In another divisional matchup, the Dallas Stars, led by the goaltending of Tim Thomas will face the scoring threat of Marian Gaborik of the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks would have preferred the Oilers as they only have a 2-3-0-1 record against the Stars while being outscoring 10-17 in their 6 games.
Offense
On paper the Ducks have the better first line, Brad Richards centres the top line of Gaborik and Kovalev. However, the Ducks depth seemingly disappears after Stajan and Bourque on their second line. Vrbata isn't a 2nd line winger and his 25 points in 62 for the Ducks shows that. Grabovski, who's name I suspect means "wanking" in Russian, gives some sort of third line threat, but is ill suited for a checking line role.
The Dallas Stars do have a better overall threat up front, scoring 37 more goals this season than the Ducks. Led by Travis Zajac, the Stars boast 5 20-goal scorers with Zajac, Pominville and Gagne combining for 32 goals on the powerplay. And while Anaheim lacks a proper checking line, Dallas have two of the better checking forwards in Samuel Pahlsson and Chris Kelly.
Series Edge: Dallas
Defense
Rob Blake is the veteran presence on a Ducks blueline that is great on quantity but lacks quality. While Brian Campbell and Kevin Bieksa bring a decent passing game to the Ducks team, they lack that definitive shutdown defenseman who will be relied upon to shut down the Stars' forwards. Handing that responsibility to Rob Blake might see the speed of the Dallas forwards just breeze by. Matthew Carle led the Ducks blueline in goals scored with 7, a tally that would need to be improve if they want to upset the Stars.
The Stars can equal the Ducks blueline puckmoving ability with Christian Ehrhoff (acquired from the Kings) and Francois Beauchemin and surpass it with Sergei Zubov. Despite this, the Stars were led by the youngster Marc-Eduord Vlasic in scoring, with Zubov languishing behind. However, while the Ducks lack that shutdown defenseman, the Stars have three excellent blueliners in that aspect. Willie Mitchell, Zbynek Michalek and the aforementioned Beauchemin can provide the Stars with defensive zone coverage when needed.
Series Edge: Dallas
Goaltending
I'm looking forward to this series being a battle of the goalies, Lundqvist vs Thomas. While Thomas posted amazing numbers for the Stars this year, going 42-16-2 while posting a .921 save percentage and a league leading 1.94 GAA; Lundqvist posted a 43-25-3 record with a 2.34 GAA and a .922 save percentage. While the advantage of the Stars defensive players had helped keep the goals scored on Thomas to a minimum, to call between these two goalies is too close to call despite the difference in records.
Series Edge: Even
Series Prediction: Stars in 7
-- Edited by BluesGM on Monday 24th of May 2010 06:23:34 PM
