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| Young guns Giroux (left) and Henrique (right) will square off in another edition of a heated Atlantic rivalry |
(5) Philadelphia
Flyers vs. (6) New Jersey Devils
How They Got Here: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.
The Keystone State rivalry came to a head in the first round and needless to
say there was a lot of animosity. These two teams fought one another --
literally -- to the bitter end when the Flyers came out on top in six games
over the Penguins, whom were the trendy pick to win the whole damn thing this
postseason. Philly was in a goalfest and frankly I lost track of how many goals
were scored this serious. Obviously faceitious, but Philadelphia had owned
Pittsburgh
The entire season and when
you take that into account the end result of the series realy was not that
absurd.
It wasn’t as easy as some New Jersey Devils fans wanted it to be
but they’re moving onto the second round for the first time since the 2006-07
Playoffs. They defeated the Florida
Panthers in an excellent 7-game series that featured a double overtime
thriller that was won off the stick of Adam
Henrique, a Calder Memorial Trophy finalist (rookie of the year). Martin Brodeur did not look so great in
the first couple of games but he refused to lose in Game 7 and his save on Kris Versteeg in the dying seconds of
regulation may have provided the boost that the Devils needed to put the nail
in the coffin.
Player to Watch: The big guns will be out in this postseason series and this will
feature a matchup of two young studs. Claude
Giroux was given the reigns in the offseason after both Jeff Carter and Mike Richards were dealt away and Giroux responded marvelously. He
finished the regular season with a career high 84 points (34-50-84) and was the
undeniable leader of the team after Chris
Pronger was ruled out for the season with post-concussion syndrome
symptoms. Giroux carries with him a big stick and he knows how to use it and he
currently is the leader in points in the playoffs and might wind up with the
Conn Smythe Trophy when it’s all said and done if the Flyers win the Stanley
Cup.
The Devils have gotten great
contributions from 100 million dollar man Ilya
Kovalchuk, Zach Parise, and
veteran Patrik Elias this season but
the player to watch in this series for the Devils in my opinion is Adam Henrique. Henrique played well in
the series against Florida and buried the Panthers with his double OT goal in
Game 7 and the Devils will definitely need that contribution from him as
they’ll be facing a team that can absolutely score at will as we saw in the
series against Pittsburgh. Their lower lines have been able to do very well
including an awesome shift last night against the Panthers where they generated
a ton of opportunities. So the Calder finalist is my Devil to watch and if he
provides a big contribution the Devils may wind up stealing this thing.
Who Wins: There
is one variable in my opinion that will decide this series. That variable is
the Devils’ penalty kill. Their penalty kill was the best in hockey this season
(89.6%) but was downright abysmal against Florida and Florida pounced on every
opportunity that they had and generated chances and more often than not were
able to put the puck into the net. If New Jersey does that against Philadelphia
they are going to get buried and buried quickly. However, I have too much conviction
to go anywhere else with this series and while it may come off as a homer pick,
I really do believe in my mind that New Jersey will be moving on to the Eastern
Conference Finals.
New Jersey in 6
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