Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.
With a majority of the first-round series expected to wind down this weekend, two match-ups -- including Pittsburgh and Columbus in the East, and Colorado and Minnesota in the West -- have intrigued me as much as any over the first week of the playoffs.
Colorado and Pittsburgh have two things in common. One, they're the top seed in their respective grouping, playing a pair of wild card teams that picked up just 93 points (CBJ and 98 points (MIN) over the regular season. Two? They're both tied 2-2, and even though both are still tentatively preserving home-ice advantage, I think there's some rightful concern in the locker rooms for each team.
I wrote a column right before the start of the post-season that outlined some of the concerns I had with both of these top-seeded clubs. Colorado, to me, screamed paper tiger -- though, considering how talented the youth is there, you can very seriously see the club improving (and quickly) down the road. Still, with the injuries also mounting, I figured Colorado could be in very, very serious trouble in round one. Then they drew the worst team of the sixteen in Minnesota, which to me, felt as comfortable a draw for Patrick Roy's team as you could get.
So, in Colorado, you have a team that's probably not nearly as good as they've been billed, versus the sixteenth-best team in the playoffs.
Pittsburgh's situation is a bit different. The Penguins really do have two of the most dominant skaters in the National Hockey League, and no form of opposition does much of anything well (ever) when Sidney Crosby's on the ice. The team, in and of itself, is pretty good. But, the Penguins bottom-six (and, at times, bottom-nine) has been a cesspool all year long, and now there are concerns about Marc-Andre Fleury and where his head is at right now after a meltdown in game four.
The other problem for Pittsburgh? Columbus is also a good team. I don't know if I'd have the Wild winning more than a game or two against the Jackets, if those two wild card teams ever played a best-of-seven.
I'm not sure either team is up the creek right now. But, as two of the highest seeded teams entering the post-season, I can't imagine Dan Bylsma and Patrick Roy are feeling very comfortable about their match-up, and how it's now been reduced to a best-of-three.
So, the question: Is either top-seeded team really in jeopardy of exiting the first-round? Which team should be more concerned with their situation -- Pittsburgh, or Colorado?
Let me know in the comments why.