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Eastern Conference Semifinal: Flyers vs Devils

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When four teams from one division make the playoffs, they’re bound to meet. In our last installment of Semifinal previews, we’ll look at the series between Atlantic Division rivals Philadelphia Flyers against the New Jersey Devils. The Flyers have won the last two playoff meetings between the teams after the Devils broke the Flyers’ hearts by coming back from a 1-3 series deficit in the Eastern Conference Final in 2000.

The Flyers earned their spot in this series by beating their hated rival Pittsburgh Penguins in a crazy 6 game series. Way too many goals were scored as both defenses and at times goalies decided not to show up for very long stretches. The Devils needed 7 games and double overtime in the last one in order to dispatch the 3^rd seeded Florida Panthers.

I’ll start out with the topic everyone loves to talk about…the goalies. The question for both teams is this: which goalie shows up? Will we see the old Marty Brodeur or will we see the old Marty Brodeur? Will we see the Master of the Universe Ilya Bryzgalov who sported a 0.29 GAA and a 3-0-0 record against New Jersey this year or will we see Ilya “I Look Like a Giraffe in Net” Bryzgalov? Both goalies finished very strong in the last games of their series, but otherwise looked so-so (and downright bad at time for Bryz). Brodeur can be susceptible to shots at his feet and it’s not rare for him to give up a bad angle goal along the ice targeted at the far post. The Flyers will be best suited to just keep firing away at him. Bryzgalov looked very slow moving laterally against the Penguins, and it was pretty clear that he wasn’t fully healed from his foot injury that saw him lose playing time at the end of the year. The Flyers are hoping the rest allowed him to heal up.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 29, 2012 Read More

Western Conference Semifinal Preview: Blues vs Kings

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Remember two years ago when the 8^th seeded Montreal Canadiens beat the heavily favored Capitals and Penguins in the first two rounds? I think that this year’s Habs are the Los Angeles Kings. They played that defensive style just well enough to beat some of those offensive first teams. The Kings sit back and clog everything up. They score when you mess up.

The St. Louis Blues know all about defense. The led the league in goals against in the regular season (LA was second). Brian Elliott and Jaroslav Halak combined for 15 shutouts. That’s 1 in every 5 or 6 games. That’s insane.

Both the Kings and Blues gave up 1.80 goals per game in the opening round. So yeah, it’s likely going to be a low scoring series. Whether it’s Elliott or Halak in net, the Blues have excellent goaltending. Jonathan Quick is an outstanding goalie as well. We’ll likely see NHLNetwork’s Top 10 Saves show be dominated by Elliott and Quick. Both teams have strong young defenses with some solid veterans mixed in.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 28, 2012 Read More

Eastern Conference Semifinal Preview: Rangers vs Capitals

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Once again, I picked both of these teams to lose in the opening round. The Rangers were able to finally finish off the Senators in 7 (I was almost a genius picking the Sens in 7) and the Capitals outlasted the Bruins in 7 games as well. It’s funny, last year I caught some flak for picking the Bruins to lose every series. So this year, I pick them to win…and they lose. Right now I’m going to take this opportunity to make a prediction for next season: The Bruins will finish with an 82-0 record next year.

I did say that the ingredients were there for a Capitals upset, and a lot of that had to do with goalie Braden Holtby. The Bruins did get their fair share of shots, but Holtby stood his ground. And even though there were a lot of shots, the defense chipped in well enough to prevent the Bruins from overwhelming them. Most importantly in that series, the Capitals didn’t allow the Bruins to play the way they wanted. The B’s couldn’t get the space and puck control that makes them dangerous and it allowed the Caps to hang in each game.

Can Washington to do it again? The Rangers play a style more similar to the way the Caps played Boston, so the big question is this: Can the Capitals beat the Rangers at their own game?

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 28, 2012 Read More

Western Conference Semifinal Preview: Phoenix Coyotes vs Nashville Predators

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Let’s see, I picked both of these teams to lose in the first round. I’ll try not to pick them both to lose again this round.

I was going to write my regular sort of preview here, but I’ve decided against that. Instead, I’m going to look at a few factors that I think will decide the series. It’s a little bit different, and who knows if I’ll keep doing this as my series previews.

If you look at the series between the Nashville Predators and Detroit Red Wings, in the games that the Preds won, they never had to play from behind. They took the lead and never allowed the Red Wings to take it. Sure, they allowed a ton of shots and didn’t take many themselves, but they made sure they cashed in on their chances. The Predators controlled the series pretty well and did this against a very good team. Unless you’re the Flyers playing in a weird series against the Penguins, if you scored first in this year’s playoffs, teams that advanced to the second round won 74% of the time. When you play with the lead, there’s not much reason to change your strategy.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 27, 2012 Read More

What if Nicklas Grossmann decided to stay down?

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That’s the question I ask. And not just once, I ask it twice.

The NHL wants to get rid of headshots in the NHL. And they also use the metric of an injury to determine justice, which if you’ve read me recently, you’d know I’m completely against that.

On Wednesday night, on two different occasions, Nicklas Grossmann of the Philadelphia Flyers was the victim of a hit to the head. He left the game after the second hit he took and is now out for tonight’s Game 5. The first of the hits was delivered by Evgeni Malkin with a blindside hit that he swerved out of his way to make.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 20, 2012 Read More

Flyers Game 4 Postgame analysis

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flyers penguins game 4 analysis

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 18, 2012 Read More

The NHL is setting itself up for someone to get seriously injured

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Could I have been any more wrong with my initial analysis in the beginning of the season regarding Brendan Shanahan as the new NHL disciplinarian? It’s just been more of the same and maybe even worse. And you know it’s really bad when there is literally no one who is ever happy with any decision that the league makes with supplemental discipline.

The Shea Weber/Henrik Zetterberg incident was handled in an utterly disgraceful manner. Can the league make it more obvious that as long as you’re a star player, you can get away with anything? A $2500 fine for grabbing the back of someone’s head and slamming it into the glass is a complete joke. Heads should have been rolling in the league’s front office after that decision was made.

There are a thousand different factors that we could focus on to see what’s gone so wrong. I’ll quickly go over a handful of them to start and then focus on something that many people don’t seem to have a problem with.

Why are we seeing so many cheapshots and dirty hits these days?

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 18, 2012 Read More

TSHQ Eastern Conference Quarterfinals Preview

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Yesterday, I previewed the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Today, we’ll take a look at the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal matchups…

#1 New York Rangers vs. #8 Ottawa Senators

It’s fitting that these two teams would meet up in the first round. No one saw the Rangers taking the top seed in the East and not many were picking the Senators to make the playoffs. I sure had these two teams picked incorrectly. But that’s why we play the games, now isn’t it?

The story for New York this season has been the play of the team defense. Henrik Lundqvist has put in another Vezina caliber season behind a surprisingly elite group of defensemen led by Dan Girardi. His partner, Ryan McDonaugh, has had an outstanding season both offensively and defensively along with fellow youngster Michael Del Zotto. They’re not exactly the names we’re used to hearing when it comes to top defensemen, but they sure get the job done.

But what separates the Rangers from much of the league defensively is the way the entire team buys into the system of defense. The forwards play a key role in choking off any offensive attack from the opposition. They just clog everything up and don’t allow the time and space you typically need to get scoring chances. Ottawa’s 4^th ranked offense will have something to say about that, though. As good as the Rangers’ defense is, I’m not buying that they’re going to be able to stifle the Senators’ offense. Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza have been doing their thing for too long to all of a sudden by shut down. Throw in Erik Karlsson and his phenomenal 78 point season, and you’ve got a team that could do some serious damage on the power play if given enough chances. The Rangers have a good penalty kill and don’t find themselves shorthanded that many times, but it’s going to be part of the game Ottawa will have to focus a lot of attention to. An abrasive player like Chris Neil is going to have to really get under the skin of players like Brandon Dubinsky and even Ryan Callahan in order to draw some penalties.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 10, 2012 Read More

TSHQ’s Western Conference Quarterfinals Predictions

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Are you concerned about carbon dioxide emissions? Don’t worry, for the next few months, NHL fans around the world won’t be exhaling at all. The NHL playoffs are back! It’s time for my absolute favorite part of the sports year and, in case you didn’t know, every single game will be televised this season. It’s going to be a blast.

So without further ado, let’s get to some predictions. Tonight, we’ll be looking at the Western Conference Quarterfinals. Tomorrow, I’ll preview the East…

#1 Vancouver Canucks vs. #8 Los Angeles Kings

Well, the President’s Trophy winning Canucks are heavy favorites for good reason against the Kings. Yes, the Canucks very nearly lost in an upset against the Blackhawks by coming about as close as you can to choking away a 3-0 series lead last season, so anything can happen, but I’ll play the odds on this one.

Led by the Sedin twins, the Canucks have a powerful offense and one of the better power plays in the league as well. They’re not seen quite as dominating as they were last season headed into the playoffs, but after a rough postseason, Roberto Luongo seems to have gotten back on track with a good defense led by Alexander Edler in front of him. They were good enough to be ranked 4^th in the NHL in goals against per game, thanks in part to the play of backup goalie Cory Schneider. But let’s not get into Luongo/Schneider debates right now. If the Canucks are to lose, it’s going to be because Luongo’s letting in 4 softies every game.

If the Kings have any chance of winning, they’re going to have to rely very heavily on what got them into the playoffs to begin with: a very stingy defense. They ranked 5^th in the league in shots against per game, and goalie Jonathan Quick has been one of the best in the game ever since he’s entered the league. He spotted his team with 10 shutouts and a few in this series might be necessary for any talk of advancement. And even though they have a top penalty kill, if they continue to rank towards the bottom of the league in times shorthanded, it’s dangerous to keep giving Vancouver chances on the man advantage. Heck, it’s dangerous to do it against any team.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Apr 09, 2012 Read More

The silliness of rooting to drop in the standings to play the Florida Panthers

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It’s the popular thing to say these days: “I want my team to get the 6^th seed in order to play team XYZ!” This year, team XYZ is the Panthers.

What a terrible thing to wish upon your team. Can you say short term benefit at the expense of the long term? However, to justify their position, they’ll say the equally ignorant: “But home ice advantage isn’t important, stupid.”

How does something that is just flat out false become common knowledge? I mean, as far as I know, NHL playoff positions aren’t discussed on cable news. Home ice advantage is without a doubt a major predictor in whether or not you’ll win the Cup. Since the start of the current era (1992 to present), only one team out of 18 Cup winners has not entered the playoffs as a top 4 seed. And that team was the 5^thseed New Jersey Devils in 1994-95, where the lockout shortened the season to 48 games, lowering the regular season sample size.

Posted by: Stephen Bochanski Mar 25, 2012 Read More