Stanley Cup Playoffs 2011: Western Conference Round 2

(more apologies for getting this one a little late)

Vancouver (1) VS Nashville (5)

Vancouver finally beat Chicago, but no Vancouver fan wants to talk about it, it was that close. Meanwhile Nashville finally won a playoff series.

Offence

Vancouver

Sedin continued his strong season by adding 5 goals and 2 assists. That's Daniel I'm talking about. Meanwhile the hero of the series, Alex Burrows had 3 goals and 3 assists.

Henrik Sedin was held to without a goal in the series, but had 5 assists. Also without a red light was Ryan Kesler although he too was dishing: 4 assists. As well, Mason Raymond had not red lights and three assists.

From behind the (forward) lines were

Christian Ehrhoff (1-3-4)

Kevin Bieksa (1-2-3)

Alexander Edler (1-2-3)

A warning though. The team seemed to fade from games 4-7 in offence as they managed just 2 meaningless goals in game 4, none in game 5, three in game 6 and two in game 7. Yup, that's just 7 goals in four games. They need to get pucks in more regularly. As it was, they finished the Chicago series with just 16 goals.

Nashville

Mike Fisher had 3 goals and 3 assists for team lead. Joel Ward and defenceman Shea Weber also had 3 goals each.

Jordin Tootoo had 4 assists for (I should say tied for) team lead, while a pair of centers, David Legwand and Nick Spaling each had  2 goals and 2 assists.

Left winger Sergi Kostitsyn also had 4 assists, but is still looking for his first postseason goal this year.

As for defencemen, in addition to Weber, Cody Fransen was the third Pred to register 4 assists. But like Kostitsyn, he needs to dent the twine sometime soon. Kevin Kline had 3 points. Ryan Suter had 3 assists, but again, no goals.

Edge: (Slight) Nashville

Defence

Vancouver

Again, it was something that was at times good and at times bad against Chicago.

Bieksa had a strong series on defence with a plus 3. Dan Hamhuis was +2.

Unfortunatly, you had Ehrhoff at minus 4, Edler and Sami Salo at -2. This needs to improve.

Up front, Kesler was a +4 and Burrows was +2. Mason Raymond was a +2.

But both the Sedins were a minus.

Nashville

Weber topped all Nash rearguards with a plus 4, which also led the team. Kline, Suter and Jonathon Blum were all +2. Shane O'Brien was a minus 2, however and Cody Franson was a even 0.

Forwards were led by Tootoo, who was a plus 3. Fisher, Spaling and Matt Halishchuk were each a +2.

But Ward and Legwand were each -1.

Edge: (Slight) Vancouver

Goaltending

Vancouver

It's either confidence or concern about Roberto Luongo.

He got a shutout, he won game 7 in overtime after almost getting another shutout. He made a big save on a Chicago power play in overtime in that game 7.

But his overall numbers weren't so good. His S% needs to improve: .903 and his GAA is way to high for this time of year: 2.97

Will we see more of Corey Schnieder? He's already made 3 appearances. But alas, he has yet to impress: .878 S% and 3.09 GAA

Nashville

Though they got through, Pekka Rinne had some difficulty. Allowing 19 goals in only 6 games, his GAA was too high: 3.29. And his S% is nowhere near .900, at .876.

Anders Lindback did play in the series, albeit a short appearance. Should Rinne continue to struggle, we'll see more of him. He managed to get into 13 minutes of game 4 against the Ducks.

Edge: (Slight Vancouver)

Prediction: Vancouver in 6 games

San Jose (2) vs Detroit (3)

A rematch of last year's Western Conference Semifinals. San Jose came through in five games last year, even though they actually were outscored in the series. Detroit comes in red hot. Despite what you are going to read below, I'm going with San Jose because the have a Stanley Cup winning goalie, home ice advantage, and the face they overcame their mediocre playoff results last year and are continuing to do that this year. They won three games in overtime against the Kings, including game 3, when they came back from 4-0 down, on the road. This is not the same team that had struggled notoriously in the postseason in the past.

Offence

San Jose

The Fierce Fish come into this one having really taken it to Los Angeles on offence. Not that it was easy.

Ryan Clowe led the was with 4 goals and 3 helpers. From there, you had 4 players with five points:

Logan Couture

Patrick Marleau

Joe Thornton

Ian White (defenceman)

Then you had 4 players with 4 points

Joe Pavelski

Dany Heatley

Torrey Mitchell

Kyle Wellwood

In addition to White the following defencman were contributing from the back. The following defencmen had three points each:

Jason Demers

Dan Boyle

Niclas Wallin

Detroit

Detroit did step it up against the Coyotes. And they needed to because although the swept, many of the games against Phoenix were not decided until the third period.

Pavel Datsyuk led the way with 2 goals and 4 assists. But right behind him was another center, Filppula with a goal and 4 helpers.

Thomas Holmstrom, forgetting about his 38 years, netted 2 and added 2 assists, while the third center, Franzen also had 2 goals.

Bertuzzi, Cleary, Helm, Hudler and Kronwall all managed to get 3 points.

Drew Miller added two goals.

For the defence offence, after Kronwall you had Brian Rafalski with 2 goals and Nic Lindstrom with 2 assists, but still looking for his first marker this postseason. Look for that in this series.

Edge: (Slight) Detroit

Defence

San Jose

White was the high +/- man on defence with a plus 4. Marc-Edouard Vlasic was only a +2 and Boyle was actually a minus (-1).

Demers was an even zero and Wallin was a +1, as was Douglas Murray.

Wellwood, the center, actually led the team with a plus 6 rating. Joe Pavelski was second among forwards with a +4 and Torrey Mitchell was right there with a plus 3. Clowe and Marleau were each +2.

Detroit

Kronwall and Ruslan Salei tied for team lead of the the defence corps with +6 each.

Lindstrom was only a +3, but that will improve this series.

Rafalski and Brad Steward were both +2.

Jonathan Ericsson was only a +1.

Datsyuk was the third player to be +6, so he led all forwards. Filppula was right behind him in this category as well with a plus 5. Holmstrom was a plus 4.

Kris Draper didn't get a point this series, but was a plus 3. Franzen, Cleary, Helm, Hudler, Eaves and Drew Miller were all +2.

Edge: (Slight) Detroit

Goaltending

San Jose

Which A.N. do we choose?

Antti Neimi looked a little shaky Actually, he really looked shaky!

Here are his numbers: 3-2/3.99/.863

Now that's gotta get better because the Sharks aren't going to score more than about 3 goals a game against Detroit. The good news is he still won 3 games. And he's still got that Stanley Cup ring from a year ago with the Hawks.

Should he falter, Antero Niittymaki could see some more action. He managed not only to win a game, but also post some fine numbers in limited duty: 1-0/0.66/.967

Will he play more, all depends on how Antti performs. I tend to think that with his experience, Niemi will right the ship.

Detroit

Jimmy Howard will get his second shot at San Jose.

So far this post season, he has performed well. 4-0/2.50/.915. Now the problem is, can he do it against San Jose?

Detroit's two other goaltenders, Joey McDonald and Chris Osgood, haven't played one minute so far. I doubt we will see them in action this series.

In order for Detroit to win this series, they will need for Howard to steal some games. I don't know if he can. He still has played better than Niemi this postseason.

Edge: (Slight) Detroit

Prediction: San Jose in seven games