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It has been a long winter for folks in the Northeast, but the end of February — and the start of spring break — is almost here to rescue the masses from the grasp of Maine winter.
It might be pertinent to point out there is some fine print to the above statement, as I am basing it off of the “science” of Groundhog Day.
I don’t normally put a whole lot of faith in the actions of a groundhog, but after a Nor’easter of a winter, I have jumped ship and put my faith in Punxsutawney Phil.
The town of Punxsutawney will have to clean roadkill off of Main Street if Phil lets me down after he predicted only two more weeks of winter on Feb. 2, but I am digressing and threatening the life of a groundhog. My point: The NHL season is now approximately 60 games deep, which means it is that time of year to pick Stanley Cup Finals favorites.
I have yet to stick my neck out on the Stanley Cup and make any type of a prediction, so how better to start than picking the team that has to be the Cup Final favorite for their conference right now?
The Eastern Conference is the easier of the two to pick the favorite for the cup at the moment.
The Philadelphia Flyers.
It’s so simple, I gave the Flyers their own sentence, much to the dismay of my computer’s grammar check.
The Flyers’ 84 points are second only to the Vancouver Canucks’ 85, and their 39 wins are the most in the NHL — yes, Philadelphia has won more games than Vancouver and the Detroit Red Wings. That says something this season, as both Detroit and Vancouver are powerhouses, but we’ll get to them later.
There is more to this pick than just wins, as that would be far too simple-minded. The Flyers’ plus-46 goal differential leads the East, and their offense is deadly, tallying the most goals in the conference. The Flyers don’t rely on one or two players to provide their offense, making them a defensive coach’s nightmare.
Including the addition of Kris Versteeg, a huge addition of a proven winner, the Flyers now have seven players with 37 points or higher. Four of these players — Claude Giroux, Jeff Carter, Danny Briere and Mike Richards — have 50-plus points on the season. Another six players on the Philadelphia roster have chipped in 20 points or more, making them an incredibly balanced team.
The Flyers’ defense should not be overlooked in the shadow their offensive power casts. All six members of the Flyers’ defensive unit have a positive plus-minus — something that will surely not change with veteran Chris Pronger anchoring them.
The biggest surprise for the Flyers is the goaltending of Sergei Bobrovsky and Brian Boucher. Bobrovsky’s 2.45 goals against average and 91 percent save percentage combined with Boucher’s 2.26 GAA and 92 percent save percentage has provided the Flyers with solid goaltending on their way to becoming my pick as the Eastern Conference favorite.
I hate being the writer who plucks teams from the top of the standing board and calls them the favorite, but that’s the way this season has played. This season has provided three teams that are a notch above the rest; I talked about Philly, but inconveniently for me Detroit and Vancouver are first and second in the West. What a dilemma this is to pick a favorite to represent the Western Conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
It would be easy to pick Vancouver as the favorite in the West but I have to pick Detroit to punch the ticket to the cup.
Vancouver’s numbers are sexy — Megan Fox in “Transformers” sexy — but an injury-riddled defensive unit and the Canucks’ traditional playoff woes worry me they have lost back-to-back semi-final series after solid seasons.
Detroit is a completely different story, and coach Mike Babcock has the experience to get the Red Wings through the grind of the playoffs. Babcock has a Stanley Cup ring and crushed American hockey fans by leading Team Canada to the Olympic Gold Medal. Helping Detroit’s case, the team is loaded with talent.
Just like the Flyers, the Red Wings possess balance throughout their line-up. Henrik Zetterberg is having a dominant season; his 48 assists are third in the league and his 66 points are tied for fifth in the NHL. The Red Wings compliment Zetterberg with three 40- point scorers you may have heard about in Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom and Johan Franzen. Detroit has seven more players who have added at least 24 points this season. In reality, Detroit may be more balanced than the Flyers, but this doesn’t matter right now.
In the playoffs, experience especially on defense is crucial. A defensive core that revolves around Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski provides a combined 28 seasons, seven Stanley Cup Rings and Olympic Gold and Silver medals. That’s the type of leadership that can carry a team defensively to the Stanley Cup.
Adding to it, Jimmy Howard just seems to keep finding ways to win games for the Red Wings and leads the NHL in wins this season. With a consistent 90 percent save percentage and 2.79 goals against average, this big-game goalie can back the solid defense to the promised land.
The main reason I picked the Red Wings goes back to the coaching of Babcock. It seems the brighter the spotlight on the game, the better his game plan is and the better he makes on-the-fly changes. A big-game coach combined with a solid goalie who enjoys the spotlight, and a high octane offense make the Red Wings my Western Conference favorite.
There it is on the record — my crystal ball says Philadelphia vs. Detroit in the Stanley Cup Finals. I can only hope these two teams live up to all the hype .
