Red Wings First to Move on, Rangers Stave off Elimination

Somewhere in "Okieland" Brian Kates is smiling.

My fellow Bleacherreport columnist has not been heard from in a few days, apparently unable to put into words the ease with which the Detroit Red Wings have dispatched with their bitter rivals, the Colorado Avalanche.

Detroit was coldly efficient in this series, keeping shots off Osgood (a good policy with his penchant for giving up the soft goal) while putting a plethora of them on the Avs net.  Tonight, Johan Franzen alone outscored the entire Avs team, getting his first playoff hat trick that included a short-handed goal.

They may be old, but they will be much more rested than their opponent is likely to be: Dallas faces a tough game five at the Shark Tank, and the Sharks face a mountainous climb if they are going to make it to the next round. 

In all likelihood, they will get a Dallas team that survived a small scare and had three days' fewer rest.  Moreover, the Stars are not much younger and will have played more physical teams to get to the Conference Finals. 

With the Wings at the Joe, they have a better chance of representing the West than San Jose and Dallas combined.  Detroit has almost all the pieces: deep, skilled forward lines, the best blue line outside of Anaheim, experience...they only lack the top-tier goaltender.  

So far in this post-season, the Vezina finalists have looked positively, well, Osgood-like.  Thanks to each of them staving off getting swept in the past 30 hours, Evgeni Nabokov and Henrik Lundqvist are still alive. 

Barely. 

Nabokov looked good in both games in Dallas, but his team did not in the first road game.  With the more skilled team and getting two of three at home, the Sharks have a shot at keeping the 33-year cycle of 3-0 series comebacks going.  But his team will have to be focused for a full 60 minutes (or more), something they have shown an inability to do thus far.

Meanwhile, Lundqvist finally figured out how to stop Pittsburgh, earning a shutout in New York's 3-0 win.  But anyone who is not a Rangers' fan as well as most who are know this series is over because Pittsburgh gets two of the final three at home. 

I am very disappointed in my Stanley Cup pick.  On the plus side, they won without Avery in the lineup, so maybe I won't have to hear how this knucklehead is the key to their success.

One has to believe Montreal will win game five, but Philadelphia looks like the superior team in that series. 

In all likelihood, both "Battle of Pennsylvania" teams will have a similar number of days off between series.  The question is will Pittsburgh, who would appear to have the clear edge, take long enough to win that series to avoid the 2006 Detroit Tigers' syndrome? 

That was also a young team that had many days to wait until getting their competitor was determined.  During that time, they realized where they were and what was at stake and got anxious.  It showed in their play.

If that happens to Pittsburgh, Brian Kates is going to be insufferable.