SPORTS
Don’t want to bet on baseball or basketball? The NFL regular season too far away? Don’t know enough to bet on soccer? Why not try putting down some money on the NHL playoffs?
The regular season marathon is over and the fun is about to begin. Four rounds of rock 'em sock ‘em action gets under way Friday. Here are some series worth looking at.
Tampa Bay Lightning (+360) 29-53 ATS vs. Ottawa Senators (-410) 42-40 ATS
The Lightning took it down to the wire and got a late invite to the big dance while Ottawa received their invitation long ago. Still the defending champion Lightning do have a shot of taking down the best team in the East. The Sens’ hopes of a run to the Cup were hampered when starting goalie Dominik Hasek announced that he wouldn’t be ready for the opening round of the playoffs and Ray Emery has struggled down the stretch.
Although the Lightning no longer have the services of 2004 hero G Nikolai Khabibulin, Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, and Martin St. Louis still pledge allegiance to the black, blue and silver. Tampa Bay won’t be shooting blanks on offense.
Ottawa packs punch as well with Dany Heatley, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson just a few of the weapons in the Sens’ vast arsenal.
Edmonton Oilers (+452) 40-42 ATS vs. Detroit Red Wings (-532) 42-39 ATS
Detroit surprised many this year cruising through the regular season and winning the President’s trophy as the league’s best team. Edmonton squeaked into the playoffs grabbing the eighth and final spot in the Western Conference.
Still this series has the potential to go the distance. Consider this. The regular season series between the two teams ended up being tied with both teams winning two games a piece. Three of the four games went into OT.
Detroit goalie Manny Legace is a novice when it comes to the playoffs playing in only five playoff games posting a 2.34 GAA and a .895 save percentage, while the Oilers have a number of experienced playoff performers including Ryan Smyth and Chris Pronger.
The Wings have a majority of playoff proven vets too with Brendan Shanahan, Niklas Lidstrom and of course, Steve Yzerman.
Anaheim Mighty Ducks (+192) 47-35 ATS vs. Calgary Flames (-212) 42-40 ATS
This series could be one of the West’s best matchups. Like Edmonton-Detroit, the regular season series is tied at two a piece. But unlike that series, there are two playoff proven players patrolling the goal crease for both squads.
Miikka Kiprusoff leads the NHL with lowest GAA amongst starting goalies and was instrumental in Calgary’s big run last playoffs. He also led the league in shutouts this year with 10.
J.S. Giguere is no stranger to the playoffs, leading Anaheim to the finals in 2003. This year he has a 2.66 GAA to go along with a .911 save percentage and 2 shutouts.
Giguere sports a 1.62 GAA and .945 save percentage for his playoff career and Kiprusoff is 1.85 and .929 for his.
Philadelphia Flyers (+122) 29-53 ATS vs. Buffalo Sabres (-134) 48-34 ATS
This series should harken back to the good old days of hockey.
Relatively speaking the Flyers and Sabres are two very gritty teams and the superstar players are few and far between.
Sure Philly has Peter Forsberg and Simon Gagne but they have some blue collar players too.
The Sabres, who had the third best record in the East, are the definition of grit. They don’t have any true superstars and the roster is filled with players who carry their lunch pails to work.
Buffalo also has the edge in goal with the dynamic duo of Ryan Miller and Martin Biron splitting duty between the pipes.
The Flyers also used goaltending by committee this year but have decided to start Robert Esche over young Finn Antero Niittimayki. Both sported identical 2.97 GAA this year.
This should be a hard hitting, grind it out series.
Back to Top
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
StumbleUpon
