Round 2 has some of the best matchups you could ask for

Those of you who follow hockey as well as I do will likely agree with my title. It has a rematch of Chicago and Vancouver that will have some beautifully physical play, the kind that you only see in the playoffs. These 2 teams hate eachother and the Canucks captain Roberto Loungo was crying when he allowed 7 goals in the game 6 that had the Canucks eliminated last year. This time I believe that the tables will turn and the blackhawks will be leaving 2 rounds sooner then they would like. I say this because I think that Roberto Loungo is going to be amazing, and he has 4 forward lines that are producing better then the chicago lines are.

Philly and Boston is a rematch between the winter classic teams for the second year in a row (last year Detriot and Chicago) will meet in the playoffs. I thought that neither of these teams would be in round 2 and I was wrong. So now I am going to say that Boston will win this series in 6 games. The main reason I voted Philly off of the island last round was because their goalie was 3rd string and playing against Martin Brouduer. This match up isnt going to come to goaltending, it will come down to how well the forwards play as both teams are missing some of their top scorers and will be needing now more then ever some production from their depth players.

I am had a pretty decent chuckle at one of my earlier blog post where I said that the 8th seed of the eastern confrence would NOT be going to round 2. I was wrong and for the second year in a row the president trophy winner lost the first round. 3 days latter I still cant believe that the Washington Capitals have lost but it is what it is and now I am going to say that the Pittsburgh Penguins will win in 5 games.

I wont go to indepth with the Sharks and Red Wings because I pretty much made an intire blog post on that series alone but I will say that I am super happy that my room mate who doesnt like hockey (Tyler Juel) has duty on Sunday (game 2 day) so my more hockey friendly roomate (Giacalone) and I can watch the game on the big screen t.v.

Sharks agains the Red Wings...this could be bad

So it is now set in stone, the sharks will be facing the red wings in round 2 and this has got to be the worst matchup the sharks could have in round 2. The Red Wings had a 3-1 regular season record against the Sharks, and I believe that was there record during the regular season last year and 3 years ago the Sharks were eliminated by the Red Wings in 6 games. That makes the record 4-10 from there most recent games from what memorie serves.

I just have a bad feeling about this, to make matters even worse the top line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Danny Heatley that combined for about 83 goals throughout 82 regular season games has combined for 1 post season goal in 6 games. If the San Jose Sharks are to win this series the biggest thing that needs to change is the production from the big line. It has to step up to its regular season numbers or better.

The special teams are pretty even although I would give the edge to the red wings on the powerplay and say that the sharks are better penalty killers. Another advantage for the sharks would be that they were the least penalized team in round 1, if they can keep that up then I would say that the sharks have the all around better special teams for this round.

I am saying that the sharks will win in 5 games, Nabokov will be stunning in goal and the big line will be offensively productive, after winning the first 2 games the Red Wings will know that they arent going to be able to win the series and wont.

round 2! Its been a while...

Okay so i struck out when i guessed that philly would lose to New Jersey but I was correct in saying that the Pittsburgh Penguins would defeat the Senators and more importantly I was correct in predicting that the San Jose Sharks would defeat the Colorado Avalanche.

The sharks scored 5 or more goals in 3 of the 6 games and Nabokov (with the exception of allowing 3 goals on 4 shots in period 2 of game 2) has been extremely solid and has given his team a chance to win every game. Looking back on the series, the arguement could be made that the sharks should have swept the avalanche. The sharks just had 2 extremely unlucky bounces go against them and that is why it went to 6 games.

The sharks powerplay was extremely good chipping in 5 goals on 26 (19%) powerplay opportunities, there penalty kill only allowed 2 goals on 15 chances (87%), if the sharks can keep the special teams working so well there is no reason to think that they can't win the cup.

Next up for the sharks to sink there sharp playoff teeth on: Nashville, Los Angelas, Detriot or Phoenix. Essintally half of the teams in the western confrence playoffs might be visiting the shark tank in the coming week and we will have no idea for sure who we will be playing until Monday night at the soonest. I am personally hoping to face the Nashville Predators because we have a 2-0 playoff record against them, that means that they Chicago blackhawks would be out of the playoff picture and they (just like the Avalanche) lack any kind of scoring forward.

Now I can watch the rest of what has been a spectacular first round with no stress :) I will be just like the sharks taking a day or two to rest (The rest will only be a menatl one as I still have lots of work coming to me this week on the Sycamore).

I would just like to note that after watching the game, i got an email from my Naylene saying that the sharks won! In capital letters too, so obviously she was happy for me :) it made my day knowing that she knows my passion and is willing to help me keep up to date with it.

New house and room

bathroom floor

shelves that I made
my full closet

my room with a canuck towel for some reason? :)

this wall is more like it :)

So for those of you who are well informed with my life you know that because of one reason or another i have had to move to a new house. Here are some pics of the place, I love the place so far and my room feels like a real bed room.

Why the sharks will beat the avalanche

The sharks will beat the avalanche in the stanley cup playoffs this year because:

The sharks have the superior special teams in comparison to the avalanche, including a powerplay that clicks 3% more often and a penalty kill that stops the puck an allarming 5% more often.

The colorado avalnche have no one on their team with over 30 goals, the sharks have 2 such players in Patrick Marleau (44 was a career high) and Danny Heatley (39 was actually a disapointment considering he spent much of the season playing with Joe Thornton). You can easily make the conclussion that the sharks will be scoring more goals then the avalanche in this series.

The sharks have a better goalie. Evgeni Nabokov finished the season with 44 wins and only lost in regulation 16 times through 70 starts. Those numbers are simply jaw dropping and even though I would give the vezina trophy (awarded to the top goaltender in the league as voted by the 30 general managers at the end of the season) to about 3 goalies before giving it to Nabokov i would say that Nabokov has been the most consistent goalie this year by far.

So there you have it, I think that these 3 reasons alone justify why the sharks will beat the avalanche in 5 games. Of course, i have been wrong before in saying that the sharks will advance past round 1.....

The Sharks will get past round 1 this year

So the stanley cup playoffs are FINALLY here again, for us shark fans it has been a really long time since the ducks eliminated us in 6 games. 28/April/2009 was the last day that the sharks got to compete for the stanley cup.

So here are my predictions for round one of the playoffs this year:

Western Confrence

Sharks over the Avalanche in 5 games
Blackhawks over the Predators in 6 games
Vancouver over the Kings in 7 games
Coyotes fall to the Red Wings in 6 games

Eastern Confrence

Capitals over the Canadien in 5 games
Devils over the Flyers in 7 games
Sabers over the bruins in 7
Pengiuns over the Senators in 6 games

I will explain why I pick who to beat who in another post, right now i have to get my laundry.

Its that time of the year again

So when I say "its that time of the year again" I mean that the Stanley Cup playoffs are just around the corner, 12 of the 16 playoff teams have already been decided ( including 7 out of 8 in the western confrence) and most teams have 4 or less games left in the season before the "real season" starts.

Now for those of you who know me, I am a very passionate San Jose Shark fan and will be cheering for them throughout the entire playoffs and to their first Stanley Cup. Thats right, I am already going to say that the SJ Sharks will win the Stanley Cup this year. They will have a photo that looks something like this:

I am however getting too far ahead of myself, one of my favourite rounds of the stanley cup playoffs would be round 1 because everyone is fresh and there are 16 teams alive and kicking. For the most part if you make it into the playoffs you can make a prety decent arguement on why you can make it to round 2 or even further. The exception would be in the eastern confrence where whom ever gets the 8th seed is going to face the Washington Capitals. I am going to say right now that the 8th seed in the eastern confrence wont make it to round 2.

So once the final seeds have been planted for both confrences I will make another blog post on who I think will win and in how many games.