Yesterday I wrote my predictions regarding the Eastern Conference results for Round One and today I give you my forecast for the "wild west."
Detroit Red Wings (first) vs Nashville Predators (eighth)
This series is all about respect. The Predators have been in the NHL now for over ten years and they are well aware of their conference rival's hockey heritage.
As Jason Arnott, the captain of the Preds stated earlier this week: "You only have to look at our rivalry and how healthy and respectful it is, they don't call it Hockeytown, USA for nothing, as a team, man-for-man we respect them."
This season the rivalry could not have been played any closer. The teams split the regular season with Detroit outscoring Nashville 20 to 19.
The Predators are a team very capable of beating the Wings. They possess four twenty-plus goal scorers in Jason Arnott, Alex Radulov, Martin Erat and JP Dumont.
The Red Wings are loaded for battle with veterans Pavel Datsyuk (97 pts), Henrik Zetterberg (92 pts) and Niklas Lidstrom leading the defense core with 70 points.
The youthful exhuberance of Nashville will win them at least one game and their fan base at home may win them two; however, this series will come down to goaltending. (Boy isn't that something new!)
Dominek Hasek and Chris Osgood have played in combined 202 playoff games whereas the Predators tandem of Dan Ellis and Chris Mason have played a total of five postseason games.
Respect aside, this series may go six games at the most.
Mark Predicts: Detroit in five
San Jose Sharks (second) vs Calgary Flames (seventh)
The question that will be answered soon enough in this series is: Can the Calgary Flames extinguish the red hot San Jose Sharks?
The Sharks come into the playoffs as the hottest team in professional sports. They finished the last quarter of the season on a mission. Their record of 16 wins and two losses, combined with two overtime losses (that they easily could have won) will make the Sharks a formidable foe as these playoffs roll on.
Led by captain Joe Thornton and the recently acquired mobile defenceman Brian Campbell, the Sharks are well equipped to eat up some prey. Evgeni Nabokov had a career season in net for San Jose. He had a personal and league best 46 wins and had a stellar 2.14 GAA. Nabokov is more than capable of winning this series all by himself.
These two teams have played each other twice in the postseason before and are one and one all-time.
The Flames on the other hand have the best player playing in this series. Captain Jerome Iginla and his 50 goal season put him only second to Alex Ovechkin and his 65 goals for leading the NHL in goals scored.
Mikka Kiprusoff will have to be "all world" in goal if the Flames are to burn the Sharks. Head coach and former Cup winner Mike Keenan will have to draw up some serious game plans if San Jose is to be denied a second round visit in this year's road to the Stanley Cup.
Mark Predicts: Sharks in six
Minnesota Wild (third) vs Colorado Avalanche
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