NHL goes to the dogs
This is why they play the games, after all.
The NHL?s Eastern Conference has already decided which two teams will battle for a berth in the Stanley Cup finals. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres both advanced as big underdogs, eliminating the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators, respectively, in five games. There will be no rematch of the thrilling 2003 Eastern final between the Devils and Sens; instead, it?s Cam Ward vs. Ryan Miller.
This is one of those times when being a handicapper and being a hockey fan are difficult to reconcile. Although the ?Canes (2002) and the Sabres (1999) have been to the Stanley Cup finals in recent years, both clubs failed to capitalize on those breakthroughs, languishing in the lower regions of the Eastern standings until the ?new NHL? came along to resuscitate their fortunes. Neither team is, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, Stanley Cup material.
Or are they? When Buffalo?s Jason Pominville, a raw rookie at 6-feet and all of 178 pounds, danced around the bigger Senators and scored the shorthanded overtime winner in Game 5 to eliminate Ottawa, it wasn?t just another example of the Sens failing to live up to playoff expectations. It was a nail in the coffin of the old way of doing things: the trap, the left-wing lock, the can opener ? all the dreaded earmarks of clutch-and-grab hockey. Buffalo drove another nail in by bouncing the three-time Cup winners from New Jersey. The dismantling of teams like the Red Wings, Avalanche and Stars in the West wasn?t as dramatic, since that conference is deeper and more talented, but the message is the same. Speed kills.
Sharp hockey handicappers (we know you?re out there) were the ones that either buried their preconceived ideas of what a Stanley Cup contender looks like, or simply were dispassionate about the game to begin with and made their plays based purely on X?s and O?s. It?s not like the writing wasn?t on the wall: the Hurricanes were 52-22-8 this year, the third-best record in the league. Buffalo was fourth at 52-24-6. Still, there was plenty of money to be made on the underdogs during these playoffs.
Until now. All the chalk has already been leached from the postseason. The ?Canes and Sabres are both listed at +250 on the futures market to win the Stanley Cup. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are slight favorites at +220 after surviving the Calgary Flames in seven games on the way to sweeping Colorado. The winner of the series between the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers (Edmonton leads 3-2 heading into Wednesday?s Game 6) will presumably be priced in the same neighborhood. Any of these five teams could win the Cup; only Edmonton has been at the top of the mountain before, but not since 1990 when Mark Messier was still in town.
There is another common thread to this year?s postseason survivors ? one that will be familiar to baseball handicappers. We?ve seen enough evidence now to suggest that pitchers from the World Baseball Classic are indeed struggling to regain their stuff in the MLB regular season. There is a hockey parallel: The teams with the most players participating at the Winter Olympics in Turin have been eliminated. Those with the fewest are still around. Even there, the ?Canes and Sabres have gotten off lightly. Martin Gerber (Switzerland) has been capably replaced by Ward, while Miller (Team USA) was mysteriously buried on the U.S. taxi squad in favor of Rick DiPietro, John Grahame and Robert Esche. Fans in Ottawa (Dominik Hasek), Philadelphia (Peter Forsberg) and especially Vancouver (Sami Salo, Mattias Ohlund) will grudgingly tell you how their playoff chances were put through the grinder by Olympic injuries.
As for Wednesday?s tilt at Rexall Place between the hometown Oilers and the Sharks, Edmonton shocked the world by pummeling San Jose 6-3 at the Shark Tank to cash in as a +160 underdog. That?s two 6-3 victories in a row for the Oilers, blowing open what was a closely fought series in the first three games. The Oilers are favored at ?1?, +200 to wrap up the series in Game 6; the OVER is even money to eclipse 5 ? goals, with the UNDER priced at ?120.
In a postseason where hot goaltending is once again stealing the spotlight, Vesa Toskala has run out of steam. The rookie has been ventilated ever since coughing up the puck to Sergei Samsonov in Game 4; Samsonov scored the unassisted game-tying goal to turn Edmonton?s fortunes around. There had been some buzz that former Sharks hero Evgeni Nabokov could return to action in Game 6. However, Nabokov has played just twice since the end of March and has been fighting his own injuries (chest, shoulder, groin, abdomen) this season. Coach Ron Wilson has therefore chosen to stick with Toskala for Wednesday night.
The puck drops at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on OLN and CBC.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
This is why they play the games, after all.
The NHL?s Eastern Conference has already decided which two teams will battle for a berth in the Stanley Cup finals. The Carolina Hurricanes and Buffalo Sabres both advanced as big underdogs, eliminating the New Jersey Devils and Ottawa Senators, respectively, in five games. There will be no rematch of the thrilling 2003 Eastern final between the Devils and Sens; instead, it?s Cam Ward vs. Ryan Miller.
This is one of those times when being a handicapper and being a hockey fan are difficult to reconcile. Although the ?Canes (2002) and the Sabres (1999) have been to the Stanley Cup finals in recent years, both clubs failed to capitalize on those breakthroughs, languishing in the lower regions of the Eastern standings until the ?new NHL? came along to resuscitate their fortunes. Neither team is, from a purely aesthetic standpoint, Stanley Cup material.
Or are they? When Buffalo?s Jason Pominville, a raw rookie at 6-feet and all of 178 pounds, danced around the bigger Senators and scored the shorthanded overtime winner in Game 5 to eliminate Ottawa, it wasn?t just another example of the Sens failing to live up to playoff expectations. It was a nail in the coffin of the old way of doing things: the trap, the left-wing lock, the can opener ? all the dreaded earmarks of clutch-and-grab hockey. Buffalo drove another nail in by bouncing the three-time Cup winners from New Jersey. The dismantling of teams like the Red Wings, Avalanche and Stars in the West wasn?t as dramatic, since that conference is deeper and more talented, but the message is the same. Speed kills.
Sharp hockey handicappers (we know you?re out there) were the ones that either buried their preconceived ideas of what a Stanley Cup contender looks like, or simply were dispassionate about the game to begin with and made their plays based purely on X?s and O?s. It?s not like the writing wasn?t on the wall: the Hurricanes were 52-22-8 this year, the third-best record in the league. Buffalo was fourth at 52-24-6. Still, there was plenty of money to be made on the underdogs during these playoffs.
Until now. All the chalk has already been leached from the postseason. The ?Canes and Sabres are both listed at +250 on the futures market to win the Stanley Cup. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim are slight favorites at +220 after surviving the Calgary Flames in seven games on the way to sweeping Colorado. The winner of the series between the San Jose Sharks and Edmonton Oilers (Edmonton leads 3-2 heading into Wednesday?s Game 6) will presumably be priced in the same neighborhood. Any of these five teams could win the Cup; only Edmonton has been at the top of the mountain before, but not since 1990 when Mark Messier was still in town.
There is another common thread to this year?s postseason survivors ? one that will be familiar to baseball handicappers. We?ve seen enough evidence now to suggest that pitchers from the World Baseball Classic are indeed struggling to regain their stuff in the MLB regular season. There is a hockey parallel: The teams with the most players participating at the Winter Olympics in Turin have been eliminated. Those with the fewest are still around. Even there, the ?Canes and Sabres have gotten off lightly. Martin Gerber (Switzerland) has been capably replaced by Ward, while Miller (Team USA) was mysteriously buried on the U.S. taxi squad in favor of Rick DiPietro, John Grahame and Robert Esche. Fans in Ottawa (Dominik Hasek), Philadelphia (Peter Forsberg) and especially Vancouver (Sami Salo, Mattias Ohlund) will grudgingly tell you how their playoff chances were put through the grinder by Olympic injuries.
As for Wednesday?s tilt at Rexall Place between the hometown Oilers and the Sharks, Edmonton shocked the world by pummeling San Jose 6-3 at the Shark Tank to cash in as a +160 underdog. That?s two 6-3 victories in a row for the Oilers, blowing open what was a closely fought series in the first three games. The Oilers are favored at ?1?, +200 to wrap up the series in Game 6; the OVER is even money to eclipse 5 ? goals, with the UNDER priced at ?120.
In a postseason where hot goaltending is once again stealing the spotlight, Vesa Toskala has run out of steam. The rookie has been ventilated ever since coughing up the puck to Sergei Samsonov in Game 4; Samsonov scored the unassisted game-tying goal to turn Edmonton?s fortunes around. There had been some buzz that former Sharks hero Evgeni Nabokov could return to action in Game 6. However, Nabokov has played just twice since the end of March and has been fighting his own injuries (chest, shoulder, groin, abdomen) this season. Coach Ron Wilson has therefore chosen to stick with Toskala for Wednesday night.
The puck drops at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on OLN and CBC.
---Perry
BetWWTS.com
