Detroit Screws Me Again
So the Stanley Cup Final matchup is set, and will begin Monday night in Anaheim. For the record, my predictions are now at 10 for 14, and THREE of the picks I’ve been wrong on involved the Detroit Red Wings. Ah well, at least this time they lost :).
I’ll have more a comprehensive coverage/prediction up later this week, but here’s a quick and dirty version:
I’m picking Anaheim in 7 games for the following reasons:
- J.S. Giguere: 12-1 career playoff OT record. Starting to look like the single biggest fish on the free agent market this summer.
- Teemu Selanne: First Stanley Cup final appearance for a flashy, classy player. He’s hungry, he’s playing great hockey and he’s a guy you can’t help but root for.
- Ryan Getzlaf: I rarely got to see this guy until the playoffs, as I don’t see many Western Conference games, but he is something special.
Now, Ottawa has played very well in the playoffs but I don’t think they’ve really been tested so far. Pittsburgh was strong but young and folded pretty quickly, New Jersey bowed out with hardly a peep, and while Buffalo aught to have been a tough battle, they simply weren’t. Anaheim also benefited from relatively easy opponents but they had a tougher time than the Senators.
The Senators certainly have some things going for them, of course. Ray Emery is playing great and the team has full confidence in them. They don’t have two Norris candidates on their blueline but they are much stronger in the 4-6 positions. They are getting sufficient support from their second, third and fourth lines and their top line has been nothing short of dominant.
Should be fun to watch.