2011 Stanley Cup playoffs Caps vs Rangers

Dear the loyal followers of "Sharks and Ships" The Stanley cup playoffs start today, and if you know me at all (and you do) then you know that this is my FAVOURITE 2 months a year. Playoff games are what the NHL is all about. Seriously. If you are like the Sharks, Canucks or Capitals you really have a 82 game preseason. Those teams (along with a few others) have some extremely high expectations and they should. Round 1 is my favourite round because its a fresh slate for all teams involved. That being said allow me to give my predictions with round 1, in the eastern confrence we have the Capitals and Rangers with the 1st and 8th seed respectively. This series is going to be a Capitals win because they have the advantage in every single department except goaltending. I like what the GM of the Capitals has done this year with this team, acquiring through trade Scott Hannan, Dennis Wideman and Jason Arnott. What these guys bring to this team is expeirience, leadership and they are all still very effective hockey players in their respective roles. Scott Hannan by the way is the only man left from the Sharks epic 5-3 penalty kill (during which we lost 2 sticks so it became a 5-2 pretty much) left in the NHL. Jason Arnott is a very tall and strong center who could be the Caps number 1 center on some nights. He is excited to be on this team after playing in some rather boring teams like the Predators and Devils (by boring I mean defence first) he is playing on a team that is very happy to score 6 goals even if it means giving up 1 or 2. The Rangers have essentially 1 thing going for them as I mentioned before and that is Henrick Lundquist. This guy is amazing. Simply put if I ever get my dream job of becoming a NHL GM and I ever get a goalie like him I am going to lock him down with a LONG term deal. Like 8 years or so. He gives you a chance to win every game, he can steal some games and one of my favourite stats from him is the fact that he leads the NHL with 11 shutouts. Basically every 6 games he doesnt allow a goal. No big deal. Except these games he is facing the best hockey players in the world. So unless Henrick pulls of a Halak (check youtube if you already dont know what this guy did in the playoffs last year) the Caps are going to win in 5.