This time of year Hockey could change its name to Goalie. Playoff success is generally predicated on a teams goalie play through out the playoffs. Goalie play with a healthy dose of shut down defense is the key to almost every Stanley Cup winner. Pretty much every team in the playoffs this year has a goalie that is capable of leading their team to the Stanley Cup Finals.

Lets look at each series and take an educated guess on which teams can emerge into round two.

 

Eastern Conference

1. Montreal Canadiens vs 8. Boston Bruins- Montreal one of the world premier hockey cities is juiced for the first round this year as the Habs have a number one seed. Montreal should sweep this series as they did the season series 8-0. Boston may get one win in this series but with as many injuries as they have had this season and right now, it just isn’t their time.

Montreal Sweep 4-0

2. Pittsburgh Penguins vs 7. Ottawa Senators - Ottawa started as one of the leagues best. But the last three months have been unkind in Ottawa. Pittsburgh has so much offense and Sidney Crosby may just be healthy. Ottawa ousted the Penguins in just five games last spring. That plays big in a team motivation to seek revenge.

Penguins in 5 4-1

3. Washington Capitals vs 6. Philadelphia Flyers- Both teams finished the season strong and both have top notch goalies. The Capitals boast an attack lead by scoring sensation Alexander Ovechkin and back him up with solid goaltending from trade deadline pick up Christabol Huet. Philly on the other hand finished the season 7-1-1 and have Martin Biron who will be a factor in net for the flyers. However I feel the Capitals have too much momentum going into the playoffs and will win a very tough series.

Washington 4-3

4. New Jersey Devils 5. New York Rangers. New York dominated to season series winning the first seven of eight. Both have strong goalies but the Rangers have the match ups that are going to stifle a Devils team that has made too many lateral moves with their roster over the last two years. It takes more than Martin Broduer to win a series, or does it?

New York 4-2

Western Conference-

1. Detroit Red Wings vs 8. Nashville Predators- The Wings get lucky having a first round series without west coast travel. The Wings being in the Eastern time zone often have series travel issues this time of year. Nashville is yet to win a playoff series and they are due. However they aren’t going to get this one. The series may get stretched to six games due to the massive injury list the Wings have but they have the best goalie tandem in the league. They will start Dominik Hasek and have back up Chris Osgood who actually lead the league in GAA percentage and started the All-Star game this season.

Detroit 4-2

2. San Jose Sharks and 7. Calgary Flames- This series may be a little tight than most have anticipated.The Sharks have been one of the leagues hottest teams but Calgary is one of the hardest working teams. Here is where the multiple over time games will come in . Both teams goalies are among the leagues best. The goalie match up of Nabokov and Kiprusoff shoudl carry this series at least 6 gams.

San Jose 4-2

3.Minnesota Wild vs 6. Colorado Avalanche- Minnesota is facing a very different Colorado team with the addition of many former players they acquired late in the season. Colorado needs to show that they are the Avalanche of old and not and Old Avalanche team. Minnesota may have enough to get to round two but I don’t see it happening. The only way the Wild move on is if the defense they have dominated with can hold up with a revamped Colorado team.

Colorado 4-2

4. Anaheim Ducks vs 5. Dallas Stars. Dallas just lost leader and defensemen Zubov and deadline acquisition Brad Richards finished very mediocre. Anaheim is the defending Stanley Cup Champs and they are for a reason. They boast four top tier defenseman and know what it takes to win a cup. They also have a very solid goalie in Jean-Sebastian Giguere.

Anaheim in five 4-1

This is it for round one. What do you think will happen? I think I made my case but series aren’t played on paper/blogs. If you are a NHL fan this is the best time of year. Every goal is huge.

Lets talk about irony in sports. I am not talking about irony like Sheryl Crow did either. Her type is rain on your wedding day. That isn’t ironic, that is a sign! That means run! Besides, a wise man once said " a man doesn’t realize what true happiness is until he gets married, unfortunately by then it is too late!

Sports irony happens all the time. Sometimes it can be more of poetic justice than irony.

The Motor City/State- It’s ironic in Michigan, the auto capitol of the world, the head football coach of the football team had a last name of Carr, then tried to replace him with a coach named Les Miles! 

 The Cashman- It’s ironic that the New York Yankees, the "Evil Empire", MLB’s richest franchise, has a GM with the last name of Cashman. Brian Cashman is the GM with the highest payroll in all of sports! Cashman has signed players to their highest contracts to come to New York. Although, if the Yankees are such a great organization, why do they have to pay so much more for players than other teams do? In 2007 the Yankees had 5 of the top 10 paid player salaries and had the top three in Giambi, Rodriguez, and Jeter.

The Magic Johnson- It’s ironic that a handsome, successful, charismatic, basketball player with a great rack of chicklets for a smile named "Magic Johnson" would get HIV? It would be like a guy named #### Hertz or a woman named Sharon Cox getting it. Too bad he didn’t cover his "Magic Johnson" before he contracted HIV. He helped raise awareness for the disease, unfortunately he had to have it to do it. I guess the cure for AIDS is money because he has had HIV for 16 years now. OK, so maybe it would be more ironic if this happened to a guy named Jimmy Hatt instead, but someone had to point it out.

New York, New York, Buffalo- It’s ironic that there are three teams in the NFL that represent the state of New York but only one of them actually plays in the state of New York. The two teams bearing the state and or city name of New York play in New Jersey at the Meadowlands and the Buffalo Bills actually play in Buffalo, New York.

Saturday’s Balls- Isn’t it ironic that Peyton Manning is constantly licking his hands to get a better grip on balls but does it before and after each snap. Maybe Jeff Saturday just has something special going on down there.....or those are the balls he is trying to get a better grip on. Maybe that isn’t ironic, just nasty, sorry for that.

College Lighting- In October of 2006 a college football game featuring the Kent State University "Golden Flashes" was temporarily delayed by lightning.

Gruden’s Grudge Match- In 2002 the head coach of the Oakland Raiders John Gruden was traded to Tampa Bay for a ton of draft picks. Owner Al Davis felt the move was great because he felt that Gruden could not win the "Big One". Ironically in his first year as the Bucs head coach he won the Super Bowl against who?....................the Raiders

The trade deadline had it all yesterday.  Players were dealt, prospects and draft picks as well.  It is never fair to really say who winners and losers are for sometimes five to seven years.  Especially with as many draft picks and prospects were dealt yesterday.  The moves that were made are all to help organizations (canadian translation organ-eye-zation) wins the Stanley Cup this year or in ten years.

One team did what they have a history for and they are my first loser of the pack.  I left Nashville of the list of winners because they didn't add anyone after Foresberg.  Peter Foresberg has not played like the Peter Foresberg of Colorada since he was in Colorado.  The Predators are a fast team that didn't seem to prepare for  a marathon as the Detroit Red Wings have now tied the for the second best overall record in the NHL, just one point behind Eastern Conference leading Buffalo.


First winner is  the New York Islanders.  They get a franchise player in Ryan Smyth from Edmonton. but give up essentially three first round picks to get him.  The trick now is to sign him to a long term deal like Edmonton would not.  If they cannot convice Ryan to stay, they will have problems.

The second winner is San Jose.  They traded for Bill Guerin.  He may actually be the best overall forward right now in the NHL.  The Blues were eliminated basically from the playoffs and needed to look at the future.  San Jose may now have the best power play going into the playoffs.

The Third winner is Detroit.  They brought in struggling winger Kyle Calder traded from Philadelphia back to Chicago enroute to a trade to Detroit.  Calder came off the bench to score approxiamtley 6 seconds into his Red Wing career.  The Wings also brought in Todd Bertuzzi from Florida who has been out almost all season with back surgery.  Bert is almost ready to go though. 

The Pittsburgh Penguins got tougher, a lot tougher.  They convinced tough guy, veteran, goal scoring, playoff tested Gary Roberts to waive his no trade clause and also brought in the leagues best fighter Georges Larauque to protect possibly the leagues best player in Sidney Crosby.  These moves may be bigger than all of the above, but don't forget, goaltending wins out and they have a lot riding on Fluery to prove he has more than a great regular season in him, and he has that chance this year.  The Pens may not win it all this year but these are the steps to get there.  The playoff experience will be great for this young team.

Other teams that were close were Atlanta for bringing in Keith Tkachuk not Pascal Dupuis.  Atlanta is ready to make a playoff run adding to their improved line up.  Nashville did bring in Foresberg but that is all.  Five years ago that would have been huge.  But the question remains in Nashville is, will the Preds get the Peter Foresberg of old, or just and old Peter Foresberg? 

Teams that lost were not as clear because of the prospects and future picks acquired are moves made for the future  However I can say that with out a doubt the Edmonton Oilers are losers, clearly.  The irony of Mark Messier night?  Honoring a hero and sending another away, adding in Wayne Gretzky had his coyotes in town was too much for me.  The day they traded the franchise in Ryan Smyth, they celebrate Mark Messier and celebrate with another of their big trades made when they sent Gretzky to L.A. in 1998.  Smyth is often dubbed Captain Canada because he has represented his country on the ice so many times at the world Championship tournament.  He also won gold with Team Canada at the 2002 Olympics.

The Hab nots is what Montreal has become.  They traded away a defenseman two days earlier and stand in the number seven spot in the playoffs in the east tied with the Islanders.  They are still in a strong position to play for the Stanley Cup and decided maybe they shouldn't be.  They made no moves other than subtraction.

The Maple Loafs did it again!  They brought back Yanic Perrault for his third stint in Toronto.  He did have 19 goals for Phoenix this season so far and the Loafs do get Mike Peca back soon so maybe they are going to be just fine.  maybe they can have the respect of being called the Leafs again come playoff time.  Yanic said of his return to Toronto "It feels like Groundhog Day, "I wake up and I'm back in Toronto.  He also said "It's great . . . the fans have always been great."

It is nice to see the trade deadline hasn't lost its luster but had more shine since the salary cap. More players were moved yesterday than any in trades past.  It is also amusing to see the same basic results in standing before and after the cap. Many thought the Wings would falter but had the best overall record by far last season and only one point behind the Sabres for the Presidents Trophy. Some thought this would keep teams like New York from plucking great players from teams, having a huge payroll, and never making the playoffs.....wrong. It all came out who the have and have nots are when it comes to front office supremacy.