Chicago and Pittsburgh are the heavy co-favorites for the Stanley Cup and each has responded differently in its first two games. The Blackhawks are in command, the Penguins are facing a challenge and both will be in the NBC spotlight on Sunday afternoon when the postseason’s sequence of Game 3s begins at noon EST. We’ll start with these two teams and then move through the other six NHL playoff matchups.
The St. Louis-Los Angeles series, along with Anaheim-Detroit—the only other first-round pairing to have already played two games—will lead our discussion, and we’ll then sweep through the other six matchups.
The puck drops on the drive for the Stanley Cup on Tuesday night. Our last piece of pre-playoff NHL analysis will be final predictions and a review of the betting lines.
The NHL playoffs get rolling on Tuesday night, and in today’s NHL analysis we’re previewing the first-round matchups. This post will focus on the four series in the Western Conference. We’ll begin with capturing each series in a soundbite and then move to fuller discussion.
The NHL playoffs begin Tuesday night. Today’s NHL analysis will preview the four first-round matchups in the Eastern Conference, starting with one point that summarizes each series in a nutshell and then moving into fuller analysis.
It’s time to decide who should win the Hart Memorial Trophy, awarded to the league’s MVP. A goaltender hasn’t won the trophy since 2002. I think it’s time for that streak to end this year and believe the case for Ottawa’s Craig Anderson is virtually airtight.
The Detroit Red Wings have been a playoff fixture. They’ve been in the postseason every year since 1990, a period that includes four Stanley Cup championships. But with six days left in the compressed regular season of 2013, the Red Wings are on the outside looking in, a point out of the 8-seed in the Western Conference. Today we’ll look at why
The Washington Capitals turned their season around back in mid-March, and aided by the poor quality of play in the Southeast Division, the Caps now stand poised to win the division in this final week of the regular season. TheSportsNotebook’s NHL analysis will look at how Washington got themselves to this point, and the road that lies ahead.
The unlikeliest contender is the Columbus Blue Jackets. The franchise has only made the postseason one time since coming into existence in 2001. That was four years ago and they lost in the first round. So it’s understandable, with the team now tied for the final playoff berth, that the locals might be excited about something more than college football for a change.
Today we’re going to take a look at Ottawa, who seems to have their playoff berth reasonably in hand with 11 days to go in the regular season. We’ll also check in on Winnipeg, who is chasing either the 8-seed and final playoff berth, or the title in the weak Southeast Division, which would be default move them up to the 3-spot.
It’s been an up-and-down year for the San Jose Sharks—which is saying something, because the compressed schedule wouldn’t seem to lend itself to a lot of ups and downs. But with the season entering its final two weeks, the Sharks’ roller-coaster is at the top. They’re in fifth in the Western Conference, with a comfortable seven-point margin between them and the playoff borderline. For today’s NHL analysis, we’ll examine their strengths and weaknesses and see if this the San Jose team that can finally reach the Finals.
The Minnesota Wild have had a less than stellar history since their founding prior to the 2001 season. The franchise has only made the playoffs three times, the last of which was five years ago. But the strike-shortened year of 2013 has been good to the Wild, and they’re tied for first in the Northwest Division—with powerhouse Vancouver no less—and in third in the Western Conference overall. Today’s NHL analysis will look at whether or not the Wild is the real deal, after an offseason where they splurged on free agents.