After a season fraught with injuries to top stars, coaching controversies, and several violent on-ice incidents, it is time for the players to settle it all on the ice. The quest for Lord Stanley's Cup begins in earnest tonight.
The field is fairly wide open this season, with no clear favorite to win the prize. There are plenty of questions on the tip of every hockey fan's tongue as we prepare for an exciting two months leading to one team drinking from the holy grail of hockey.
Is this Ray Bourque's year to finally win it, now that he has left the firetrap that is the Boston Bruins franchise? Will the New Jersey Devils continue their spring tradition of bowing out in the early rounds? Will the West continue its recent Stanley Cup dominance over the East for the fifth straight year?
The East
The former Wales Conference offers eight teams that hypothetically have a shot to make the finals. The first-place Philadelphia Flyers drew a tough match-up by facing the Buffalo Sabres in the first round. Even a casual fan of hockey knows that Dominik Hasek can dominate a game like no other, and has a history of leading strong playoff runs. Philly will have to face the Dominator without Eric Lindros, who has been MIA for the latter part of the season with a concussion. This is no small task for a team that has seen its share of turmoil over the last few months. In the end, the Flyers will end up asking the hockey gods what they did to deserve the wrath of Satan (Miroslav, that is), and will fall in seven games.
The Washington- Pittsburgh series is yet another match-up that could go either way. The Penguins took the regular season series 3-1, but as I mentioned, this has very little bearing on the playoffs. The main question is whether Jaromir Jagr has recovered 100 percent from his groin pull. Without Jagr on top of his game, the Pens won't be able to match the firepower of Chris Simon, Adam Oates, Sergei Gonchar and the rest of the Capitals. My call: Caps in six games.
In the Battle of Ontario, the Toronto Maple Leafs will fight the Ottawa Senators over bragging rights in their province. The Senators boast few big-name stars, but possess a well-balanced attack led by a quartet of Europeans: Radek Bonk, Daniel Alfredsson, Vaclav Prospal and Marian Hossa. However, the Leafs have a big name goalie and scorer in their favor. Led by Curtis Joseph and Mats Sundin the Leafs will be victorious in six.
Perhaps it is just as well that the New Jersey Devils slipped near the end and ended up as a fourth seed. The last three years the Devils have entered the playoffs as prohibitive favorites, only to be humbled in the first or second round. Will this year be any different? The Panthers are a more palatable opponent than the Sabres or the Penguins, and the Devils realize they lucked out. Martin Brodeur, Jason Arnott, Ken Daneyko and the rest of the playoff-tested Devils will advance with surprising ease in five games.
The West
Is St. Louis for real? This year's surprise power comes into the playoffs as the best team in the NHL. Solid from top to bottom, the Blues have a standout goalie in Roman Turek, an imposing defense with Al MacInnis and Chris Pronger and a speedy offense led by Pierre Turgeon. The San Jose Sharks will be lucky if they can squeeze one win out of their opponents. Blues over Sharks in five games.
The defending Stanley Cup champ Dallas Stars once again turned in an impressive campaign, proving that last year was no fluke. Fielding pretty much the same roster as last year's champs, the Stars have enough fuel to make another run. They face a gritty Edmonton team, that could give them a scare. While the Oilers are not the same team Wayne Gretzky led to greatness in the 1980's, they have enough spunk to bring Dallas to seven games before falling.
Despite the bad news that Super Swede Peter Forsberg is out indefinitely with a separated shoulder, the Colorado Avalanche should have little problem dispatching the Phoenix Coyotes. The addition of Ray Bourque puts the finishing touches on a team that was already scary, with the likes of Joe Sakic and Chris Drury on offense and Patrick Roy in net. The Massachusetts connection of Jeremy Roenick and Keith Tkachuk can't carry the Coyotes past the Aves, and they will fall in six games.
If there is anything to know about Scotty Bowman and the Detroit Red Wings, it is that you shouldn't count them out. Detroit is stocked with veterans of previous playoff wars, and more importantly, the back-to-back Stanley Cup winners in 1997 and 1998. This is not a factor to be overlooked in the playoffs.
Their opponents, the LA Kings, possess a not-so secret weapon in Ziggy Palfy, who possesses both the coolest name in hockey and a sweet scoring touch. He is not enough to stem the Red tide. Detroit will win in six games.
And the Winner Is?
Finally it's his. After over twenty years in the NHL, one of the greatest ever, Raymond Bourque, will finally reach the Holy Land. No. 77 lifting the Cup over his head with any shirt but the Bruins may have seemed inconceivable just a few weeks ago. Yet, this will come true as Bourque and his newly adopted comrades will sip from the Cup two months from now.
The Aves will face a worthy opponent in the Maple Leafs, who will make them earn their reward, in the form of a hard-fought seven game series. For the fifth straight year, the Western Conference proves its dominance.
