2012 Eastern Conference Finals
1. New York Rangers vs. 6. New Jersey Devils
Well, well, well. Look at what we have here. Two teams nobody said at the top of the season would get this far into the postseason, let alone face each other for the right to play for the Stanley Cup. The season series between the two clubs has been eventful and playoff series promises to be no different. We all know that the Devils are a far cry from the neutral zone trapping team we all came to know pre-lockout and that system was the major catalyst to their 3 Stanley Cup Championships since the Rangers last one their title in 1994. The Devils now play a similar aggressive forecheck offensive style the Rangers employ and with the players the Devils possess to run that system, makes them a tough playoff opponent. The Devils were just an OT goal away in Game 6 and Game 7 back in the quarterfinals against Florida from being eliminated and embarrassed out of the playoffs by an inferior team that burned the Devils consistently on the power play despite the Devils nearly 90% success rate on the PK this season, an NHL record. If the Rangers were going to make this series easy on themselves, they'll need to duplicate Florida's success. The Rangers themselves have come into another series, fresh off of another Game 7 victory. A lot has been said, mainly by the national writers, to discount the Rangers going into the conference finals, mainly about how much the team has left in the tank after the Washington series. The Rangers' players themselves have had to answer a ton of questions surrounding that issue and the players continue to maintain that their conditioning is just fine and won't be an issue.
As far as matchups go, the Devils need to be very concerned with the Rangers forecheck and transition game. Outside of the Devils 1-0 win over the Rangers back in February, Carl Hagelin has showed up on the scoresheet in every single game against the Devils this year and if the Rangers are to advance to the Cup finals, he needs to be a factor each and every game. The other component to the Rangers forecheck is Chris Kreider. Kreider is a bit of an x-factor because of the way Torts has employed him since joining the team. Torts hasn't been happy with the way Kreider has played in his own end and was benched for the last 10 minutes of Game 7 following Washington's last goal. If Kreider is able to get a couple pucks past Marty in this series, I'm positive Ranger fans can look past the rookie's defensive deficiencies. Elsewhere, there really aren't any glaring 1 on 1 matchup issues I see becoming an issue for either team.
This needs to be the series when the Rangers bottom 6 forwards have to become a factor. Brian Boyle, who single handedly killed Ottawa, needs to be the guy he was before he sustained a concussion at the hands of Chris Neil. Same thing goes for Brandon Prust and Mike Rupp who have done little more than take up roster space through the first two rounds. I'm sure Ranger fans and Torts in particular are dying to see the magic Ruslan Fedotenko provided the Lightning back in their Stanley Cup run back in 2004. John Mitchell was called upon to take big faceoffs in those crucial games against the Caps and played a lot better as the semifinals went on and hopefully that can continue.
The Devils have yet to play a team with the goaltending and defensive depth the Rangers possess in these playoffs. They are also known to get a little bit unraveled and take dumb penalties <cough cough Kovalchuk cough> if things start to get tough. The way the Rangers came out in Game 7 against Washington and imposed their will on the Capitals convinced me that this is just the Rangers time. While I would love to see Callahan, Richards and Staal pose with the Prince of Wales trophy in front of 18,200 Ranger fans at MSG, 10,000 Ranger fans in Newark for Game 6 will suffice. Plus that isn't the trophy the Rangers are playing for either. Rangers in 6.
2012 Western Conference Finals
3. Phoenix Coyotes vs. 8. Los Angeles Kings
I'm not going to go terribly in depth into this series because I have followed little of either of these two teams in the regular season. What I do know is that these two teams have split the season series with each other and 5 out of the 6 games were decided by one goal. The Kings and Coyotes were only separated by 2 points in the Pacific Division standings. Both teams have gotten to where they are thanks in large part to their superb goaltending. Outside of the goaltending, both teams seem to be mirror images of each other. Both have defensemen who love to jump up into the play generate chances, Drew Doughty for the Kings and Keith Yandle for the Coyotes. The Kings can't overlook 20 year old Phoenix defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson who is going to be a star on the Coyotes' blueline for the next 10+ years and has averaged just over 26 minutes TOI in these playoffs. On the opposite side of the coin, the Kings have 2 guys who have been here before in Mike Richards and Jeff Carter. Both led the Flyers within 2 games of a Stanley Cup title just 2 seasons ago. Although Richards has been a solid nearly point-per-game player in this postseason, Carter is still struggling to find his game and only has 1 goal in the 9 playoff games the Kings have played so far. Can't forget to mention the two captains Dustin Brown for LA and Shane Doan for Phoenix who both have been key cogs in their respective teams' playoff runs. I'm quite frankly struggling to see where either team has an advantage over the other. As far as a prediction goes, I'm going to go against the grain and pick the Coyotes in 7 games. While it wouldn't surprise me to see LA move on, I don't think they are going to steamroll past Phoenix the way Vancouver and St. Louis let them. I'm curious to see how LA will respond to adversity as well. Should be a fantastic series.
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