2010 NHL Western Conference Finals preview.......




Unlike in the East where the Conference Finalists had decent-at-best regular seasons, the West Finalists are the #1 and #2 seeds.....


How did we get here?.... The #1 Sharks and #2 Blackhawks were both among the elite with excellent +/- for goals scored vs goals allowed.....Chicago won the Regular Season against San Jose 3-1, and FYI for you gamblers 3 of those went OVER the total


San Jose has never been to the Cup Finals and Chicago last went in 1992 (losing to the Lemieux's) and last won in 1961 which is, believe it or not, a longer drought then the Toronto Maple Leafs


Chicago is playing very well - especially on the road.....they eliminated Nashville and Vancouver each in 6 games.....particularly impressive in their route of the Canucks - especially in the 3 wins in 3 games in Vancouver where the 'hawks scored 5,7,5 goals while surrendering just 5 goals total in those games.....overall they have won 5 straight road playoff games scoring at least 5 goals in 4 straight.....

Dustin Byfuglien, Jonathan Toews, and Patrick Kane all played huge offensive roles in the Canucks series.....Van City won Game 1 with a 5-1 blowout, but these three helped the 'hawks restore order and they will need to carry the day in this Sharks series with Marian Hossa and Patrick Sharp as well......they will need goalie Antti Niemi to be solid and not give up anything easy ie not provide the blood-in-the-water signal for the Sharks to attack.....Chicago has tremendous team-speed, and will count on a very good defense (in particular in this series they will look to Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith to shut down the Sharks #1 line) - very good special teams - and a skilled offense to win their games - not rely on Niemi to carry the load





The Sharks have speed and offense too.....a top-line trio of Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley and Patrick Marleau put the biscuit in the basket with regularity in the Regular Season, but we know the questions about their playoff failures persist.....the line again struggled in their opening round Colorado series but we, finally, saw this group play to their potential and eliminate Detroit in 5 games....it wasn't just that this line was suddenly scoring a lot of goals, it was the importance of those goals.....timely game-changing goals is what was always asked of, and expected from, Joe Thornton's lines in the post-season but they came up short again-and-again.......but this years Sharks team is also getting big play from guys like Joe Pavelski, Ryan Clowe and Devin Setoguchi with Dan Boyle leading the way on defense.....they are similar to Chicago in that they will not ask their goalie Evgeni Nabokov to steal games for them, they will count on scoring and ask their goalie to be steady.....San Jose has been sensational at home all season


For me the goalie match-up is a wash......neither team has an amazing goalie and neither team will have that be the be-all-and-end-all of their chances....


I am taking Chicago in six in this series...their impressive road play will be an advantage right away with Games 1 & 2 in San Jose....this team is playing well on offence and defence and they are scoring HUGE goals on the power play - and most importantly on the penalty kill....their road play plus their ability to score game changing goals on special teams will be the difference in this series......


The winner of this series will surely win the Stanley Cup and these 2 teams are fun to watch so this series should be a real treat sports fans!

craig.ballard@hotmail.com