NHL Playoffs 2013, Western Conference: Notes And Observation

Chicago (1) VS Minnesota (8)

Minny's first playoff appearance in 5 years, and also no playoff series wins since 2003

Will Pominville play? Heatley will be missed!

Chicago gets the President's trophy, and now goes in without Emery and Bolland. Sort of makes them a little less than the best!

Anaheim (2) VS Detroit (7)

Detroit gets through the season sans Lidstrom. Now a postseason without him!

Fasth and Hiller, spot the similarities: 30 years old, 15 wins, 6 losses. Now, who do you go with?

Detroit's injuries: Helm and Miller are out, Bertuzzi and Samuelsson are iffy for game 1

Vancouver (3) VS San Jose (6)

Schneider is apparently in goal for game 1, but I got this feeling that we will see Luongo before this series is over

Niemi keeps proving how underrated he is. Look for him to steal some games

So much the same faces from last year for Vancouver, but Sestito (double palindrome in his last name?) will make his NHL playoff debut. Also, look for another first-time-in-the-playoffs-in-the-bigs, Jordan Schroeder

St, Louis (4) VS Los Angeles (5)

Oshie and Jackman are expected back, but Nichol is out for a while. Langenbrunner is not expected back this season after hip surgery

LA has Richards and Brown expected back for game 1, but Greene is iffy. Mitchell is not expected back this year

Quick proved it big time last year in the postseason. Can he do it again? But I also think Elliott is going to have a great series. I pick this matchup to have the best goaltending!


References


"Official Site of the National Hockey League.” NHL.com. National Hockey League. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.

Sports Reference LLC. Hockey-Reference.com - Hockey Statistics and History. http://www.hockey-reference.com/. Web. 30 Apr. 2013.