not much of a scoring threat, Carcillo will be used to provide protection from any rough-housing from Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings do have their own scoring threats, their 242 goals scored in the season is amongst the highest in the conference. Led by Patrick Kane and Martin St Louis, it was a surprising breakout season for R.J. Umberger who scored 35 goals and posted a BRHL2 career high of 66 points. While the Wings could potentially match up with St Louis first line, the lack of depth in the Detroit squad could see them overwhelmed by the scoring depth of the Blues.
Series Edge: St Louis Blues
Defense:
The St Louis Blues did not have an outstanding offensive defenseman, something that differs from their first round opponent. However, Paul Martin and Joseph Corvo combined for 80 points going into their final game of the season and will be depended upon for powerplay time. While they only scored 19 goals combined, 13 of those were on the powerplay. The Blues are strong defensively with Tom Poti, who among the top 15 defensemen in blocked shots, while Chris Phillips, Rostislav Klesla and Sean O'Donnell are all defensively responsible.
The Wings blueline depends heavily upon Sergei Gonchar, any injury to Gonchar would damage their blueline and would remove the main offensive threat from St Louis. While Gonchar's 69 points is 2nd amongst all defensemen, it is his -11 rating that is worrysome. Although Detroit does have decent defensive awareness in Orpik, Scuderi, White and Ference; the low durability of some of the blueliners could become a factor later in the games. Though the top pairing of Detroit is excellent, it is their lack of depth that evens the edge up.
Series Edge: Even
Goaltending
The St Louis Blues possess one of the best goaltenders in the league, with a 2.04 GAA and a .926 SV%, Nabokov will be tough for Detroit to beat. During the season series, Nabokov was in net for every Blues win, going 4-0-0-0 against the Wings. Kevin Weekes suffered the regulation loss while Andrew Raycroft lost in the shootout. If Detroit has any hope in this series, they have to outshine Evgeni Nabokov.
However, the Wings may be concerned about Marc-Andre Fleury's 2.72 GAA and .907 SV% which goes down to .862SV% in 5 games against the Blues. While Conklin has showed some brilliance during the season, he has not been depended upon for any stretch of time by the Wings and is not a viable option for the Wings to try and counter Nabokov.
i just did this one before i go to bed, i'll do the others before the playoffs start on tuesday (hopefully) as i'll be traveling back on Tuesday back to Canada
While Detroit was disappointed to only finish 8th in the conference, they are quite excited at the challenge of facing the top seed in the conference.
"Me and Gareth are good friends, better enemys" said GM MacDonald. "We know that the road to the cup would have to go thru St. Louis, we just didn't think it would be so soon. We look forward to the challenge."
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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."
"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."
"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."
