Your Western Conference Picks
Pick your playoff teams. The Western Conference is on a three-season STANLEY CUP drought, with Scotty Bowman’s Red Wings being the last team to hoist the CUP for the West, defeating Paul Maurice’s gritty Hurricanes. With perhaps the greatest goaltending division in the history of the NHL in the Northwest with Kipper, Luongo, Theodore, Roloson and Fernandez, , could five teams from a single division all make it to the playoffs. With other goalie stars like Turco, Vokoun and Joseph, it’ll be a dog fight every game in the West. Perhaps the wide-open hockey it has been known in the past has changed, and a defence first approach era has begunCentral W L OT PTS
z-Detroit 58 16 8 124
x-Nashville 49 25 8 106
Columbus 35 43 4 74
Chicago 26 43 13 65
St. Louis 21 46 15 57
Northwest W L OT PTS
y-Calgary 46 25 11 103
x-Colorado 43 30 9 95
x-Edmonton 41 28 13 95
Vancouver 42 32 8 92
Minnesota 38 36 8 84
Pacific W L OT PTS
y-Dallas 53 23 6 112
x-San Jose 4 27 11 99
x-Anaheim 43 27 12 98
Los Angeles 42 35 5 89
Phoenix 38 39 5 81
My picks for the 2006-2007 Playoffs.
1. Anaheim
2. Nashville
3. Calgary
4. San Jose
5. Dallas
6. Edmonton
7. Vancouver
8. Phoenix
Pacific
Dallas – lots of veteran leadership, Turco can get wins in the regular season. Could this be the year Turco sheds his underachiever label?
Anaheim – Who’ll win the Norris, Neidermeyer or Pronger? Pronger changed his number to 25, because brother Robbie has 44. Could there be the curse of the number change? It’ll be the only thing that could slow down the Ducks. Still have lots of depth at forward, and they are young and hungry, look out. Probably the early season Cup favorite.
San Jose – Teams know what they got, and still can’t stop them. Thornton and Cheechoo are magic, but do they have the Defence to win the division?
Phoenix – I’ve got them in the playoffs because I never bet against Gretzky. Jovo is that good, he’ll bring the Jam from the defence the Coyotes missed and take a load off of Nagy and Doan. Good defence, maybe need some more offence.
Central
Nashville – the little guy team, if they make the Cup finals against Buffalo Don Cherry will have a fit. The weak sisters in the division improved, while Detroit got worse. Nashville is still the best team in the division however. A model franchise for building a solid team.
Northwest
Calgary – the best Defensive team in hockey. Grittiest team in hockey. Best player and Captain in hockey in Iginla. Added offence will give them that little bit of separation they need to win the division. If they work like they did last year, with the added goals from Tanguay, they’ll win the division.
Edmonton – maybe the best forward group of any team. Roloson will stabilize the team and they won’t be constantly battling from behind like they were last season. We all now how much heart the have, lose of Pronger is huge, but he didn’t get it going until late in the season with his injuries, will be missed, but nobody fills holes better then the Oilers.
Vancouver – completely different team, with a coach with alot to prove. How will Naslund respond to Bert being traded, and is Morrison really a mouse who was carried by Naslund and Bertuzzi during the ‘Nucks playoff years? lose of Jovo is huge, but the defense first philosophy with Luongo between the pipes will get them in. Who’ll fill in for Carter on the Twin-Aliens line?
Sorry –
Detroit – just sensing the time has come for a rebuilding process. Lots of great parts, but they won’t add up to a successful machine to make the playoffs. I’m probably wrong on this one, but its just a hunch.
Colorado – Old GM left new GM holding the bag. Theo will have to be an MVP goalie again to get Colorado in. He’s outmatched against the other goalies in the division. hate to see Sakic miss the playoffs, and I’m probably wrong on this one, but just don’t have enough to get points within their division.
Minny – Fernadez isn’t good enough to get them in. Solid defence, but even with Demitra not enough offence.
St. Louis – improved, but need a goalie.
L.A. – great coach, good defence, not enough weapons to get in.
Chicago – see Havlat skate, see Havlat score. See Ruutu improve. See rest of team be out of shape by game 20 of season. See coach freak out and bust a blood vessel 82 times.