The Western Conference Finals are set to start later on today, and the Eastern Conference Finals are set to start tomorrow, which means it's time for my prediction blog. As always, in this blog I will predict the winner of each series and provide a couple of reasons as to why I made the selections I did.
Here is my record to this point.
1st round: 5-3
2nd round: 1-3
Total: 6-6
Eastern Conference
1. New York Rangers vs. 6. New Jersey Devils
This is a very tough one for me, perhaps the toughest of the playoffs so far, but I'm going to go with the Devils in 6.
Ilya Kovalchuk has been playing arguably the best hockey of his career in this post-season, Travis Zajac has been playing like a legitimate 1st line center, Zach Parise has essentially willed the Devils to wins and they've had a very balanced scoring attack all throughout the playoffs. As of right now, only the Philadelphia Flyers have more playoff goals this season.
The Devils defense has also been very good. They've held their opponents to very few quality scoring chances per game, and Bryce Salvador has almost been producing offensively like Erik Karlsson. No, you did not read that wrong.
If their top guys continue to perform and their penalty kill can continue to kill like they did all throughout the regular season and 2nd round against the Flyers, they will win this series.
From a Rangers stand point, I can't say enough about the team right now. They have been playing great two-way, physical hockey all season long, have stuck to their system and what got them the number one seed in the Eastern Conference and they continue to have success because of it. They were pushed to the limit by both the Ottawa Senators and Washington Capitals, but, as you all know, prevailed in the end.
I think this will be a very close series, but, like I said above, I think the Devils will prevail in six. I think the Rangers will be banged up and tired from playing in back-to-back seven game series, and that's one of the key factors into me picking the Devils. In advance, I picked the Devils in six instead of seven because if it comes down to it, seeing what I've seen thus far in the playoffs, I don't think the Rangers will lose Game 7 at home.
Western Conference
3. Phoenix Coyotes vs. 8. Los Angeles Kings
In this series, I'm going to go with the Los Angeles Kings in six games. I picked against the Coyotes in the first round and second round, and both times the Coyotes prevailed and proved that I underestimated them, but once again I'm going to pick against them. You know what they say: the 3rd time's the charm.
The Kings top forwards are finally all producing like they should be. They've always had the talent in their top-six, but it seemed that nothing was clicking offensively until they made the trade for Jeff Carter, even though his numbers in particular haven't been that great. Their penalty killing unit has been spectacular, their defense has been outstanding and as per usual Jonathan Quick has been Jonathan Quick.
Mike Smith has been playing great and the Coyotes balanced scoring attack should give the Kings a good fight, but in the end I think they Kings will prevail and advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
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