Al Strachan Presents: Why Choose a Side?

The tease for this little article is "With the playoffs about to begin, Al Strachan makes a case for each and every team to win in the first round — even the Bruins." Why show that you know enough about the NHL by making picks when you can just make up some terrible ways for bad teams to win. I'll be perfectly honest - I've only read his Red Wings/Predators paragraph, and then I booted up the Blogger. Let's go through this together.

This is not the old National Hockey League.

In the old days, most of the playoff spots would be decided by Christmas. Then, on the eve of the playoffs, it was clear that some teams would be pulling out the golf clubs within a week.

It took the playoffs for Al here to figure out that the NHL has changed? Somebody might want to tell him that they allow the Russians and minorities play now, too.

Also of note - the trading deadline tells you who is in and out of the playoffs. Odds are if a team trades to get players, they are in the race. If they trade for draft picks (or an enforcer when your team already has one), they are looking at the forecast for this week.

But today, there are no certainties. Every team can win. Every team can lose. Here's how.

Detroit-Nashville: With 115 points, the Wings had the best team in hockey. They've got a balanced attack and Nick Lidstrom is the best defenseman in the world. Without any of those long flights out to the West Coast, the Wings, some of whom are getting on in years, will be well rested. BUT the Wings had a tough time with the Predators this season. In regulation time, the teams split six games. Nashville lost one in overtime and another one in a shootout. There's also some concern about the Detroit goaltending. Dominik Hasek has not looked particularly good lately and Chris Osgood also has had some shaky moments.

If you're looking for how the Red Wings will lose, go with how they've shit the bed in the recent years or how old they all are. Don't do it by picking on a goalie proven time and time again in the playoffs. How do the Predators beat the Red Wings? Arm all the fans on the mezzanine level. At least arm them more than they already are. I mean, it's Nashville after all, so it's amazing the whole building doesn't have a Wrangler brand denim out or something.

San Jose-Calgary: In the late stages of the season, the Sharks were the dominant team in the league, going 20 games in a row without a regulation-time loss. They also had the best goaltender in the West — perhaps in the league — and the most productive trade-deadline acquisition in Brian Campbell. BUT after Joe Thornton, there is a huge drop to the second-leading scorer on the team. And it is in fact Campbell, who's a defenseman. If Thornton can be shut down — and this has been known to happen in the playoffs — it's hard to imagine the San Jose offense conjuring up enough goals to win a series.

Calgary - when not going up against the "best goalie in the league" averages 2.76 goals/game. San Jose scores 2.63 goals/game The shutdown of Joe Thornton should really focus on keeping him from his league leading assists.

Minnesota-Colorado: The Wild may be the best team in the West. They're fast and they're defensively committed. They've got strong goaltending and in Marion Gaborik, they've got one of the best pure scorers in the game. And with Jacques Lemaire behind the bench, you have to know that the Wild will never be outsmarted tactically. They've also beefed up so that they won't get pushed around. BUT it's always the same question with the Wild. Will they score enough? Peter Forsberg finished strongly for the Avs and if Adam Foote is fully healthy, Gaborik can count on being bounced around on almost every shift.

There you go - the Wild have won the Stanley Cup. Unless somebody in the 3 best-of-7 series before the Stanley Cup can hit them about enough to where they don't score, then that other team will win. So the Avalanche will win this round if Minnesota doesn't score on Jose Theodore? Bad news, Avalanche fans.

Anaheim-Dallas: The Ducks are the defending champions and as such, are widely assumed to be a favorite to win again. Once Scott Niedermayer and Teemu Selanne condescended to come back, the team was pretty much the same as the one that won the Cup. Again, the goaltending is very strong and in the playoffs, that's always the most important factor. BUT the Ducks had real problems scoring in the late stages of the season. In their last eight games, even though three of those games were against non-playoff teams, they scored only 18 goals. Also, if the standings are to be believed, these two teams are fairly evenly matched. Dallas goaltender Marty Turco had a great playoff last year and there's always the possibility that Brad Richards, with his Cup experience, is ready to break out.

Marty Turco hasn't been out of the second round of the playoffs. Ever. He did have a great year last year, sure. The Stars also left in the first round because they couldn't score. Brad Richards should be shut down pretty easily by the Anaheim defense and the series will be done quickly.

Montreal-Boston: On paper, this is the biggest mismatch of the postseason. The Canadiens finished first and won all eight regular-season games against Boston. There is a long NHL tradition of the Canadiens putting an end to the Bruins' playoff hopes and Alexei Kovalev is having the best season of his life. BUT the Canadiens are pinning their hopes on a rookie goalie, Carey Price, and no matter how sharp Price looked in the regular season, the playoffs are a totally different animal. Also, Montreal captain Saku Koivu, who is a key to his team's power-play success, is probably out with a broken foot.

...and the Bruins are pinning all their hopes on Tim Thomas, who hasn't played a minute in the playoffs either. For what it's worth, he allowed 10 goals in 84 minutes for the Bruins' AHL team. That tease LIED to me!

Pittsburgh-Ottawa: The Penguins almost won the top spot in the East and have a power-packed lineup with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Marian Hossa, Sergei Gonchar and a few others. Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was strong down the stretch after being out for an extended stretch. Against an injury-riddled Ottawa team which is missing Danny Alfredsson and Mike Fisher, the Penguins are prohibitive favorites. BUT it was only a year ago that the Senators themselves were prohibitive first-round favorites and it is not unknown for quality teams to rise like a phoenix from the ashes when they feel that they are not being shown sufficient respect. Also, Alfredsson may be back in mid-series and if the Sens are still close, his return could give them the impetus to pull the upset.

To recap, Pittsburgh will win because they have a talented lineup, and Ottawa will win because they are a mythical bird with key injuries that was good last year.

Washington-Philadelphia: The Caps are the darlings of the NHL at the moment, having produced an improbable late-season drive to sneak into the playoffs. They've got the best player of the 2007-08 season in Alex Ovechkin, and some backup firepower from the likes of Viktor Kozlov, Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov. BUT the core players on this team are all Russian and there is a long list of Russian players who have let down their fans in the postseason. It's not likely to happen in Ovechkin's case, but the jury is still out on the others. Certainly the Flyers will apply some physical pressure, and in Martin Biron, they've got a goalie who has an excellent record if he doesn't play on successive nights.

Oh good! Somebody told him about the whole Russian thing. And if there's one way to judge how well a player is in the playoffs, it's what country they come from. Those Russians - man, they suck! Give me a Swede. And in Martin Biron, the Flyers have a goalie who has no record of ever playing an NHL playoff game.

New Jersey-NY Rangers: The Devils have the home-ice advantage and, they've got Martin Brodeur, the probable winner of the Vezina Trophy. They're well coached and they're always ready for playoff hockey because they play a strong defensive game all season long. They've also got guys like Jamie Langenbrunner and John Madden who have well-deserved reputations for producing strong postseason performances. BUT the Rangers can match the Devils on the goaltending front and are better offensively, especially now that Jaromir Jagr is showing signs of coming back to life. Also, the Devils were unable to muster even one regulation-time win against the Rangers all season long. In fact, the shootout victory that clinched fourth place on Sunday was their only win over the Rangers in eight tries.

In case you forgot, go ahead and scroll back up to Montreal-Boston, wherein Mr. Strachan says the playoffs are a totally different animal. So all of those regular season wins mean nothing for the Rangers apparently. And I'm not seeing the connection between what Martin Brodeur has done and what dirty Swede Henrik Lundqvist unless they both have chubby wives.

So there you have it. 8 series with absolutely no definitive winner in any one of them. There are all going to go to seven games because of how evenly matched all of these series are.

Coming next week: Al Strachan examines the candy bar battle - Almond Joy has nuts BUT Mounds don't.