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Roundin' out the Eastern Conference
I feel like I've looked past this next series, but I can't put my finger on exactly why. The fourth-seeded New Jersey Devils and the No. 5 New York Rangers are certainly not strangers to the postseason.
The Devils nearly nipped the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Atlantic Division crown, but wound up with a difficult draw in a team that they dropped 15 of a possible 16 points to during the regular season.
Goaltending and a lack of scoring should characterize this series, as New Jersey's Martin Brodeur and New York's Henrik Lundqvist are easily the top two goalies in the Eastern Conference.
Brodeur's goals against average of 2.17 during the regular season was tops in the conference, and Lundqvist finished a close second at 2.23. The Devils and Rangers combined to score 29 goals in their eight regular-season meetings.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz. Oh, wait. Maybe that's why I overlooked this series. Snooze.
New Jersey is famous for playing a tight-checking, defensive system, and the Rangers -- seemingly -- should stack up the offense. Veterans Brendan Shanahan, Jaromir Jagr and Martin Straka pace the Rangers, along with new additions Chris Drury and Scott Gomez.
Gomez, who won a pair of Stanley Cups with New Jersey in 2000 and 2003, had three assists against his old team in the Rangers' 4-1 win in Game 1 Wednesday night.
The Devils aren't nearly as talented on offense, relying on players like Patrick Elias, Zach Parise and Brian Gionta to score. These three certainly aren't the worst offensive players in the league, but scoring a ton of goals isn't exactly in the Devils' playbook.
If New Jersey can find a way to generate offense against Lundqvist ... I think they'll advance. And that's a gigantic “If.”
I think the Rangers accomplished what they need to do to win the series during Wednesday's 4-1 rout -- they put up numbers against Brodeur.
One of only two goaltenders -- Patrick Roy is the other -- with 500-plus career wins, Brodeur has a way of looking like he's from another planet. He also has a way of frustrating opposing offenses.
If the first game of this series is any indication, the Rangers have found a way to do enough against Brodeur. New York's Ryan Callahan scored the second goal of the game and game-winner off of a Brodeur mistake, and the Rangers now only need to win tonight to basically put this series out of reach.
But ...
The two will head to New York for Games 3 and 4, skating at the storied Madison Square Garden. I'll take a bit of a surprise here by saying that I think New Jersey will respond tonight -- with a classic Brodeur performance -- but the Rangers will win the final three to advance and face top-seeded Montreal.
(Just to recap my prediction of the Eastern Conference winners: Montreal, Pittsburgh, Washington and New York)
Have a good weekend.
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