Playoff preview, day one

Let’s start in the West.

Detroit Red Wings v Nashville Predators.
Certainly, no one expected the Predators to be holding onto a playoff spot before the season started, but they gritted out a strong season and now they’ll face the President’s Trophy-winning Red Wings. Some reward.
Being NCAA tournament season and all, everyone loves a Cinderella, it’s just doubtful the Predators can wear those slippers against this Wings team.
The Wings have the same strong offensive attack they’ve always had, and they’ve been stingier than ever, giving up a paltry 184 goals this season.
If the Wings have any weakness, it may be their penalty killing-- the one area the team finished outside the top five. That said, Nashville’s middling offense turns into a pop-gun offense when they have the man advantage. The Preds had the league’s fourth-worst power play in 2008.
Then there’s this: I’ve seen a guy named Dov Gromet-Morris win more games in the American League than I ever saw Dan Ellis win there (0-6 in games I saw). Sure, minor league success, or lack thereof, doesn’t necessarily translate to the NHL level, but I can’t put too much faith in a guy with that stat facing a future Hall of Famer like Dominik Hasek.
Red Wings in five.

San Jose Sharks v Calgary Flames.
For selfish reasons, I would love to see the Flames go all the way to the Final. Realistically, though, I just don’t see them getting past these Sharks.
Despite low individual scoring totals, and despite finishing in the bottom half of the league in team scoring, the Sharks managed to post the second-best points total in the NHL with 108.
Rather than smoke and mirrors, the Sharks relied on Evgeni Nabokov, whose superlative season should leave him in the Vezina Trophy hunt. His 46 wins led the league and 2.14 goals-against average was third best. In addition, the Sharks had a knack all season long for getting their way out of trouble, posting the best penalty killing percentage in the league. Their top-10 power play also made teams pay for giving them the man advantage.
As it were, the Flames had the league’s 10th-worst penalty kill, and found themselves shorthanded more than every team except Anaheim. Only Atlanta, Carolina and Toronto gave up more power play goals than the Flames did.
Of course, for the Flames, it all comes down to Jarome Iginla and Mikke Kiprusoff’s performances. If Kipper gets hot, and Iggy can continue to drag this team with him, all bets are off.
Sharks in seven.

Minnesota Wild v Colorado Avalanche.
This series may actually be harder to handicap than the Washington-Philadelphia series, but I’ll give it a try.
Minnesota won the season series rather handily, going 5-2-1 against Colorado in 2008. But, just one of those wins was in Colorado. The Wild will have to find a way to win games in Denver if they’re going to win this series.
By the same token, Colorado’s 17 road wins were the fewest among playoff teams. So they’re also faced with the prospect of being forced to win on the road.
Are we actually witnessing the second coming of Jose Theodore in Colorado? Is Niklas Backstrom ready for the playoff spotlight?
Can we get the Minnesota Golden Gophers to play a seven-game series against the Denver Pioneers while we’re at it?
Here’s the fearless, and wildly unlikely prediction. As he did in 2003, Andrew Brunette will score the series-winning goal, but this time, he scores it for Colorado against his old team.
Colorado in seven.

Anaheim Ducks v Dallas Stars.
This is barely worth the effort it will take to type it out.
J-S Giguere is the second-best playoff goalie in the league. Marty Turco is one of the worst the league’s ever seen.
Sami Pahlsson is the second coming of Jere Lehtinen, who isn’t even a shell of his former self anymore.
Ryan Getzlaf v Mike Ribiero, you’re kidding right?
As much as I love Trevor Daley and rookie Matt Niskanen, and as solid as Stephane Robidas, Philippe Boucher, Matty Norstrom and Nicklas Grossman have been, I’d like to introduce you to Kent Huskins.
Huskins, who you’ve probably never heard of, posted a plus-23 rating this season. That’s equal to, or better than every single Star’s plus/minus.
Of course, watching Steve Ott try to goad Chris Pronger into a series-long suspension will be a lot of fun, and the most intriguing part of this series.
Anaheim in five.