After three 7 game series and one 6 game series in round two, the NHL Conference Finals are set and ready to kick off this weekend. I think it’s safe to say these are not the match-ups we expected to see when the playoffs began in April.
In the west, we have the Detroit Red Wings taking on the Chicago Blackhawks. When these two teams met in the Winter Classic at Wrigley Field on New Year’s Day, the Red Wings easily took down the Blackhawks 6-4 after defeating them 4-0 the night before, thus proving that the Blackhawks still had a ways to go to play at the Red Wings level.
Now that they have knocked out Calgary and Vancouver in the first two rounds, the Blackhawks have shown that they have grown as a team and are a force to be reckoned with. Can this relatively inexperienced playoff team pull off their biggest upset and take out the defending Stanley Cup Champions?
The east bring us the Pittsburgh Penguins versus the Carolina Hurricanes. This match-up gives us the opportunity to see more of the Penguins’ Sidney Crosby in action, who has scored a league-best 12 goals in 13 playoff games. We’ll also get to see two brothers going head to head at center in Pittsburgh’s Jordan Staal and Carolina’s Eric Staal.
Both of these teams have just completed grueling 7 game series in round two. Will we see exhaustion play a part in who emerges as the victor in the east and heads to the Stanley Cup Finals?
Who do you think will win these series and play for the Stanley Cup? Will we see a rematch of last year’s finals, or will we get a surprise entry in the battle for hockey’s biggest prize? Leave a comment below and tell us your picks.
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Photo by jmd21480, available under a Creative Commons Attribution license.
