Well after close to 7 months of regular season play, the real season begins tonight, as the first games of the playoffs take place. In the East, the return series between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins.Last year, The Sens made the Penguins look like amateurs, but this year the roles could reversed. The Ottawa team struggled all thru the second half of the season, they changed coach, and now they are without three key players that helped in last spring’s cup run. We will find out if they can get their focus back. It will be interesting to see how they react. The Penguins on the other hand, played well while Crosby was out with an injury, and did not miss a beat. As it has been proven in the past, games 1,3 and 5 are the pivotal games in a series, the team that wins those games, win the series. For Ottawa to have any chance at winning this match up with Pittsburgh, they must split the first two, if not, they could be in big trouble in games 3 and 4 in Ottawa, as the hill maybe to steep to go up, and time is never on your side when your down in a series. This goes also for all series, and all teams, win game 1. It puts pressure on the other team to get back in the series and gives you momemtum.
Predictions for round one:
East
Montreal in 5
Piitsburgh in 6
Washington in 7
New York Rangers in 7
West
Detroit in 5
Calgary in 7
Minnesota in 6
Anaheim in 5
Last night on Hockey night in Canada’s preview show, Ron Maclean sat with legendary coach, Scotty Bowman and went thru all the series in the hour long show. Scotty has a great memory, he had no notes or anything, knew everything he needed to know about key players and situations that arise during the playoffs. You can see the replay on CBC website.
