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Tuesday, February 13, 2001
Colorado, New Jersey too good
By Barry Melrose
Special to ESPN.com
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It's always fun to project favorites, so why not take a shot at the potential conference finals matchups. I'm always right, anyway.
West: Colorado vs. Detroit
From the West, I expect Colorado and Detroit to reach the conference finals. Colorado simply has the best team. They have incredible depth and fewer weaknesses than any other team. They have a mix of veteran leadership and talented youth that no one else can match. Joe Sakic is having a career year along with youngsters Alex Tanguay, Milan Hejduk and Chris Drury, who are very skilled. Sakic is tied with Jaromir Jagr in the scoring race right now and continues to terrorize goaltenders. They also have Peter Forsberg and Ray Bourque to provide veteran stability. And don't forget about one of the greatest goaltenders of all time in Patrick Roy, who lives for the Stanley Cup playoffs. I would be shocked if The Avalanche don't come out of the West.
Detroit is a proven team. They're a veteran club, and I love the way they're playing right now. No one is giving them a chance to win. That's a nice situation for a coach to be in. Scotty Bowman will be able to get plenty of mileage out of that. They have a lot of momentum right now and hope to be able to carry that low profile right into the playoffs. Steve Yzerman is getting in shape and Chris Osgood is starting to play better. If all these trends continue, look for the Wings to surprise a lot of people in the playoffs.
The winner: Colorado will win this series because they're just deeper and more talented. Things are pretty simple sometimes. I give Roy the edge over Osgood, and in the playoffs, that makes all the difference. It will be a great series, but Detroit doesn't have enough to get by the Avs.
East: New Jersey vs. Ottawa
In the East, I see New Jersey taking on Ottawa for the right to represent the conference in the Stanley Cup finals. New Jersey is a lot like Colorado and might be the best team in all of hockey. There are great veteran players everywhere in their lineup like Scott Stevens anchoring the defense, and Alexander Mogilny having his best year since he scored 76 goals in the '92-'93 season. They blend these guys together with some exciting younger talent like Scott Gomez and back it all up with a superb goaltender who has won it all before.
Ottawa, on the other hand, is a young team that hasn't won anything yet. The Senators have some weaknesses. They're not as physical as I think they need to be, and the goaltending is still somewhat of a question mark. But they're 20 players deep. They're a big team and exceptionally talented. They can score and they can check. If Patrick Lalime can play like he did with the Penguins as a rookie, the Senators could do some damage.
These two teams played Thursday, and the game was a lot more wide open than I thought it would be. For two teams that stress defense, there was a lot of offense in this game. It ended 4-4, but in a seven game series, New Jersey's depth and ability to clamp down defensively will take a toll on the Senators.
Why these four?
What will be the difference between these four and other very good teams who don't make it this far? A team like St. Louis can't rely on a rookie goaltender who happens to be playing very well right now. And Roman Turek has a little more experience but hasn't shown he can do it in the playoffs. San Jose is the best young team in hockey, and I expect them to compete eventually, but they're not quite ready now. And Dallas is still going to be a contender, but the consecutive long seasons have caught up to them.
In the East, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia don't have the goaltending to make a playoff run. Even with Jagr and Mario tearing it up, can Aubin be counted on to get them where they need to be? The four teams I picked to make it to the conference finals are deep and have, with the exception of Ottawa, playoff-tested goaltending.
Barry Melrose, a former NHL defenseman and coach, is a hockey analyst for ESPN.
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ALSO SEE
In the Corners: Handicapping the West
In the Corners: Handicapping the East
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