With the re-seeding going into the second round, it becomes Detroit (2) vs Anaheim (8) and Vancouver (3) vs Chicago (4) in the Western Conference. The East has Boston (1) vs Carolina (6) and Washington (2) vs Pittsburgh (4). All four match-ups should be pretty exciting, to be frank. Vote in our poll on the right to pick which specific series will be the most interesting.
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings are perennial contenders and this season is no different. After disposing of the nascent Jackets in 4 straight, they’ve been waiting a bit for their opponent, and now they’re slated to face the surging Ducks. This will not be an easy matchup by any means. The Wings are extremely deep, though, just as deep as the Sharks were thought to be. However, the defending champions know what it takes to win in the playoffs, unlike the guys in SJ, it seems. Look for this series to go at least 6 games, which means the playoffs you can grab here on the forward side of things may be getting good production just by sheer number of opportunities in terms of games played.
Viable players: Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Hossa, Franzen, Rafalski, Lidstrom, Hudler, Cleary
Anaheim Ducks
The Ducks are no pushover as an 8th seed. They already took down the best regular season team in the San Jose Sharks and now they’re going after another powerhouse in Detroit. They can certainly pull off another series win here, as they did win the Cup just a couple years back. After some struggles early in the season and some shrewd trades at the deadline, the Ducks surged forward and were extremely strong down the stretch. Do not be surprised if Anaheim can take down another regular season stalwart in the second round here. Be careful of grabbing too many Ducks, though, if you think the Wings will be too much for the Ducks, especially coming off a tough series against the Sharks when Detroit has been rested coming off a sweep.
Viable players: Getzlaf, Perry, Ryan, Selanne, Pronger, Niedermayer, Whitney
Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks, led by Roberto Luongo, have been on fire going into the second round. Not only did they sweep their first round opponents, the St. Louis Blues–who were one of the hottest teams going into the playoffs themselves–they held them to only three total goals in the entire series. Luongo is a beast in net and he can certainly steal a game by himself, but the Hawks have slightly more depth up overall than the Blues did and Khabibulin has been very solid so a goaltending duel could develop here. If a goalie duel does come about, though, advantage Canucks because Luongo has been that good lately. Forward production will suffer if this does happen though, so caveat emptor.
Viable players: Luongo, H. Sedin, D. Sedin, Sundin, Demitra, Kesler, Burrows
Chicago Blackhawks
The Hawks are a really exciting team to watch right now. Young studs both at forward and on defense and a Cup winning veteran in net who has played well thus far. The Hawks are a feel good story right now and they seem to be playing well. Calgary was banged up, though, so make sure you use that to put the Chicago series win against the Flames into perspective. The Canucks have been excellent the past couple months now and have not shown any signs of slowing down after sweeping the Blues. Watch out for Luongo if you plan on grabbing some young Chicago players on your playoff squad.
Viable players: Khabibulin, Toews, Kane, Havlat, Byfulgien, Campbell, Seabrook, Keith, Versteeg
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