Stanley Cup Finals

Everyone else is making predictions on the Stanley Cup Finals...and why not? It's not like we have a lot of time to kill until Monday when the games actually start!

First off, some things I noticed about Anaheim.

In the games that I saw, there were never any blow-away games where the Ducks just totally outclassed their opponents and the games left you saying that the Ducks were a kick-ass team that was going to mean business in the playoffs. Sure, if you look down that roster and you see players like Scott Niedermeyer; Chris Pronger; Andy McDonald; Teemu Selanne; and JS Giguere, you're going to obviously know that Anaheim is a great team on paper. It's just that nothing blew you away when the games were played. Sure, they beat a pretty good Detroit team to get to the final, but all of those games were even tilts that could have gone either way with a break in Detroit's direction.

Second, as good as a goalie JS Giguere is--and he sure is good--that glove hand of his is a bit slow. He's a big guy who covers a lot of net when he drops into the butterfly but he is susceptible over that glove. With a tall goalie, the instinct is to immediate shoot at his skates but Giguere gets up and down very, very quickly. He is a quality athlete. Look for the Senators to test that glove of his often in the series.

Third, Andy McDonald is an all-star player who did not play like an all-star in the Detroit series. Barry Melrose of ESPNBA wondered if the pressure was too big for a guy like him; which is fair. Your top players have to play like top players in your big games. (We know this because of the Yashin disappearing act year after year.) Young guys like Getzlaf and old dogs like Selanne were able to raise their games when it mattered most. Anaheim is going to need McDonald to make a statement in the finals.

Now, to Ottawa.

Daniel Alfredsson showed this season that he could nut up in the playoffs. Perhaps he was unfairly blamed for Ottawa implosions in the past but hey, the guy is the captain. This season, Alfredsson has been on fire with 17 points. His linemates Dany Heatley (21) and Jason Spezza (20) currently are 1-2 in the scoring department this spring. There's simply too much skill and scoring on this line to shut them all down. You know that Randy Carlyle is going to be trying to match up his best defensive forward, Sami Pahlsson, on Spezza as much as possible. Carlyle was able to get the Red Wings to split up Datsyuk and Zetterberg so that Pahlsson wouldn't be able to play against both of them, and that led directly to the lack of cohesion and chemistry of the Detroit forward combinations.

Bottom line, Ottawa is going to have to get some production from the second- and third-lines to succeed. My gut tells me that guys like Mike Fisher and Dean McAmmond and the nearly-invisible Mike Comrie are going to step up with Wade Redden and Joe Corvo jumping into play as much as they can to pressure the Ducks defense.

If everything falls into place, I am thinking the Senators can do it in six. They've just played much stronger team games in these playoffs. Ottawa handily dethroned the President's Trophy winners, the Sabres, after Buffalo summarily took apart the Rangers and Islanders. The Senators can attack in waves and let's face it: Chris Pronger can be un-nerved into taking silly penalties. Scott Niedermeyer may be playing injured. Expect Giguere to stand on his head at times but the big three of Alfredsson, Spezza, and Heatley will be too much.