2009 Stanley Cup playoffs - Pensburgh predictions

by FrankD on Apr 14, 2009 6:30 PM EDT in News

Hooks and I did a little e-mailing and such to come up with our overall playoff predictions. Surely you've witnessed a fair share of predictions and preview this week, but if you can manage to stomach one more we'd love to see what you think.

vs.

1 Boston (Stanley Cup of Chowder)
8 Montreal (Habs Eyes on the Prize)

Hooks - Boston in 5
I don't see Montreal getting in Boston's way too much. The B's are deeper up front, on defense and have had steadier goalie play. Montreal is just waiting to fall apart and seems to have a very fragile pysche.

Frank - Boston in 5
I really wanted to say sweep but I think the Habs can at least pull out one win in front of the home crowd. Of course if it goes to five games they will likely hear a few boos from the home crowd as well but such is the life in Montreal.

vs.

2 Washington (Japers' Rink)
7 New York Rangers (Blueshirt Banter)

Hooks: Washington in 6
The big matchup to me is the Rangers' PK against Washington's talent laden power play. If New York can't shut down the Caps there and if Henrik Lundqvist isn't the best player in the series by far, the Rangers don't stand a chance. I think he can do it for a game or two, but not enough to steal the series.

Frank: Rangers in 6
I don't know why I feel like the Rangers will somehow pull this off but part of me thinks it's possible. If this turns into a goaltending duel then New York easily has the upper hand. Special teams won't get it done for the Rangers and Washington's PP will likely face a lot of obstacles going up against the #1 PK in the league.

vs.

3 New Jersey (In Lou We Trust)
6 Carolina (Canes Country)

Hooks: New Jersey in 7
Carolina comes into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the East, but I'm saying Martin Brodeur is the difference maker. Take nothing away from Cam Ward, but if Marty gets hot and clamps down I don't see the Canes getting past him.

Frank: Canes in 6
New Jersey may have been hot for a while but they are backing into the playoffs. Carolina has the same momentum as Pittsburgh heading into the postseason and will likely continue to feed off of that throughout the run. I speculate Marty is not feeling 100% but I'm no team doctor. Ward will stop what little offense the Devils muster up.

vs.

1 San Jose (Fear the Fin)
8 Anaheim Ducks (Battle of Cali)

Hooks: Ducks in 7
It always seems like the Sharks take an exit in round 1 or 2 and this year they're up against a Ducks team that boasts Chris Pronger, Scott Niedermayer, Francois Beauchemin and Ryan Whitney. If JS Giguere can get his act together that could be enough to put the Ducks over the top.

Frank: Sharks in 5
I don't know what Hooks is thinking but the Sharks are at least getting past the first round this year. Anaheim's D may be tough but the Sharks' forwards are too much to handle.

vs.

2 Detroit (Winging it in Motown)
7 Columbus

Hooks: Red Wings in 5
I see this as the Blue Jackets trial by fire (see Pittsburgh 2007, Washington 2008). Their time will come, but it's not now against the veteran Detroit team that knows how to win this time of yea.

Frank: Red Wings in 4
Like Hooks said this is Columbus' first taste of the playoffs. I'm thinking quick exit a la the Thrashers of 06/07.

vs.

3 Vancouver (Nucks Misconduct)
6 St Louis (St. Louis Game Time)

Hooks: Vancouver in 6 games
The Blues are arguably the best story in the playoffs with the turnaround that they accomplished. Vancouver is hot opponent too though, and I favor Roberto Luongo over Chris Mason.

Frank: Vancouver in 6
As much as I'd like to see the Blues turn this Hollywood story into a Fairy Tale ending, I just don't think the Canucks will let that happen. Bobby Lou is playing phenomenal in net for Vancouver and the Sedin twins won't go easily into the night.

vs.

4 Chicago (Second City Hockey)
5 Calgary (Matchsticks and Gasoline)

Hooks: Chicago in 5
The Blackhawks are streaking and the Flames seem to be middling. I like Chicago's team speed to break it open and never look back.

Frank: Chicago in 5/6
I couldn't make up my mind on this one so I had to throw them both out there. Earlier in the year I was contacted by ESPN the Magazine to give a few predictions. I said the Hawks would make it 7 or 8 and likely make it to the second round. Although off by a few spots in the standings, I'm sticking by that second round prediction.

vs.

4 Pittsburgh
5 Philadelphia (Broad Street Hockey)

Hooks: Penguins in 5
Pittsburgh has better forwards, an even set of defensemen and a much better goalie. It's in everyone's minds how Crosby, Malkin and the boys smoked Martin Biron last season. And I say they'll do it again. Though Philly will have players they didn't have then (notably defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn) but I don't see it counting too much. The Flyers are a very talented team, but at times they are a fragile one. If the Pens break them early, it could be a quick series, and that's exactly what I hope to see happen.

Frank: Penguins in 6
Marty Biron isn't taking the Flyers anywhere even if they do manage to get past the first round. Although Philly has a better offense this time around and a healthier defense, the Penguins are a more well-rounded team. If Philly plays anything like they did in the fight for home-ice against the Ranger then we have nothing to worry about.

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East
Pittsburgh Penguins in 5/6
Boston Bruins in 5
Carolina Hurricanes in 5
Washington Capitals in 6

West
Detroit Red Wings in 5
Vancouver Canucks in 5
Chicago Blackhawks in 5/6
San Jose Sharks in 6

I feel weird for not picking a sweep, so in an effort to fill that void I’ll say the most sweepable series would be the Bruins over the Habs in the East, and the Wings over the Blue Jackets in the West.

PensBurgh penalty - Lavender - 2 minutes for hijynxing.

by Lavender on Apr 14, 2009 6:52 PM EDT reply actions

Great preview

East
Bruins in 4
Capitals in 6
Carolina in 5
Pens in 6

I admittedly don’t know a lot about the West but I think the four top seeds will prevail

by pretty boy floyd on Apr 14, 2009 7:47 PM EDT reply actions

I meant your guy’s preview was great by the way, not mine (especially since I know my west predicitions were lackluster)

by pretty boy floyd on Apr 14, 2009 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Mostly Solid

Except, I wouldn’t sleep on the Jackets as an upset special and I can’t see the Rags taking the Caps despite Theodore since you still need an NHL offense to win an NHL playoff series.

"Never mistake motion for action." - Ernest Hemingway

by SubLime on Apr 14, 2009 8:46 PM EDT reply actions

I think the Jackets could beat the Red Wings if Steve Mason keeps it up. But I think you have to default to the Red Wings, they know how to ratchet it up when it comes playoff time. I would surely like to see the BJ’s win, but I just don’t see it happens.

by Hooks Orpik on Apr 14, 2009 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions

Good call on Mason

He would need to come up like Giguere in 02-03 — we can only hope!

"Never mistake motion for action." - Ernest Hemingway

by SubLime on Apr 14, 2009 9:54 PM EDT up reply actions

Pitt in 6 a massive war
Bruins in 5 Montreal wins 1 at home thats it.
Carolina in 6 Devils are rattled, Brodeur is 80% of his old self
Caps in 7 This should be over faster, but Lundquist steals 2., NY earns 1 game

Flames in 6 (no matter how good the rookie team they always bow out round 1)
Sharks in 6 (5 regulation losses at home all year, too deep)
Wings in 5 Too good and they know how to turn it on
Vancouver in 5( mason can’t steal anything, Oceans 11 level thief in Luongo

Phili B

by ColeHarbour on Apr 14, 2009 9:02 PM EDT reply actions

Pittsburgh in 6: choosing between red hot vs. inconsistent, I choose red hot. Philly is a legit good team, and none of these 6 games will be easy. But the Pens are better and more experienced.
Boston in 5: as long as it’s not like last year, when the fairweather Boston fans failed to hop on the Bruins bandwagon (like they hop on every bandwagon) and Canadiens fans completely shouted down the Boston fans in the Garden, they should have enough fan support to pull them through. Unless the Celtics win game 1 of their first-round series and the Red Sox have a weekend series against the Yankees, in which case every sports “fan” in Boston will be too busy buying $900 worth of Sox and Celtics jerseys to pay attention. If that happens, the B’s will have to hope that their superior skill and ability to completely dominate the Habs physically will be enough. I think it will.
Carolina in 6: the residents of the greater Raleigh-Durham metropolitan area are on their way to becoming the residents of the best sports metropolitan area in America. Since Brodeur won his big game, I’m not sure the Devils could have won 4 of 7 games against the Islanders. So yeah, I’m picking Carolina here.
Capitals in 4: news flash to every sports journalist in New York: everyone who doesn’t live in New York realizes that the Rangers suck. It’s touching, but sad, that you don’t realize this too. Bully for you folks that you acquired Sean Avery and Nik Antropov at the deadline; but Antropov isn’t Gordie Howe, and Avery isn’t Claude Lemieux. As it turns out, you still have to score goals to win hockey games. And there’s no way that Chris Drury, Scott Gomez, Markus Naslund, and Wade Redden, or their $790 million, $810 million, $670 million, and $650 million contracts (note: I adjust for expected inflation) are scoring enough goals to offset what Ovechkin will do by himself.

Ducks in 6: my upset pick. In this series I see a hot Ducks team full of proud, talented veterans, and one that can manhandle any team physically. On the other side, the Sharks are a sure Stanley Cup pick, unless it’s not 1997 anymore, and Jeremy Roenick, Rob Blake, and Claude Lemieux are in fact really, really old. I’m thinking that the Ducks will come out fierce in this series, and we’ll have another 6-game appearance from the Postmaster General (Joe Thornton) as he mails it in yet again.
Red Wings in 5: there’s no way a team as raw the Jackets gets anywhere tangling with the defending champs in the first round. No way.
Canucks in 6: the most boring series anyone will ever see (and I include all fans of cricket and curling). The Blues are the Western conference version of the Hurricanes, but the Canucks have Roberto Luongo (the name least likely to be attached to a Canadian citizen, ever). I see Keith Tkachuk coming up lame in the playoffs, again, and Vancouver advancing to the second round. zzz . . zzz . . . zzz . . . wait, are the Canucks playing hockey?
Blackhawks in, I don’t know, 3. We need a new metaphor to describe the meltdown that’s enveloped the Flames in the last part of the season. It’s a little more than a plane crash, and a little more than a train wreck. It’s kind of like 2 trains crashed head-on, and then 2 planes crashed head-on and the plane wreckage fell on the 2 trains, and the first 2 reporters on the scene were played by Nicolas Cage and Al Pacino. That’s how badly the Flames are crashing and burning (no pun intended). Besides, the Hawks are totally the western equivalent of the Penguins, an up-until-recently forgotten franchise with 2 young superstars, so you have to cheer for them. Until they reach the Finals, in which case 1992 is back on and they’re going down.

P is for Latrobe.

by holiday park on Apr 14, 2009 9:44 PM EDT reply actions

goaltending is the key

I give a slight edge to the Flyers’ forwards, a miniscule edge to the Pens’ defensemen, and the edge to Fleury. I just can’t believe in Biron or Nittymaki.

But that also suggests potential upsets: the Rangers and Blue Jackets.

Pens in 7. Ugly series.

by Doc Nagel on Apr 14, 2009 9:47 PM EDT reply actions

Good point Doc, the uglier and more physical it gets, I believe the advantage goes to Philly.

The Pens have coasted after installing Byslma as interim coach, but we still haven’t seen how they’ll do after getting popped in the mouth like the Flyers will surely try to do.

I think I give more of an advantage to the Pens forwards than you do, but it could swing the other way if Philly survives the early rush. Anything could happen in the second season so we’ll see. If Pittsburgh jumps out big and protects home ice for a 2-0 lead I think it’ll be a short series…But if the Flyers steal a game early—and they are capable of it—buckle up, it could be a bumpy ride.

by Hooks Orpik on Apr 14, 2009 10:19 PM EDT up reply actions

The Pens have guys like cooke that hit, and don’t take too many penalties. I was looking at Philly’s lineup and they only have 2 forwards 220 and over. they have carcillo and cote who are mean but there will be disciplen on the pens part, they’ll hit they’ll scrum after the whistle in front of the net and behind the boards, but maybe 2 fights the whole series tops. Fighting = losing in the playoffs. The Pens Skating and pace will wear out the flyers. 4 deep lines, skating furiously with annoying grit from cooke, kennedy, crosby, kunitz, guerin. Talbot, adams if they need him. Staal 6"4 will match up with 5"9 Claude Giroux= phillys 3rd line insignificant. I’m so Jacked up for this series. Philly’s D men are smaller then the pens, they will get worn down.

Phili B

by ColeHarbour on Apr 15, 2009 4:06 AM EDT up reply actions

You’ve touched on a good point: discipline will be very important in this series. We saw a few weeks ago, in the 3-1 loss to Philly, how the Pens were capable of losing their cool playing against a physical opponent (e.g., Gonchar’s double minor, Staal’s nasty unpenalized slash). I don’t think you’ll see much of guys like Cote, Carcillo, or Godard in the series (you could make a case that it’s a waste to dress any of them); fighting is pretty irrelevant in the playoffs, and you need to have 20 guys out there that can really play; teams agitate, and intimidate by physical play, rather than fight. This is where we’ll really need leadership from Kunitz and Guerin; both are veterans of winning teams that kept their heads cool while playing very physical styles. It’s critical for Pittsburgh that those 2 have a great series.

I see it playing out like this: if either team wins game 1 in a blowout, it’ll suck the life out of the other team and the series will be over quickly. More likely, I think we’ll see a long nail-biter of a series, with 6 or 7 tight, low-scoring games. But I still take the Pens in that type of series, between the tools they have, their edge in goal, and the level and consistency of their play right now.

P is for Latrobe.

by holiday park on Apr 15, 2009 9:27 AM EDT up reply actions

As soon as the match-ups were known I picked Boston, NY, Carolina, Pens…
and San Jose, Detroit, Vancouver, Chicago…
Real possibilities in my mind going against my initial picks…
Flames have a whack of key players back from injury this week, I wouldn’t be surprised if that and Iggy’s veteran leadership pulls them through this series.
Washington just may pull this off, as much as I cringe, Ovie has the ability to ignite fire and finishing second in points, he just may be that much more flammable due to anger.

on my wish list, but not holding my breath…
Clearly… Columbus to knock off Detroit, I hear the hangover is worse the older you are.
Montreal to knock off the Bruins, as much as I dislike MTL and their fans, it is kinda their birthday, I would’nt mind them being a potential target for Pitt to send home crying.

by AngelaMc on Apr 14, 2009 10:13 PM EDT reply actions

If you want to talk about the Pens/Flyers series and are a Pens fan, come and join the new forum…http://www.everythingpittsburgh.net!

I think this is going to be a bigger series than any of the others simply because of the teams involved. They just hate each other, plain and simple. It is going to be a hard-hitting fast paced game. It will be played by the definition of great hockey and I can’t wait to watch!

I see the Pens and the Flames in the finals…We will see though!

http://everythingpittsburgh.net
[IMG]http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm104/toad268/EverythingPittsburgh15.png[/IMG]

by toad268 on Apr 14, 2009 11:35 PM EDT reply actions

I’m not going to the place of ‘past the first round’, but if that were the case, I have so many favours owed, I would so get to see those games live. Don’t make me cheer for the Flames up to the final for that, brat ; )

by AngelaMc on Apr 15, 2009 12:30 AM EDT up reply actions

playoff pics

Boston in 5 montreal doesn’t belong, but boston will have trouble getting up for one or two games. tim thomas isnt marty.

Caps in 4 reason for this is i feel the capitals are going to be fired up and have no problem getting up for games, goaltending with be solid enough to hold off new yorks already weak offense, and trades and team unity won’t be there, avery will cause more problems then good in playoffs, and mike green will have a points party this series. look for caps scoring 2-3 goals and waiting for new york to generate a rush.

flames in 7 before you bash me for being different, hear me out. i think chicagos resurgence is warranted, however the flames have a long awaited playoff run due in calgary. for the same reasons i dismiss the rangers, i feel the flames will struggle [much like late in the season]. Jarome and Olli will hit a stride, and I give Kiprusoff the bid in goal. Kane and Toews to displace a similar flash of brilliance offensively. [malkin and crosby]

flyers in 6 i’m biased. and i’m hoping giroux takes more shots then passes. if giroux can beat fleury, i think he’ll be the x-factor in this series for the flyers, other than that, its a dogfight, and the reason for 6 is, if the flyers do take the series, It would HAVE TO BE in 6.

Vancouver in 6 solid goal tending, usually is worth a series, despite how much irony exists in osgood winning a cup with the wings.

red wings in 6, damn it. Columbus is a year away from getting serious. Mason is stellar but not enough, and red wings will realize their vulnerable.

sharks in 5 coincidentally i see alot of sharks games on the east coast, csn philadelphia plays them for whatever reason. i think the ducks have the experience, and have some momentum which is why i think the ducks will take the first game, but from there on out, it’s all sharks

carolina in 6 marty versus cam ward, logic says marty, fate says ward. this is straight up goaltender series. not too much offense to talk about besides the obvious streaking carolina and slumping devils, but playoffs are a whole new beast.

by kolparty on Apr 15, 2009 9:47 AM EDT reply actions

Pitt in 6 The Flyers will not give up easy but the pens will come out on top
Bruins in 7 Even-thought the Canadians are week this classic series will go 7
Carolina in 5 The lack-luster efforts but the devils these days will end their season and Lou will make his appearance behind the bench in the post season. lol
NYR in 6 I just really think even with all their fire power the Caps will not be able to keep the puck out of their own net.

Black hawks in 6 The Flames will ride the bobble-head trade right out of the play-offs
Ducks in 6 I just don’t see the Sharks taking a bite out of the play-offs
CBJ in 6 Just becuase of this guts feeling that the kids can full of a major first round up-set.
Vancouver in 6 As much as I want to say the Blues in 6 I don’t think they have what it takes to upset Van

Lifes rough, wear a helment

by lambofgad on Apr 15, 2009 12:20 PM EDT reply actions

hahaha still love the bobblehead references.

Follow the Penguins on SBN @ Pensburgh.com

by FrankD on Apr 15, 2009 12:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Predictions

Mine are this:
WEST
Sharks in 5: there the number 1 team in the west to lose now would be a waste
Redwings in 5: As much as I would love to see columbus beat detriot, detriot is just too good of a team to be playing a first year playoff team to lose
Vancouver in 5: the blues are just there for the show, they might be hot but its going to run out
Calgary in 6: the flames are a physical team and are going to be the bullies to this young chicago team and beat them up good
EAST
Boston in 5: boston is too good for the 100th year canadians
Rangers in 6: Caps are going to get knocked off there high horse by the rangers and new coach
Devils in 5: Marty is too good and the canes went into the playoffs on a low point losing 2 in a row and falling to 6th it will continue into the playoffs
Penguins in 6: It will be an awesome series and a war but the pens will once again be the better team in PA. Biron hasnt shown us anything to worry about. And we get to see what bylsma can do in the playoffs on a higher and brighter stage.
there we have it my predictions