i guess we can use this for the whole series?
random sprinkles of crap i guess...
first and foremost today is "hockey day" in my office. if you work for me you can wear jeans and something hockey related. i figured we do it for ohio state football why not right? cant hurt, and maybe it will put a smile on a face or two around here....
face offs-theyll be critical as i mentioned. the addition of vermette has helped columbus a lot. manyy can win at a high % but youll notice he specializes on one side of the ice, vermette gives them the ability to win on both sides and is actually stonrger on the other side. draper is awesome on the draw and datsyuk/zetterberg catn complain their. faceoffs lead to puck poession and that leads to good things. if columbus holds the wings to the mid-low 50s thats a win.
goaltending-the youngster vs the wiley playoff vet. osgood has an mo. nogood in the regular season and then finds it, hes done it before, who knows. mase is a kid. he cant even drink. what you see is babcock now saying, "eh hes ok, weve got him figured out" thats yanking on a dogs chain. mason has had his chain yanked before. mase isnt the kind of kid to bark back, welll see if the dog bites when his cage has been rattled. (sure you can point to jrs and what not but thats a whole different level).
defencement-you have multi time allstar and norris trophies against a "bunch of journeyman" according to babcock. the top pairing journeyman in columbus has been successfull pairing, big, physical and tough to play against, keeping guys wide and clearing pucks. dont expect the hejda/commie pairing to generate offense. you know what you have on the red wings blue line, i dont think anyone can question that. you have an older lad who is as good as anyone in the league, maybe the best defenceman to ever play the game in lidstrom.
forwards-the top two lines are basically an all star team. fact. columbus has malhotra on the top pivot. the only star columbus has is nash, you know the point per game player, the one second in the league in no pp goals (34 to ovies 37), a young man who has played in the olympics, mvp of world championships, yet has never proven anything in lord stanleys playoffs. hitch has instilled a work ethic, a mentality of a young stevie y, sakic, etc in young nash, will nash play every zone, every minute, and every second of every shift as needed? the best player has to be your best player in all aspects of the game. a 25 year old aww shucks kid who according to him has never made a play, remember the goal in phx, that wasnt his takeaway or moves undressing two defenders and a netminder, remember what he said-it was the pass that set it all up, amazing pass, the rest "just happened" that pass was a whack out towards centre ice that nash won a foot race for. the question is can the captain, the leading scorer the leader strap the team to his back.
*no offense aimed at umberger/vermette/juice/jake, etc. those guys will be needed. no doubt but nash will have to will this team past a superior skilled red wings team.
speciality teams-wings. no doubt. columbus pk has been running hot/cold all year, the wings pp is 25.5%, unreal. cbj power play is dead last in the league, 4th in the west since the asg. wings.
coaching-babs will line his team up toe to toe and just play. strength agains whatever you put out there. hitch will juggle lines, play a matchup game. imo, hitch is the better bench boss, babs has fire superiority.
intangibles-wings. a bazillion cups on the team.
style of play-if columbus plays a tight checking game, keeps the game wide (towards the boards) in the def zone, gets traffic on net, pucks in deep at the other end, plays a physical hockey series they have a shot. the margin of error is razor thin. hitch will need his troops marching in exact step to have a shoot. if its a puck poession series, wings win. if its in between, wings win.
other-hockey is a team game. but individual performances can steal games. look at umbergers play last year, his playoff play needs to be repeated, mason was undefeated last year in his 5 playoff games with the kitchener rangers in the ohl playoffs, mvp of wjrc, nash has had his runs on the big stage, commie, peca, torres, etc have all put together great games, series. thats what it will take.
my take-wings in six.