Official 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs Thread

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:ohwordcowher: a little late, but :manny:

1. Chicago Blackhawks vs Minnesota Wild
1. There is no playoff history between the Blackhawks and Wild. A tale of the tape indicates this is a lopsided matchup. The Blackhawks opened the season with a 24-game point streak. They have the best goals for to goals against differential (155-102) in the NHL at plus-53. They also were the best road team at 18-4-2. But maybe Wild goalie Niklas Backstrom can steal the series. The 35-year-old from Helsinki can get hot and carry a team. He'll have to if the Wild want to win this series. He's also slated to become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

2. Can the Blackhawks overcome the Presidents' Trophy curse? Only seven of the past 25 Presidents' Trophy winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup. The last club to win the rare double was the 2007-08 Red Wings. Three of the past four Presidents' Trophy champs -- San Jose (2008-09, Washington (2009-10) and Vancouver (2011-12) -- have been bounced in the first round.

3. The Wild squeaked into the playoffs on Saturday with a 3-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche. Minnesota's steep $196-million US investment on free-agent defenceman Ryan Suter and forward Zach Parise last summer paid off with its first playoff spot since 2008. But can they pull off a Los Angeles Kings-sized first-round upset? "Let's make it clear: We're not done," Wild coach Mike Yeo said. "We're not going to sit on cloud nine and say this is a huge accomplishment. This is a step, a big step, a difficult step for us."

2. Anaheim Ducks vs 7. Detroit Red Wings
1. The Red Wings won their last four games to extend its playoff streak to 22 seasons, just seven shy of the Boston Bruins' record of 29 consecutive years from 1968 to 1996. But as juicy as the Wings' impressive post-season run has been, they have not advanced past the second round since their back-to-back visits to the Stanley Cup final in 2008 and 2009. There will be plenty of focus on Detroit goalie Jimmy Howard, who had three shutouts in his final seven outings.

2. Can the Ducks get their groove back? Anaheim struggled to the finish line with an ordinary 8-9-2 record in its final 19 games. The slump began with back-to-back losses to Detroit in Anaheim. Saku Koivu hasn't scored since Mar. 16. Teemu Selanne had seen his ice-time reduced. Blue-liner Francois Beauchemin finally scored his first goal in 13 games on Saturday. Meanwhile, power-play specialist Sheldon Souray hasn't scored a goal since Mar. 29.

3. Will Red Wings captain Henrik Zetterberg let up? The 32-year-old veteran was unbelievable down the stretch for Detroit. In the Red Wings' final four games, Zetterberg checked in with two goals and 10 points and reignited Johan Franzen's game. Franzen scored four times in the final four games.

3. Vancouver Canucks vs. 6. San Jose Sharks
1. This is a rematch of the 2011 West final, in which the Canucks beat the Sharks in five games. Vancouver will enter the post-season with question marks surrounding the injury situations of goalie Cory Schneider and defenceman Chris Tanev, who is out with an ankle injury. Schneider was rested for the final two games of the regular season with an undisclosed injury, but the Canucks expect him to be ready for the series opener. But wouldn't it be something if Roberto Luongo has to play and saves the day?

2. The last and only time the Canucks and Sharks met in the playoffs, Raffi Torres was with the Canucks and delivered a shoulder-to-shoulder hit on San Jose's Joe Thornton in the third period of Game 4. Thornton suffered a separated shoulder, but played in the double-overtime series finale a couple of nights later. Now Torres is with the Sharks. He was a trade deadline day acquisition. The Canucks also tried to reacquire him. Since Torres joined the Sharks, they finished the season at 7-5-1.

3. Will a first-round loss cost either Vancouver coach Alain Vigneault or his San Jose counterpart Todd McLellan his job? Both have been in charge of two of the elite teams for some time now without a championship. Vigneault, of course, has a trip to the 2011 Stanley Cup final on his resume, but a second consecutive first-round exit would be disastrous for the 51-year-old coach, in his seventh season behind the Canucks bench. McLellan is in his fifth year at the helm of the Sharks. He, too, is trying to avoid a second straight first-round flop.

4. St.Louis Blues vs. Los Angles Kings
1. Not much of a prize for the Blues and their remarkable late-season run. They reeled off 12 victories in their final 15 games to move from ninth place in the West to fourth and earn home ice in the first round. However, they will face the defending Stanley Cup champion Kings, who have won eight consecutive games against St. Louis, including a second-round sweep last spring.

2. Will this be a different playoff run for the Blues' streaky goalie Brian Elliott? He resurrected his season with a solid finish, winning 11 of his final 13 starts. Now the up-and-down Elliott must continue his winning ways against a team that he surrendered 13 goals on 89 shots against in the four-game sweep a year ago.

3. The Kings also finished strong with a 10-4-3 run in their final 17 games, exhibiting the same aggressive puck-pursuit style that pushed them to the title last June. No team has successfully defended the Stanley Cup since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-98. Does head coach Darryl Sutter have his players poised to become the next team to win back-to-back NHL championships?
 

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1. Pittsburgh Penguins vs New York Islanders
1. Much to the chagrin of John Tavares and the Islanders, the Penguins have become healthy just in time. Sidney Crosby has been cleared for practice after weeks on the sidelines with a broken jaw. James Neal, Paul Martin and Evgeni Malkin all missed time this month, but recently returned to the lineup. Now how good is this team with trade deadline deals that brought in Jarome Iginla, Brenden Morrow, Douglas Murray and Jussi Jokinen and full health?

2. The Penguins will attempt to exorcise their playoff demons of the past two years. In 2011, they had a 3-1 series lead in the first round with Game 5 at the Consol Energy Center against the Tampa Bay Lighting. But Pittsburgh blundered away the series by losing three straight. Last year, the Penguins were a defensive mess in the first round against the rival Philadelphia Flyers, yielding a whopping 30 goals in the six-game series won by the Flyers.

3. The Islanders haven't been in the post-season since 2006. There isn't much playoff experience on this team. More than half of the players in the Islanders lineup will make their Stanley Cup playoff debuts, including Tavares, Matt Moulson, Frans Nielsen, Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Casey Cizikas, Andrew MacDonald, Matt Martin, Travis Hamonic, David Ullstro and Thomas Hickey. The rest of the roster adds up to only 178 combined playoff games. Veteran goalie Evgeni Nabokov leads the way with 62 games followed by Marty Reasoner (23), Lubomir Visnovsky (18), Keith Aucoin (14), Mark Streit (12), Brad Boyes (11), Matt Carkner (10), Michael Grabner (9) and Radek Martinek (9).

2. Montreal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators
1. These teams have built up quite a rivalry since the Senators came back into the league for the 1992-93 series, even though they have never met in the playoffs in the modern era. You have to go all the way back to 1927 to find the last time these rivals met in the playoffs. The Senators beat the Canadiens in a two-game, total-goal series.

2. Montreal's 25-year-old goalie Carey Price struggled late in the season. He won just two of his last eight starts and was pulled from three games in a row. Which Price will show up against the Senators? Regarded as a candidate to play for Canada at the Olympics next year, the young goalie has won world junior gold and an AHL Calder Cup with the 2006-07 Hamilton Bulldogs, but could use a lengthy playoff run to help his cause. His Stanley Cup playoff record is a mediocre 8-15. He can't afford to let Ottawa's Craig Anderson outplay him.

3. The Senators have been a remarkable story this season. They have persevered through long-term injuries to Jason Spezza, Erik Karlsson, Jared Cowen, Anderson and Milan Michalek to make the playoffs. Everyone but Spezza is back in action. This also possibly could be captain Daniel Alfredsson's last hurrah. He loves playing at the Bell Centre in Montreal and you can't underestimate what this patient team is capable of.

3. Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers
1. This is a rematch of the second-round series last year, when the Rangers required seven games to eliminate the Capitals. The last six games were decided by one goal and two of those outings needed overtime. But don't forget Capitals rookie head coach Adam Oates was part of the New Jersey Devils coaching staff that beat the Rangers in the next round in the conference final. Can Oates reach back into his notes to come up with a gameplan to beat the Blueshirts for a second consecutive year?

2. Can the Capitals continue their outstanding late-season run? Alex Ovechkin was at his best with a remarkable 23 goals in the final 23 games. Defenceman Mike Green made a triumphant return to action from his nagging groin problems with 19 games remaining in the regular season to score 10 goals and 19 points. The result was a terrific season-ending 14-4-2 run for Washington.

3. How will first-year Rangers sniper Rick Nash perform in his second playoffs? It was four years ago Nash made his first and only other foray into the playoffs with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He scored once and had two assists as the Detroit Red Wings swept Columbus in 2009. Nash had a solid first season with the Rangers. He scored 21 goals and 42 points in 44 games. But he can't afford to slump in the playoffs because only the Senators scored fewer goals among the eight playoff teams in the East.

4. Boston Bruins vs 5. Toronto Maple Leafs
1. Wonder if Phil Kessel's name will be brought up much in this series? Of course, we jest. The former Bruin was traded to Toronto before the start of the 2009-10 season in a deal that landed Boston Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton. Both teams have gone in different directions. The Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and have a 15-4-3 record versus Toronto since the trade. Kessel only has three goals in those 22 games and is a minus-22. But he will enter this post-season on a roll, having scored 10 times in the final 10 games of the regular season to reach the 20-goal mark.

2. This is the first meeting between the two Original Six clubs since 1974, when Bobby Orr was in his prime with the Bruins and Borje Salming was in his rookie season in Toronto. Boston dominated the Maple Leafs way back when with a sweep and not much has changed. But one good development for the Maple Leafs is that they broke the recent magical spell the Bruins appeared to have over them -- an eight-game win streak -- with a 3-2 victory at home on Mar. 23. Two nights later in Boston, the Maple Leafs played decent enough to gain a point in a shootout loss. These two results should give the Maple Leafs confidence going into this series.

3. Can the Bruins break out of their late-season funk? Out of the 16 teams that made the playoffs, no club had a worse final quarter (12 games) than the Bruins at 4-6-2. They've had difficulty scoring with only 18 goals in nine games and just seem to lack that dogged forecheck that helped make them one of the elite teams. Maybe the sight of the Maple Leafs will wake them up.
 

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Penguins vs Islanders
Canadiens vs Senators
Capitals vs Rangers
Bruins vs Leafs

Blackhawks vs Wild
Ducks vs Red Wings
Canucks vs Sharks
Blues vs Kings
 

yoyoyo1

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oh yeah, :damn: @ isles ending up 8th, thought they had a chance vs was or mon, but pitt :sadcam:

and, nothing better than late night double ot hockey
 
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