The 2nd Round of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to get underway, and if the first round was any idnication, this round will be just as entertaning (hoperfully there won't be any more suspensions in this round). There were seven total suspensions handed out for hits in the opening round, which equalled the total number of suspensions in all of last year's playoffs. The first matchup we will look at here in the second round is in the East and the 1-7 matchup which is the New York Rangers vs the Washington Capitals.
This is the seventh playoff series between these two teams, with Washington having won four of the previous six playoff series. This a rematch of last year's Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, which Washington won in five games. The teams split this year's four-game regular season series. With the series from last season, the Rnagers didn't really show up most of the series, even though two games went to overtime, including a game in double OT, both of which were won by the Capitals. The Rangers are led by Brad Richards with three assists and five points and he is tied for 2nd on the team in goals at two with Ryan Callahan, and Anton Stralman. Brian Boyle leads the team in goal scoring in the playoffs with three. Henrik Lundqvist played every minute of the opening round series against the Senators going 4-3 with a 1.70 GAA and a .945 SV%. The surprising thing about this series from the Rangers perspective is that Marion Gaborik, who lead kthe team during the regular season in goals with 41, had only one in the opening round. So Gaborik is going to have to be a bit more of a factor in this series if the Rangers expect to go deep in this post season.
As for the Capitals, they took down the defending cup champions the Boston Bruins in seven games with Alexander Ovechkin leading the charge with five points and three assists while Alexander Semin lead the way in goals with three. Braden Holtby played every minute of the entire series and came a way with a 4-3 record with a 2.00 GAA and a .945 SV%. In the opening round the Caps looked kinda flat to start against Boston but really turned on their game late in the series and managed to upset the Bruins. The Caps were swept in the 2nd round last year by the Tampa Bay Lightning and the team hasn't made it out of round two since 1997-98 when they went all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals before losing to Detroit.
Here is the Schedule for this series:
Saturday, April 28, 2012 3:00 p.m. Washington at NY Rangers NBC, CBC, RDS
Monday, April 30, 2012 7:30 p.m. Washington at NY Rangers NBCSN, CBC, RDS
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 7:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Washington NBCSN, CBC, RDS
Saturday, May 5, 2012 12:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Washington NBC, CBC, RDS
*Monday, May 7, 2012 7:30 p.m. Washington at NY Rangers NBCSN, CBC, RDS
*Wednesday, May 9, 2012 TBD NY Rangers at Washington TBD, CBC, RDS
*Saturday, May 12, 2012 TBD Washington at NY Rangers TBD, CBC, RDS
This series is gonnna be very closely contested through the first couople of games as a part of a feeling out process if you will, because after playing the first round both teams are dealing with different styles of play in this sereies. For both teams the biggest diffrence maker in this series will be goaltending and secondary scoring. For the Caps can Braden Holtby repeat what he did in the opening round with the Caps two regular netminders down with injuries? Also can the Caps get deeper scoring? As for the Rangers can they keep the garbage rebounds way from King Henrik they way they did in game seven against Ottawa and can Marion Gaborik step up his scoring in the series? The odds in this series favor the Rangers. The Caps will put up a good fight but I'll take the Rangers in Six in this one.
Next up on the docket is the 4-6 matchup in the East its the New Jersey Devils taking on the Philadelphia Flyers. These teams met four times in the past in the playoffs and have split it at two wins apeice. They also split the games during this years regular season at three wins apeice. The Flyers are being led in this playoffs in scoring by Claude Giroux who has six goals and eight assists for 14 points. The other Flyer with close to that many goals iin the first round win over the Penguins was Danny Briere who had five goals and eight points. Even Jaromir Jagr showed flashes of his former self with seven points. As far as goletending Ilya Bryzgalov did a bulk of the work in the opening round going 4-2 with a 3.89 GAA and a .871 SV%. The problem with the Flyers is yes they may be a physical teram, which is a big reason they knocked out the Penguins in the opening round, and yes they can score as Giroux and Briere have shown, but the goaltending and team defense is really weak, so look for Jersey to try and exploit that in the series.
As for the Devils, the bounced the Panthers in a tough seven game series, with the final two having to be decided in overtime. Travis Zajac leds the team in points with six and is tied with Ilya Kovalchuck for the lead in goals with three. Zajac was the OT hero in game six and Adam Henrique was the hero in double OT in game seven. Martin Brodeur started every game in that round but was pulled for Johan Hedberg in game three. Hedberg took the lost in game three. As for Brodeur he went 4-2 with a 2.06 GAA and a .922 SV%. The problem the Devils had in their opening round series against the Panthers was a bit of inconsistent play which got them in trouble in games one and three. Game one they held on for the win but game three was a blown lead for a loss. The Devils really need to be able to play full sixty minute games in every game in the whole series if they want to have a chance to survive round two.
Here is the schedule for this series:
Sunday, April 29, 2012 3:00 p.m. New Jersey at Philadelphia NBC, CBC, RDS
Tuesday, May 1, 2012 7:30 p.m. New Jersey at Philadelphia NBCSN, CBC, RDS
Thursday, May 3, 2012 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia at New Jersey NBCSN, CBC, RDS
Sunday, May 6, 2012 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia at New Jersey NBCSN, CBC, RDS
*Tuesday, May 8, 2012 TBD New Jersey at Philadelphia NBCSN, CBC, RDS
*Thursday, May 10, 2012 TBD Philadelphia at New Jersey TBD, CBC, RDS
*Saturday, May 12, 2012 TBD New Jersey at Philadelphia TBD, CBC, RDS
So there we have the schedule. As for the prediction in this series, its kinda tough to tell. The Devils will be playing a weaker D in the Flyers then they did the Panthers and will have a bit better time trying to play the physical game then the Pens did. The Flyers are going to be a very tough opponent, as they are in no way slouches. This series will go at least six games and I'm gonna call an upset here as the Devils take it in seven.
Next up we move on to the Western Conference and the 2-7 matchup between the St Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings. This is the third playoff series between these two teams, with St. Louis having swept Los Angeles out of both of the previous playoff series; the most recent matchup was in the 1998 Western Conference Quarterfinals. Los Angeles won three of the games in this year's four-game regular season series. The Kings pulled off a huge upset in round one knocking off the Presidents Trophy winning Canucks. With that loss by Vancouver, you have to go back to 2007-08 to find the last Presidents Trophy winner to clinch the cup, that was Detroit that year. The Kings beat Vancouver thanks to the clutch scoring from Dustin Brown who had four goals and five points in the opening round. Anze Kopitar, Justin Williams, Mike Richards and Jeff Carter each had an impact in the series. Jonathan Quick played great in the goal for the Kings who went 4-1 with a 1.59 GAA and a SV% of .953. The Kings had a somewhat easy series against the Canucks and basically outwork Vancouver from start to finish.
As for the Blues, they got here thanks to an easy five game series against the San Jose Sharks. The Blues are being led by Andy MacDonald who had eight points in the series with four goals and four helpers. Patrik Berglund, Alexander Steen, and David Perron
all had big series an impact for the team. In goal it looked like Jaroslav Halak was the number one and he played and won game one but left game two with an injury and hasn't played since. Instead it was Brian Elliot who ran away with the starting job and went 3-0 with a sparkling 1.37 GAA and a SV% of .949. This series is going to be an absolute fun series to watch.
Here is the Schedule for this one:
Saturday, April 28, 2012 7:30 p.m. Los Angeles at St. Louis NBCSN, TSN, RDS
Monday, April 30, 2012 9:00 p.m. Los Angeles at St. Louis CNBC, TSN, RDS
Thursday, May 3, 2012 10:00 p.m. St. Louis at Los Angeles NBCSN, TSN, RDS
Sunday, May 6, 2012 3:00 p.m. St. Louis at Los Angeles NBC, TSN, RDS
*Tuesday, May 8, 2012 TBD Los Angeles at St. Louis CNBC, TSN, RDS
*Thursday, May 10, 2012 TBD St. Louis at Los Angeles TBD, TSN, RDS
*Saturday, May 12, 2012 TBD Los Angeles at St. Louis TBD, TSN, RDS
What is going to make this series fun is the goaltending duel between Elliot and Halak and Quick. All Three goalies are staking claim to the best goalies in this year's playoffs. This is by far the most even matchup of any of the four here in the playoffs. It will go seven games easy and I'll take the Blues in this one.
And last but certanly not least its the 3-4 matchup as the Phoenix Coyotes take on the Nashville Predators
This is the first playoff series between these two teams. The teams split this year's four-game regular season series.
The Coyotes are coming off their first ever playoff victory since moving to the desert beating the Blackhawks in six games. Antoine Vermette and Rostislav Klesla
led the Coyotes in scoring with six points each and Vermette leads with 4 goals. The goaltending duties are being held down by Mike Smith who has gone 4-2 with a 1.91 GAA and a SV % of .947. The Coyotes are a good high scoring team that are very well balanced.
As for the Predators they knocked off the Red Wings in five and shook off the stigma of losing to the Wings in previous playoffs. Leading the way on offense for the Predators is Alexander Radulov who had five points in the opening round. Gabriel Bourque and David Legwand also had big series for the Preds. In goal Pekka Rinne had a good series for the Preds going 4-1 with a 2.09 GAA and a SV% of .929. Rinne needs to be good in this series as the Coyotes have a balanced and much younger attack then the Red Wings.
Here is the schedule for this series:
Friday, April 27, 2012 9:00 p.m. Nashville at Phoenix NBCSN, TSN, RDS
Sunday, April 29, 2012 8:00 p.m. Nashville at Phoenix NBCSN, TSN, RDS
Wednesday, May 2, 2012 9:00 p.m. Phoenix at Nashville CNBC, TSN, RDS
Friday, May 4, 2012 7:30 p.m. Phoenix at Nashville NBCSN, TSN, RDS
*Monday, May 7, 2012 10:00 p.m. Nashville at Phoenix NBCSN, TSN, RDS
*Wednesday, May 9, 2012 TBD Phoenix at Nashville TBD, TSN, RDS
*Friday, May 11, 2012 TBD Nashville at Phoenix TBD, TSN, RDS
So with this series its a battle of two young and playoff hungry teams. This series, just as Kings-Blues will go seven games and I will take the Coyotes in this. Mike Smith is gonna have a big factor in this series and the Coyotes have a bit more playoff experiance than the Predators do which will play a big factor.
The West is going to be more fun to watch than the East in this round, and this is coming from a guy who roots for eastern conference teams. The reason I'm saying that is that three of the four remaining teams in the east have won Stanley Cups, the Caps being the only one yet to win one. But in the West nobody has ever won a Stanley Cup and that is saying something as to how deep a conference the West is this year.
The first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs is in the books and an entertaning first round it was. Three series went the distance a few suspensions had to be handed out and a few upsets took place. We will kick things off with the East and the 1-8 between Ottawa and the Rangers.
This series ended up needing to go the full seven games before the Rangers finally knocked off Ottawa to advance to round two. This was a good series to watch for the fact it was back and forth the entire series and a pair of Overtime games too, both of which were won by Ottawa, game two was a 3-2 win and game four, also a 3-2 senators win. One of the staples of tjhis series was physical play espically in the first few games, and involving ranger Defenseman Brian Boyle. The head coach of the Senators, Paul MacLean, responded to New York's checking center Brian Boyle roughing with defenseman Erik Karlsson in Game 1 by adding enforcers Zenon Konopka and Matt Carkner for Game 2 Konopka harried Boyle as he conducted a live TV interview during the pre-game warm-ups, earning himself and his club fines. In addition, Carkner immediately attacked Boyle at the beginning of the game resulting in a five-minute major and game misconduct. The Rangers' Brandon Dubinsky was also ejected as the third man in on the altercation; he threw a Gatorade cooler as he exited. Carkner received a one-game suspension for fighting an unwilling player. An unrelated incident in that same game resulted in New York's rookie skater Carl Hagelin receiving a three-game suspension for elbowing Ottawa's captain Daniel Alfredsson, prompting a question of ruling consistency by the New York Rangers. The series has featured the NHL debuts of three players – Chris Kreider for the Rangers in Game 3, Mark Stone for the Senators in Game 5, and Jakob Silfverberg for the Senators in Game 6. So as you can see this was a bit of a chippy series to start.
But as the series wore on it started to become more evenly played. Every game in the series was decided by 2 goals or less. Craig Anderson, the Senators starting goalie, and Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers starter, each had a shutout in the series. Anderson shut the Rangers out 2-0 in game five at MSG while Lundqvist shut out Ottawa 1-0 in game three. The teams kept trading wins the entire series before the Rangers were able to take the last two games of the series and knock out the Senators. Jason Spezza led the senators in scoring with 5 points on 3 goals and 2 assists followed by Sergei Gonchar and Nick Foligno with 4 points each. The surprise was the fact that Daniel Alfredson was held to only two goals as his only points in the series. Granted he was injured with a concussion through part of the series, that's still a bit low ofr Alfie. And another surprising fact was that Erik Karlsson registered only one point, a goal, in the series despite taking 31 shots in the seven games. Karlsson had 78 points during the regular season. As for the Rangers, Brad Richards led the team with 5 points followed by 4 points each coming from Derek Stepan Dan Girardi, Anton Stralman, and Ryan Callahan. The difference between the two clubs in this series was the fact that the Rangers were the deeper and more balanced team then the Senators. Yes I will give Ottawa credit for winning two games in OT and forcing the Rangers to go seven games, but they just got outworkd at the end of the day. And as of last night the Rangers are 4-0 all time in Game 7's in the playoffs.
Next up is the 2-7 matchup in the east The Bruins against the Capitals. This was another series that went a full 7 games and shockingly the Bruins were upset by the Capitals as Washington beat the big bad B's in 7.This was the first ever playoff series in NHL history in which all seven games were decided by only one goal. In addition, four of these games were decided in overtime. Rookie Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, who started in place of injured regulars Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth, allowed only two goals in the first two games, matching his Bruins counterpart Tim Thomas. Thomas recorded a shutout in Boston's 1-0 overtime victory in Game 1. Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom was suspended for Game 4 after his post-game cross-check on Bruins forward Rich Peverley in the Bruins' 4–3 win in Game 3. Even without Backstrom, the Capitals evened the series with a 2–1 victory in Game 4. Washington's Troy Brouwer then scored the winning goal on a power play with 1:27 left in regulation of Game 5. Boston then extended the series with Tyler Seguin's score in overtime of Game 6. But Washington's Joel Ward scored in overtime to give Washington a 2–1 victory in Game 7 and eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins. With Washington's victory in the series, Holtby became just the third rookie goaltender in NHL history to defeat the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Joel Ward of the Capitals has had a tendency to score an overtime winner in the playoffs as he did that in game two of the West Semifinals last year while playing for Nashville against the Vancouver Canucks. Rich Peverley and Andrew Ferrance led the Bruins in scoring with 5 and 4 points respectivly. The suprising thing about this was that both Patrice Bergeron and Nathan Horton, two of the scoring hero's from last years playoff run by Boston, were held in check for the whole series. Bergeron had only 2 assists and Horton didn't play due to injuries. As for the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin led them in scoring with 5 points while Brooks Laich had 4. Every Caps player who dressed in this series had at least one point except for two guys, Jeff Schultz and Mathieu Perreault who were held off the sheet. The Caps seemed to have a more balanced attack then Boston did in this round, a surprisng fact considering the Bruins were one of the more balanced scoring teams in the east this season.
Next up is the 3-6 matchup wich was the Devils and Panthers in another very entertaning series. In the first two games of the series, the winner scored the first three goals. In Game 1, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur won his 100th career playoff game, only the second netminder after Patrick Roy to do so, as New Jersey won 3–2. The Panthers' 4–2 win in Game 2 was their first playoff win since April 17, 1997, and ended a streak of nine straight defeats in a 15-year span. Game 3 saw both starting goaltenders pulled from the game. Florida's Jose Theodore surrendered three goals in the first period before being replaced by Scott Clemmensen, appearing in only his second playoff game. Brodeur was then pulled after the Panthers rallied to tie the game in the second period en route to 4–3 win. This was the first time since Game 1 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Carolina Hurricanes that Brodeur was pulled in a postseason game, which ironically marked Clemmensen's playoff debut. Brodeur bounced back in Game 4 and broke another one of Roy's records with his 24th career playoff shutout, as the Devils beat the Panthers, 4–0. But Theodore responded with his second career postseason shutout, as the Panthers took a 3–2 series lead with a 3–0 victory in Game 5. The Devils then tied the series and forced a Game 7 with Travis Zajac's winning goal 5:39 into the overtime. And just as in the previous contest Game 7 also needed extra time. This one went into double overtime when Adam Henrique won the game and ended the series just over three minutes into the 2nd overtime period.
Sean Bergenheim led the Panthers in scoring with six points. As for the Devils Travis Zajac led the team with 6 points followed by Ilya Kovalchuck and Zach Parise with 5 points each. What was so surprising about this series was the number of lead changes in a few of the games. First in game one the Devils had a 3-0 lead and were able to hold on for a 3-2 win. Then it happened again in game three with the Devils taking a 3-0 lead before losing 4-3. I have to admit this series was a fun one to watch because it was a baack and forth series and the Panthers reall did show me something in this series. I thought honestly this would have been a cake walk for the Devils. But the Panthers showed me something and impressed me in this series, and after what I saw in this, if the Panthers can keep this team in tact they will be a playoff contender for a while to come.
Finally its the 4-5 matchup in the East as it was the Flyers and Penguins in by far the most physical series in the playoffs in recent memory. The series went six games and was won by the Flyers, who basically put a beating on the Penguins over the six games. Pittsburgh struggled defensively, giving up eight goals in each of Games 2 and 3. The Penguins did however score 10 goals in their Game 4 win, becoming the first team to do so in a playoff game since the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings scored 12 in the 1990 Smythe Division Semifinals against the Calgary Flames. The Flyers' goaltending flaws resurfaced in that game, with neither Ilya Bryzgalov nor Sergei Bobrovsky able to stop the Penguins' torrid shooting. Again facing elimination, Pittsburgh went on to win Game 5, 3–2, in the lowest scoring game of the series. But Philadelphia rebounded to eliminate Pittsburgh in Game 6 by the score of 5–1. Game 3 was overshadowed by a flurry of penalties drawn between the two teams, reminiscent of their penultimate regular season meeting on April 1. Three Penguins players drew suspensions. Arron Asham was suspended four games for a cross-check on Brayden Schenn, Craig Adams was suspended one game for instigating a fight, and James Neal was suspended one game for charging Claude Giroux. Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma was fined $10,000 because of Adams' instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the game.
The 45 goals scored through the first four games set an NHL record for goals in the first four games of a seven-game series. A total of 56 goals were scored over the course of the entire series.
Claude Giroux led all playoff scorers after this series with 14 points while Jordan Staal led the Penguins with 9 points and 6 goals. The play of the series in my book was a slick pass by Jaromir Jagr:
So that takes care of coverage of the east. Now we will slide over to the western conference and the 1-98 matchup of the Canucks and Kings. Everybody thought the Canucks would dominate the series after winning the Presidents Trophy as the best team in the league, However, the Kings won the first three games of the series en route to eliminating the Canucks in five games. Vancouver struggled offensively, while Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick only allowed eight goals in the series, including a shutout in Game 3. The Canucks' Byron Bitz was suspended for two games after boarding the Kings' Kyle Clifford in Game 1. Cory Schneider then replaced Roberto Luongo as Vancouver's starting goaltender for Game 3, prompting speculation that Luongo might be traded after the season. Game 4 saw the return of Vancouver's Daniel Sedin, in his first appearance since suffering a concussion on March 21. He had an assist in the Canucks' 3–1 victory in Game 4, and the team avoided becoming the first Presidents' Trophy winner to be swept in a conference quarterfinal series. However, Vancouver became the sixth Presidents' Trophy winner to lose in the first round after their 2–1 overtime loss in Game 5, the only overtime game of the series.
Henrik Sedin was the leading scorer for the Canucks in this series with 5 points and Dan Hamhuis was 2nd with three points. Daniel Sedin missed three games in the series due to injury and Roberto Luongo loook off all series before being replaced by Cory Schnider. A little less than half the Canucks skaters failed to score at least a point in the series, unlike last year when they went to the stanley cup. So now both teams from last years finals are out in the first round. As for the Kings, Dustin Brown led them in scoring with 5 points, while Jonathan Quick played rock solid in net for the Kings, further solidifying his claim for the Vezna Trophy as the leagues top goalie. The Canucks really look out of wa and off their game in this entire series and the Kings just plain jumped all over them and walked away with an easy series win.
Next up is the 2-7 matchup featuring the Blues and Sharks. This came as no surprise to anybody that the Blues walked all over the Sharks and easily walked away with the victory in five games. The Blues began the playoffs with Halak on goal, partly based on his playoff experience playing for the Montreal Canadiens. The Sharks took Game 1 off of Martin Havlat's goal in double overtime. Halak then suffered a lower-body injury early into Game 2, but Elliott picked up where Halak left off in a Blues' 3–0 shutout, and subsequently allowed only 5 total San Jose goals in St. Louis' victories in Games 3, 4, and 5 to capture the series.
The Sharks once again failed to make any noise in the playoffs. Joe Thorton led the team in scoring with 5 points and Antti Nemi has look average at best in net for the Sharks. Nemi if you remember was the playoff hero in goal for the Blackhawks when they won the stanley cup in 2010. San Jose thought by bringing him into the fold might help them get over the hill and reach the stanley cup finals and he hasn't been the answer in goal to solve the Sharks playoff troubles. I can't really come up with a solution for the Sharks in their playoff woes as of this moment in time, as I'm not really sure why the Sharks just can't seem to get it done come spring time. As for the Blues, Andy MacDonald led the team in scoring with 8 points followed by Patrik Berglund who had 7 points. With the Blues they had Jaroslav Halak but he got hurt early in the series and Brian Elliot had to finish up and did a terrific job diing it. Halak started to play back to the form that got him sent to the Blues in the first place. He had a great playoff run with the Canadians in 2010 and has seemed to regain that form before the injury. So with Halak and Elliot doing a great job pulling the tandom. The Blues have really turned their game around since Ken Hotchcok took over coaching.
Now its the 3-6 matchup of the Blackhawks and Coyotes. The Coyotes won thier first playoff series since moving to the desert beating the Hawks in six games. This became only the second playoff series in NHL history in which the first five games went into overtime, the first being the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.Games 1 and 2 both saw the Blackhawks score the tying goal with less than 30 second left in regulation.
In Game 2, Chicago's Andrew Shaw was ejected, and later suspended for three games, after hitting Phoenix goalietender Mike Smith in the head. Smith laid on the ice for five minutes but remained in that game. Then in Game 3, the Coyotes' Raffi Torres hit the Blackhawks' Marian Hossa in the open ice. Although Torres left his feet, Hossa was carted out on a stretcher, and Hossa did not have the puck when Torres hit him, Torres did not receive a penalty during the game, but was later suspended for 25 games and next season's preseason games. The hit violated three rules: interference, charging, and hit to the head.
Game 6 ended up being one-sided as Smith shutout the Blackhawks, 4–0, and the Coyotes won their first playoff series since moving from Winnipeg to Phoenix in 1996, and the first one in franchise history since 1987.
Finally we look at the 4-5 matchup in the West as it was the Red Wings and Predators. Nashville got the jump on the Wings in game one and never really looked back on a way to a five game series win. The Predators defeated the Red Wings in five games, with four of them each being decided by only one goal. In the final seconds of Game 1, Nashville captain Shea Weber slammed Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg's head into the glass, cracking Zetterberg's helmet. Weber was later fined $2,500 for the action with no suspension or further disciplinary action. Although the Red Wings had one of the best home records in the league during the regular season with a 31–7–3 mark, the Predators won both Games 3 and 4 on the road, Nashville's first ever playoff victories at Joe Louis Arena.
So there you have it. The first round is in the books in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. the 2nd round preview will be posted tomorrow.
The schedule has been announced for the 2012 New York Jets season and it is interesting to say the least. The games against the AFC East are still the same, as they will again play the Bills Dolphins and Patriots twice as they always do. Every team has to play in their division twice a year each. Last year the Jets had to fill the rest of their schedule against the NFC East and AFC West, which led the Jets to going 8-8. This year, besides the games against the rest of the East they will have to play against the AFC South and NFC West. Last time the Jets played the AFC South was in 2009 when they went to the AFC title game and lost to the Colts, and the last time they played the NFC West was in 2008 when the Jets went 9-7 and missed the playoffs.
Here now is a look at the schedule for the 2012 season for the New York Jets:
Preseason 1 TBD (August 9–13) at Cincinnati Bengals Paul Brown Stadium 2 August 18 7:00 p.m. EDT New York Giants MetLife Stadium 3 August 26 8:00 p.m. EDT Carolina Panthers MetLife Stadium 4 August 30 at Philadelphia Eagles Lincoln Financial Field
Regular Season 1 September 9 1:00 p.m. EDT Buffalo Bills MetLife Stadium CBS 2 September 16 4:15 p.m. EDT at Pittsburgh Steelers Heinz Field CBS 3 September 23 1:00 p.m. EDT at Miami Dolphins Sun Life Stadium CBS 4 September 30 1:00 p.m. EDT San Francisco 49ers MetLife Stadium Fox 5 October 8 8:30 p.m. EDT Houston Texans MetLife Stadium ESPN 6 October 14 1:00 p.m. EDT Indianapolis Colts MetLife Stadium CBS 7 October 21 4:15 p.m. EDT at New England Patriots Gillette Stadium CBS 8 October 28 1:00 p.m. EDT Miami Dolphins MetLife Stadium CBS 9 Bye 10 November 11 4:05 p.m. EST at Seattle Seahawks MetLife Stadium CBS 11 November 18 1:00 p.m. EST * at St. Louis Rams Edward Jones Dome CBS 12 November 22 8:20 p.m. EST * New England Patriots MetLife Stadium NBC 13 December 2 1:00 p.m. EST * Arizona Cardinals MetLife Stadium Fox 14 December 9 1:00 p.m. EST * at Jacksonville Jaguars EverBank Field CBS 15 December 17 8:30 p.m. EST at Tennessee Titans LP Field ESPN 16 December 23 8:20 p.m. EST * San Diego Chargers MetLife Stadium NBC 17 December 30 1:00 p.m. EST * at Buffalo Bills Ralph Wilson Stadium CBS
The Jets won't exactly have the easiest schedule in the world. They will be playing two teams who finished last season at .500 in the Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers who both finished last year like the Jets at 8-8 records. They play five teams who finished last year over the .500 mark in the form of New England (13-3), Pittsburgh (12-4), San Fransisco (13-3), Tennessee (9-7), and Houston (10-6). The other six teams the Jets play this year finished last season under .500 in the form of the Dolphins (6-10), Bills (6-10), Jaguars (5-11), Colts (2-14), Seahawks (7-9), and the Rams (2-14).
Amongst the games the Jets have to play in the division the one I'm looking forward to the most is the home game against the Patriots in November. The two biggest reasons I'm looking forward to it is because its a Thursday night and its thanksgiving night. Last year the one Thursday night game the Jets had they lost to Tim Tebow and the Denver Broncos, and the last time the Jets played on Thanksgiving night was in 2010 a 26-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals at home. With the changes the Jets have already made this offseason, and with the possibility of more to come between now and kickoff weekend in September, things could get very interesting for Gang Green this season.
(Author's note: A full Jets season perview and a full NFL preview will be done the week leading up to opening kickoff in September.)
It's been 19 games into the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs and already it has turned very VERY chippy and fists have been flying. NHL disciplinarian Brendan Shanahan and the rest of the NHL officiating staff have had their hands full so far in the playoffs as there were 724 penalty minutes called through the first 19 games, according to Elias Sports Bureau. That's the most the NHL has seen since the 2006 playoffs opened with 804 penalty minutes in 19 games (Info Courtesy of USA Today Article). The two series that have had caused the biggest trouble for the NHL's officials has been both Rangers-Senators and most notably Penguins-Flyers.
NHL Refs have had a real tough time taking control of the Penguins and Flyers during there first round series. We are three games into that series and the only game in the series that has moved along quietly was Game One. That one went in favor of the Flyers 4-3 in Overtime as the Penguins blew a 3-1 lead they held at the end of the first period. Game Two again went to the Flyers this time by an 8-5 final score in a wild affair. Again in this one the Penguins held a 3-1 lead at the end of the first but weren't able to make it stand up. Game Three was by far the most physical of any game not only in this series but in the entire playoffs. 158 total penalty minutes were handed out in the 8-4 win by the Flyers. That game including 72 in a rough-and-tumble first period that included Sidney Crosby and Claude Giroux fighting and Arron Asham being ejected for cross-checking and punching Brayden Schenn. There was a match penalty assessed to Arron Asham, game misconducts given to Kris Letang, Kimmo Timonen and Craig Adams, and four players received 10-minute misconducts in the last five minutes of the third period. There were also three fights that highlighted a pair of melees, one in the first and another late in the third.
What really made this game wild was the huge brawl that came at the 15:18 mark of the 3rd period. It would be somewhat difficult for me now to try and actually describe in words what exactly happened during this little brawl so why don't I just show it to you. here is the crazy fight near the end of the hockey game:
It doesn't take a genius to figure out this series was going to be physical but I don't think anybody could have predicted this happening. Now I somewhat understand the need for this kind of physical play but I mean come on there really is no need for THAT much physical play. And this isn't the only series to get chippy.
The first real incident to take place this year in the playoffs was Game One of the Predators-Red Wings series in Nashville. At the final buzzer, Nashville's All-Star defenseman and captain Shea Weber received a roughing penalty for a series of hits on Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg. Replays showed the 6-foot-4, 232-pound Weber grabbing the head of the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Zetterberg and slamming it into the glass. Weber was fined $2,500 by the NHL for the incident. Here is the video of it:
Now this should have been a suspension and not just a fine if you ask me. This was some of the fallout from the incident thanks to NHL.com:
Weber was asked if he thought he would need to worry about any possible further supplementary discipline.
"I don't know. He hit me from behind, so we'll see," he said. "I don't know."
Asked what sparked the incident, Weber simply said, "It's playoffs. It's playoffs."
I really think that is such crap coming from Shea Weber. Here is a guy who is the Preds Captain and one of the better defenseman in all of the NHL. Yes this is the playoffs and I understand that emotions can run high during games even in the first round, but there is really no need to pull something stupid like that. If I was Brendan Shanahan that should have been at least a one game suspension. There really is no place in the game for something like that and for Weber sake thankfully Zetterberg wasn't seriously hurt otherwise he could have been in bigger problems. And saying that its the playoffs sure as hell won't cut it anymore. So Weber should have been thanking his lucky stars this wasn't worse.
Now as for actual suspensions there have been three handed out, two that the punishment fit the crime and one that should have been a bit heftier. First was a hit by Byron Bitz of the Canucks on Kyle Clifford of the Kings in game one of the Vancouver-LA series. Clifford wasn't looking behind him as he was staring down at the puck at his feet trying to play it and he got rammed into from behind hard by Bitz. Byron got a two game suspension for the check and that was a good ruling by Shanahan. The other suspension went to Carl Hagelin of the Rangers for his Elbow to Daniel Alfredsson of the Senators in Game Two in MSG. The hit knocked Alfredson out of the game and cost Hagelin three playoff games starting with Game three of this series.
The Rangers-Senators series started getting really chippy in game two and that all started thanks to what some would call a cheap shot in game one. Brian Boyle started throwing punches late in the third period of game one in a scrum in front of the net that set a few hostilities off near the end of game one, which the Rangers had already had in hand. Then at the Start of Game Two things really got interesting. Boyle was the focus of the Senators' attention for an incident in Game 1 where he roughed up Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson after a whistle. Senators coach Paul MacLean inserted Carkner and tough guy Zenon Konopka into the lineup for Game 2 in an attempt to add grit, and it worked almost to perfection. o how did Ottawa respond to Boyle's actions? Easy, it was countered with a first-period melee involving defenseman Matt Carkner unleashing a series of punches that knocked down Boyle, who would not drop his gloves. The ensuing fracas resulted in Carkner and Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky receiving game misconducts just 2:15 into the bitterly intense contest. Dubinsky was visibly upset after being ejected, knocking over a whole jug of gatorade on his way to the Rangers room, and he had every right to be mad, he was sticking up for a teammate who got basically jumped and he got ejected, I would be mad as hell too.
That wasn't the only incident to come out of this as Ottawa Senators forward Matt Carkner has been suspended for one game for continuing to inflict punishment upon an opponent who was an unwilling combatant in an altercation during Game 2 of the team's Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series with the New York Rangers in New York on Saturday, April 14, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
Carkner instigated an altercation with New York forward Brian Boyle, who did not respond. After knocking Boyle to the ice with two punches, Carkner continued to throw punches at his opponent, who was an unwilling combatant. Carkner's actions classified him as an "aggressor" under NHL rules.
The incident occurred at 2:15 of the first period. Carkner was assessed a minor penalty for instigating, a major penalty for fighting and a game misconduct.
So as you can see Brendan Shanahan has been a very busy boy the past few days with physical play in the playoffs. And if this is any possible indication of the way things are going he could be in for a long next few months as the playoffs wind down towards the finals.
The 2011-12 Season has come and gone for the New York Islanders and it ended the same as it has the past few years, with an early trip to the Golf Course. For the third time since the lockout the Islanders hit the 79 point mark on the season and have missed the playoffs each time. This year they were the only team in the Atlantic division to fail to make the playoffs and fail to record more than 80 points as a team. The team ended the year with almost identical records at home as they did on the road finishing 17-18-6 at home and 17-19-5 on the road leading to a total record of 34-37-11 . The only month on the season the team had a winning record was January when they went 6-5-1.
John Tavares led the team in scoring with a career high 81 points on 31 goals and 50 assists. The 50 assists also led the team. He was second on the team in both categories. Matt Moulson led the team in goals with 36 goals. The only players besides Tavares and Moulson to score more than 20 goals wer Kyle Okposo who had 21 and Michael Grabner who had 20. Josh Bailey (13), Frans Nielsen (17), and P.A. Parenteau (18) were the only other guys to hit double digits in goals this year for the club. Streit (40), Parenteau (49) and Tavares (50) were the only guys to have more than 40 assists this season. Matt Moulson and Travis Hamonic were the only Islanders to hit the plus side of the ledger of players who played more than 50 games, and Neilsen, Tavares Moulso and Streit are the only guys to play every game this season. The Isles only scored 4 shorthanded goals this year 3 coming from Josh Bailey and the other coming from Michael Grabner. Matt Moulson led the powerplay with 14 goals on the man advantage while Tavares chipped in 7 on the powerplay. The team powerplay was somewhat effective finishing the year at 18.5% good enough to tie the Panthers for the 7th best powerplay in the leauge, while the Penalty Kill unit wasn't as good finishing the year at 80.5% good for 23rd best in the NHL. The isles averaged 2.39 goals per game the 3rd worst in hockey, only the kings and wild scored less on average then the Islanders.
As far as the goaltending is concerned, the team averaged 3.06 Goals against per game which was 4th worst in hockey. Only the Blue Jackets Lightning and Maple Leafs allowed more goals per game on average than the Islanders. Al Montoya and Evgeni Nabokov handled the bulk of the goaltending duties this year despite both guys batteling injuries. Montoya played in 30 games and had a 9-10-5 record with a 2.96 GAA and a .897 SV%, and Nabokov played in 42 games with a 19-18-3 record a 2.55 GAA a .914 SV % and 2 shutouts (1/17 @ Washington and Feb 7 @ Flyers). Rick DiPietro once again battled injuries and was limited to 8 games and a 3-2-3 record. I will get to a nice little rant about Ricky later on.
There were some big games, wins and plays this season for the Islanders. The Islanders found a nose for hats and OT winners this season. The two hat tricks the Islanders turned this year were by their two best players John Tavares and Matt Moulson. Tavares scored his three against the Rangers in a 4-2 win in October 16th and Matt Moulson scored 4 against the Dallas Stars on December 3rd in a 5-4 Islanders win. Just so everybody can relive that night here is Moulson's 4-Goal Performance:
So as you can see Matt Moulson was red hot on that night. Tavares also had a sever hot streak this year too getting at least one point in 12 straight games. Between December 29th and January 12th Tavares picked up at least one point in 12 straight games something an Islander hasn't done in about a decade. The last Islander to have a 12 game point streak was Mark Parrish from early October to early November in 2001. Those two guys carried the team this season and basically knew how to find each other at almost all times and if you don't believe me watch this:
This was the passing play of the year for the Islanders and it shows how good those two guys have been together since joining forces with the Islanders.
Another area the Islanders played well this year was shootouts as they went 8-2 in 10 shootouts this season, lead mostly by the king of shootouts Frans Nielsen. Nielsen is known for hitting one of two moves, his backup move a quick wrist shot five-hole on the goalie, or his go to move the forehand deke and then ripping the roof on the backhand. Most goalies can probably guess the backhand shot is coming and they still have no real answer to stop Frans who scored 7 goals on 11 shots in shootouts who was the 4th best shooting percentage behind Malkin Parise and Kovalchuk. So Frans has shown he was well deserved of the 4 year $11 Million contract he signed with the Isladners back in February.
There were times this season the Islanders made me happy to be an Islanders fan. Nights like December 3rd with the 5-4 win over Dallas, the night Moulson scored 4, the 5-1 win at home over Detroit on January 10th and the 3 dramatic OT winners this season, Mark Eaton's winner in Ottawa February 3rd (2-1 Win), Mark Streit's winner at home against the Kings on February 11 (2-1 Win), and John Tavares winner against Carolina on January 21st (2-1 Win). So it has been some nights like these that have made me proud to say I'm an Islanders fan. Yet at the same time there are some nights I really am left scratching my head as to why I still follow the club. One of two things really seemed to happen more often than not with Islanders losses either the team just decided not to show up ata all and would get blown out, or they would build up a lead and then just completely fall apart and blow the lead, which would really drive me crazy. All I ask is that if you lose a hockey game either just don't bother showing up or at least go down swiinging, that's all I ask.
Now there are a few things I would love to see the Islanders really like to try and fix on the ice before the 2012-13 season starts in October. First I would love to see P.A. Parenteau get a contract with the Islanders and keep that top line of Parenteau-Tavares-Moulson together as they were the best line on the team by far. Also I would really love it if the team was able to get mroe of a balanced scoring attack so that way they don't have to keep relyin on the Tavares line. Grabner's goal numbers went down from the season before and he needs to step his game up for next season, same thing with Okposo. Yes it was a good thing Kyle scored 21 goals but 15 of those goals came in the 2nd half of the year when the Islanders were out of it. Also think about this in 2011 the Islanders had five guys score more than 20 goals and this year they only had three guys do it. Finally as far as the offense goes Nino Niederreiter needs to try and have more of an offensive impact having socred only two goals and three points in his NHL career. And this season he had only one point a goal against the Blackhawks in December in 52 games. That can't happen if the Islanders expect to be a contender in the league.
As for the Defense the team should be retaining their top three D-men in the form of Andrew MacDonald Travis Hamonic and Mark Streit. They all had good years but Streit had a down year, but lets not forget he is coming off a injury that kept him out of the 2011 season. I would really like to See Calvin De Hann brought up for more than the one game he played last season. The biggest change I would love to see the Islanders make is getting rid of Rick DiPietro who is being paid a ton of money to sit on the sidelines with injuries. This is the biggest damn reason I was against the whole contract in the first place is there is no guarentee that he would play good for the entire length of the contract. He did his first few years and then has seemed to fall off the map with injuries and it has been hampreing the Islanders and their possible ability to sign free agents. Now it is a RUMOR, again it is only a RUMOR that the reason Zenon Konopka left the Islanders to go play in Ottawa was he was unhappy with the Contract Rick signed and felt the Islanders were unable to win with it as they won't be able to sign players. Again that is just a RUMOR but I can see he has a legit gripe because when players see that contract they may look down a little on the team.
So now that we have covered the major points from this past season, I leave you with video tributes of monthly highlights from the first two months of the season for the 2011-12 New York Islanders:
Now here's a look at some December Magic!
Now for the Highlights from the only winning month of the year in January:
And finally heres the highlights from the last two months of the season:
So there you have it a recap of the 2011-12 New York Islanders! Thanks for some good memories boys!
Yes it's that time of year again. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to go with the opening round in the chase for the cup. We start the preview and predictions of the first round right here right now. We start of course with the eastern Conferance.
The eight teams representing the East this year are as follows: New York Rangers, Boston Bruins, Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, New Jersey Devils, Washington Capitals, and Ottawa Senators. The playoff picture in the Eas looks totally different from this time last year. last year the Canadiens, Lightning and Sabres were in the playoffs and this year they all missed the post season and were replaced by the Devils, Senators, and Panthers. So things look very different from this time last year in the east. We kick off the playoff preview with looking at the 1-8 matchup which is the New York Rangers and the Ottawa Senators.
The New York Rangers entered the playoffs as the first overall seed in the Eastern Conference with 109 points. The Ottawa Senators earned 92 points during the regular season to finish eighth overall in the Eastern Conference. As most people know the Rangers have won 4 stanley cups in team history. Since the lockout the Rangers have only missed the playoffs once and that was in 2009-10. The team has lost its last two opening rounds in the playoffs both times to the Washington Capitals. This is the first division title for the Rangers since they won the Atlantic in 1994, the year they won the Cup, and this is the highest the Rangers have finished in the division since 1996-97 when they finished 2nd in the Atlantic, and that year they were bounced in the 2nd round by the Penguins. Marian Gaborik was a goal scoring machine for the Blueshirts this year scoring 41 goals and 76 points which lead the team, while Brad Richards lead in assists with 41. Henrik Lundqvist carried the load in goal playing in 62 games and posting a record of 39-18-5 with a 1.97 GAA a .930 SV% and posted 8 shutouts. He still has a capable backup behind him in Martin Biron who went 12-6-2 in 21 starts. So we know the Rangers can score and stop the puck.
As for the Ottawa Senators, they come in as the 8th seed in the post season, and since the lockout have made the playoffs in every year except two, one of them being last season. The teams best year since coming back into the league in 1993 was in 2007 when they lost in 5 games to the Ducks in the Finals. The Sens last trip to the playoffs was in 2009-10 and they lost to the Penguins in 6 games. The team has an 8-12 all time mark in post season series. Milan Michalek lead Ottawa in goals with 32, Jason Spezza lead them in Points with 75 and Erik Karlsson led the club in assists with 52. Craig Anderson carried the load in goal for the Sens playing in 56 games with a record of 29-19-6 with a GAA of 2.85 and a SV % of .913. Ottawa can be a dangerous team when fully healthy but they have battled the injury bug at various points this season. The Sens can and will put up a fight but the question is can Craig Anderson be the answer in net in the playoffs for Ottawa. This is the first playoff series between these two teams. Ottawa won this year's four-game regular season series 3–1–0.
Here is a look at the Dates and Times of the games in this series:
Thursday, April 12, 2012 7 p.m. Ottawa at NY Rangers NHL Network, CBC Saturday, April 14, 2012 7 p.m. Ottawa at NY Rangers NBC Sports Network, CBC Monday, April 16, 2012 7:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Ottawa CBC, CNBC Wednesday, April 18, 2012 7:30 p.m. NY Rangers at Ottawa CBC, CNBC *Saturday, April 21, 2012 7 p.m. Ottawa at NY Rangers NBC Sports Network, CBC *Monday, April 23, 2012 TBD NY Rangers at Ottawa TBD *Thursday, April 26, 2012 TBD Ottawa at NY Rangers TBD
Now then, its hard to judge this as a rivalry game cause these two clubs have never met before in the playoffs. Both teams can score, as we have already established. Ottawa has had succes in the past as a few of the guys were here when they went to the cup in 07. The Rangers have the edge in team defense and goaltending, so on that even though the Senators won the season series, the Rangers will take this series in 6 games.
Next up to look at is the 2-7 matchup, the Boston Bruins and Washington Capitals. The Boston Bruins entered the playoffs as the second seed in the Eastern Conference by winning the Northeast Division with 102 points. The Washington Capitals earned 92 points during the regular season to finish seventh overall in the Eastern Conference. As everybody knows the Boston Bruins are teh Defending Stanley Cup Champions,a dna re looking to defend their title. The Bruins have won 6 titles in franchies history and have played in 11 more, so there is plenty of history with the Bruins in the finals. Boston has won the Northeast Division for the 2nd year in a row and for the 3rd time since the lockout. The other time tehy did that the Bruins were bounced in 7 games by the Hurricans in the 2nd round back in 2008-09. Tyler Seguin led the Bruins in goals with 29 and points with 67 while Patrice Bergeron lead the club in assists with 42. Marc Savard and Nathan Horton are both out of the Boston lineup with injuries right now so the team will have to try and find a way to fill their rolls in the lineup, espically Horton who had a big hand in Boston's playoff run lsast year. Tim Thomas carried the load in goal again for Boston playing in 59 games with a 35-19-1 record posting 5 shutouts a 2.36 GAA and a .920 SV%. Backing him up right now looks to be Marty Turco, who has played 5 games at the end of the season due to the injury bug hitting Tukka Rask. The Bruins once again seem to have one of the more balanced teams in the whole league.
As for the Washington Capitals this will mark the 5th straight year they have made the playoffs. Sadly the team hasn't been abel to get out of the 2nd round in any of the last 4 post season trips. The best season for the Caps was in 1998 when they went all the way to the Cup Finals before falling to Detroit. The Caps have won the Southeast Division the last four straight years before being dethrowned this year. Prior to that they had finished last in the division each of the first two years out of the lockout. Alexander Ovechkin once again leads the team in goals with 37 and points with 64, both of which are way down from his first few years in the league when he was scoring 50 or mroe goals and 100 or more points on a regular basis. Dennis Wideman leads the team in assists with 35. Alexander Semin was 2nd on the team in scoring with 53 points. Tomas Vokoun started 47 games for the Caps going 25-17-2 while Michal Neuvirth started 32 games going 11-12-4. For a team that last season was the best in the East it was a down swing of a year for the Capitals.
Here is the schedule for this series:
Thursday, April 12, 2012 7:30 p.m. Washington at Boston NBC Sports Network, CBC Saturday, April 14, 2012 3 p.m. Washington at Boston NBC, CBC Monday, April 16, 2012 7:30 p.m. Boston at Washington NBC Sports Network, CBC Thursday, April 19, 2012 7:30 p.m. Boston at Washington NBC Sports Network, CBC *Saturday, April 21, 2012 3 p.m. Washington at Boston NBC, CBC *Sunday, April 22, 2012 TBD Boston at Washington TBD *Wednesday, April 25, 2012 TBD Washington at Boston TBD
This is the third playoff series between these two teams, with each team having won one of the previous playoff series. The most recent series between these teams was the 1998 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, which was won by Washington in six games. Washington won this year's four-game regular season series 3–1–0. Once the playoffs start things can really change, and the Capitals have had bad years the last four seasons in the playoffs. The Bruins will be hungry to defend their crown and the Caps have been a bit off by their standards this year. This one seems almost too easy to pick, Caps may win a few at home but Boston wins the Series in 6.
Next up is the 3-6 matchup in the east The Florida Panthers taking on the New Jersey Devils. The Florida Panthers entered the playoffs as the third seed in the Eastern Conference by winning the Southeast Division with 94 points. The New Jersey Devils earned 102 points during the regular season to finish sixth overall in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers have made the playoffs only three times in thier history, the best year being the 1st ever trip to the playoffs which was a run to the 1996 Stanley Cup Finals where they were swept by the Colorado Avalanche. The other two apperances in the playoffs have been quick exits in 1997 a five game defeat by the Rangers and then in 2000 a sweep by the Devils. This is the first ever division title for the team. The least time Florida finished higher than 3rd was in 2000 when they were 2nd in the division. Stephen Weiss lead the Panthers with 52 points, Brian Campbell lead in assists with 45 and Tomas Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg tied for the team lead with 22 goals. So Florida was the lowest scoring team in the Playoffs this year but did enough to get the Division Crown. Leading the way between the pipes for the Panthers is Jose Theodore who plaed 47 games this season going 22-14-7 with a GAA of 2.40 and a .920 SV%. he has a capable backup in Scott Clemmensen who went 12-6-5 in 26 games.
As for the New Jersey Devils, they have made the playoffs 20 times in franchies history, adn have missed the playoffs a total of 8 times, including the first 5 years of existence in New Jersey. The Devils have three Stanley Cups to thier names, 1995, 2000, and 2003. They missed the playoffs last year for the first time since 1996, and that is not including the lockout in 2004-05. The team hs won the Atlantic Division 4 times since the lockout. Ilya Kovalchuk lead the team in Points with 85 and goals with 35. Patrik Elias lead the team with 50 assists. Besides Kovalchuk there were two other Devils to hit the 30 goal mark, David Clarkson (30) and Zach Parise (31). Martin Brodeur started 55 games this year for the Devils going 27-21-4 with a 2.45 GAA and a .906 SV% with 2 shutouts. Johan Hedberg, the man they call Moose played in 26 games going 16-7-2 with a 2.27 GAA and a .917 SV% with 4 shutouts. It was a bit of a surprise seeing Hedberg get more shutouts in a single season then the all time shutout king in Marty Brodeur. The late season additions of Alexei Ponikarovsky and Marek Zidlicky have had a big impact on getting the Devils into the 6 seed.
Here is the schedule for this series:
Friday, April 13, 2012 7 p.m. New Jersey at Florida NHL Network, TSN Sunday, April 15, 2012 7:30 p.m. New Jersey at Florida NBC Sports Network, TSN Tuesday, April 17, 2012 7 p.m. Florida at New Jersey NHL Network, TSN Thursday, April 19, 2012 7 p.m. Florida at New Jersey NHL Network, TSN *Saturday, April 21, 2012 6:30 p.m. New Jersey at Florida NHL Network, TSN *Tuesday, April 24, 2012 TBD Florida at New Jersey TBD *Thursday, April 26, 2012 TBD New Jersey at Florida TBD
This is the second playoff series between these two teams, with New Jersey having swept the 2000 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, which was actually the most recent playoff series the Panthers had played, having failed to qualify for the playoffs for ten consecutive seasons. The teams split this year's four-game regular season series. This is the first time the Panthers are going into the playoffs at this high a seed and the end of a long drought out of the playoffs for the club so expect Rats to be flying in Sunrise this spring. Yes the Panthers took great strides this year in getting into the playoffs but its not going to be enough. The Devils are too good and too experianced compaired to the Panthers, with Brian Campbell and Jose Theodore being the only two Panthers with any big time playoff epxeriance. The Panthers may win a game or two at hoem but I take the Devils in 6.
And finally we take a look at the most even matchup of this first round in the East its the 4-5 as the Pittsburgh Penguins take on the Philadelphia Flyers.The Pittsburgh Penguins entered the playoffs as the fourth overall seed in the Eastern Conference with 108 points. The Philadelphia Flyers earned 103 points during the regular season to finish fifth overall in the Eastern Conference. The Pens have won three cups in franchise history, most recent in 2009 adn have a franchise record in the playoffs of 124-109. They were bounced in the first round of the playoffs last year by the Lightning in the first round and the team has missed the playoffs once since the end of the lockout and that was the following season in 2005-06. Evgeni Malkin led the Pens in all offensive cataoories with 50 goals 59 assists and 109 points, followed by James Neal, who had 40 goals and 41 assists for 81 points. And of course lets not forget about Sidney Crosby who despite missing most of the year with concussion and neck problems was able to play in 22 games scoring 8 goals and 29 assists for 37 points. Marc-Andre Fleury carried the bulk of the load in net playing in 67 games with a 42-17-4 record with a 2.36 GAA and a 0.913 SV%. Kristopher Letang will be back adn healthy in the pens lineup along with Sidney Crosby which will make the Pens very dangerous.
As for the Flyers, they are 209-194 all time in post season play and have only missed the playoffs once since the lockout. Actually the Flyers have only missed the playoffs only once since 1995, winning the Atlantic Division last year. And they played for the Stanley Cuop in 2010 losing to the Hawks in 6. Claude Giroux leads the Flyers with 65 assists and 93 points, while Scott Hartnell led the team with 37 goals. Jaromir Jagr had a solid first season back in the NHL after a nice layoff from the league scoring 19 goals and adding 35 assists in 73 games. Ilya Bryzgalov saw 59 games this year with a record of 33-16-7 and Sergei Bobrovsky played 29 games with a 14-10-2 record. The Flyers right now are without the services of Blair Betts, Danny Briere, Andrej Meszaros, Chris Pronger, and James van Riemsdyk who are all out with injuries. The Flyers still may have enough to put up a good fight in this series.
Here is the schedule for this series:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia at Pittsburgh NBC Sports Network, TSN Friday, April 13, 2012 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia at Pittsburgh NBC Sports Network, TSN Sunday, April 15, 2012 3 p.m. Pittsburgh at Philadelphia NBC, TSN Wednesday, April 18, 2012 7:30 p.m. Pittsburgh at Philadelphia NBC Sports Network, TSN *Friday, April 20, 2012 7:30 p.m. Philadelphia at Pittsburgh NBC Sports Network, TSN *Sunday, April 22, 2012 TBD Pittsburgh at Philadelphia TBD *Tuesday, April 24, 2012 TBD Philadelphia at Pittsburgh TBD
This is the sixth playoff series between these two teams, with Philadelphia having won three of the five previous playoff series. In the most recent matchup in the 2009 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, the Penguins defeated the Flyers in six games. Philadelphia won this year's six-game regular season series 4–2–0. In all the series these two teams have had here is one of the more famous goals by Keith Primeau back in 2000:
Aside from the greatness of that goal, this one is the most even matchup of the east. The Flyers injuries are going to be a hinderance, so it should on paper be a good start to the series for the Penguins. But with both teams healthy this is going to be a great series. As much as I hate saying this, I will take the Penguins in 7 in this series.
So now that the East has been discussed lets take a look at the West. And we start it off with the 1-8 matchup as its the best in the West the Vancouver Canucks taking on the Los Angeles Kings. The Vancouver Canucks entered the playoffs as the Western Conference regular season champions and Presidents' Trophy winners, earning 111 points. The Los Angeles Kings qualified for the postseason as the eighth seed with 95 points. The Canucks are 98-116 all time in the playoffs,with the team losing to the Bruins last year in the finals in 7 games, and have missed the playoffs just twice since the lockout ended. Henrik Sedin led the team in assists with 57 and points with 70 while his brother Daniel lead in goals with 30. Roberto Luongo and Corey Schnider split goaltending duties this year, with Luongo Starting 49 games going 27-14-7 and Schnider playing in 28 games going 16-7-1. The Canucks had another very strong season but it didnt seem as dominate due to teh fact that both Sedin Brothers missed time this year due to injury. Keith Ballard is injured at the moment at that hurst the Canucks on the Blueline.
The Kings are rolling into the playoffs with a 11–23 all time series record and have been eliminated in the first round each of the last two years. Anze Kopitar led the team in all three offensive catagories, 24 goals 41 assists and 65 points. Adding Jeff Carter and Mike Richards together again is going to be a huge bonus for the Kings as they have had success together when they played with the Flyers. Also having Simone Gagne in the lineup will be big too. Gagne has had good playoff experiance with the Flyers and if fully healthy will be an impact. Jonathan Quick is the Kings #1 goalie playing in 61 games with a record of 31-19-11 during the season. he is going to have to stand on his head against Vancouver if the Kings really wanna have a chance in this series. I said Gagne had to be healthy to be an impact and right now he isnt due to the injury bug so this is going to be in trouble.
Here is the Schedule for this series:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 10:30 p.m. Los Angeles at Vancouver CBC, NBC Sports Network Friday, April 13, 2012 10 p.m. Los Angeles at Vancouver CBC, NBC Sports Network Sunday, April 15, 2012 10:30 p.m. Vancouver at Los Angeles NBC Sports Network, CBC Wednesday, April 18, 2012 10 p.m. Vancouver at Los Angeles NBC Sports Network, CBC *Sunday, April 22, 2012 TBD Los Angeles at Vancouver TBD *Tuesday, April 24, 2012 TBD Vancouver at Los Angeles TBD *Thursday, April 26, 2012 TBD Los Angeles at Vancouver TBD
This is the fifth playoff series between these two teams, the two teams each having won two of the previous playoff series. The most recent matchup occurred in the 2010 Western Conference Quarterfinals, where the Canucks defeated the Kings in six games. The teams split this year's four-game regular season series. As good as the Kings have been this may be the easiest series in the West to Predict I will take the Canucks in 6.
Next up is the 2-7 Matchup in the west pitting the St Louis Blues against the San Jose Sharks. The St. Louis Blues entered the playoffs as the Central division champions, earning 109 points. The San Jose Sharks qualified for the postseason as the seventh seed with 96 points. The Blues were the 2nd best team in the conference and have a 23–34 all time series record in the playoffs. Post lockouit the Blues have only made the playoffs once prior to this season. And pre lockout the Blues had made the post season every year since 1980, and this was the first division title for the blues since 1999-00. David Backes and TJ Oshie led the team with 54 points, and Backas lead the team with 24 goals while Alex Pietrangelo lead the team with 39 assists. Jaroslav Halak split time with Brian Elliot in the Nets for the Blues but Halak may get the nod in the playoffs due to his experiance. Halak was a big reason the Canadiens got into the East finals in 2010. Halak played in 46 games going 26-12-7 in goal after a very rough start to the season. Elliot played in 38 games with a 23-10-4 record. With how both goalies played this year the Blues have the best goalie tandom in the playoffs right now. The Blues have really turned their season around after Ken Hitchcok took over as coach around the All Star Break and has his Blues playing their best hockey at the right time.
Ass for the Sharks they are 13–14 in the playoffs and have never played in the stanley cup finals. Joe Thornton led the Sharks in assists with 52 and Points with 68, while Logan Couture was the only Shark to hit 30 goals. The Sharks have never really been able to get over that major hump and get to the cup finals and most oare wondering if they will be able to do it woith Thorton on th8e team. Antti Niemi will be leading the way between thepipes with 58 games played and a record of 28-19-9. Niemi is known for being a clutch goalie in the post season as he was the backstop to the 2010 cup winners in Chicago. So Niemi knows what it takes to get to the finals but couldn't get past the Canucks in lasst years west finals. Dominic Moore will be out for the Sharks due to an injury but otherwise the Sharks are healthy.
He4re is how the series is Scheduled:
Thursday, April 12, 2012 7:30 p.m. San Jose at St. Louis CNBC, TSN Saturday, April 14, 2012 7:30 p.m. San Jose at St. Louis CNBC, TSN Monday, April 16, 2012 10 p.m. St. Louis at San Jose NBC Sports Network, TSN Thursday, April 19, 2012 10:30 p.m. St. Louis at San Jose NBC Sports Network, TSN *Saturday, April 21, 2012 7:30 p.m. San Jose at St. Louis CNBC, TSN *Monday, April 23, 2012 TBD St. Louis at San Jose TBD *Wednesday, April 25, 2012 TBD San Jose at St. Louis TBD
This is the fourth playoff series between these two teams, with San Jose having won two of the three previous playoff series. The most recent matchup occurred in the 2004 Western Conference Quarterfinals, where the Sharks defeated the Blues in five games. St. Louis swept this year's four-game regular season series, outscoring San Jose by a combined score of 11–3. This one is almost an unfair thing to call here. This is going to be a good sderies and sorry to say it Sharks fans but you're season willend early as the Blues will take it in 6.
Next up is the 3-6 matchup in the west the Phoenix Coyotes taking on the Chicago Blackhawks. The Phoenix Coyotes entered the playoffs as the third seed in the Western Conference by winning the Pacific Division with 97 points. The Chicago Blackhawks earned 101 points during the regular season to finish sixth overall in the Western Conference. The Phoenix Coyotes have NEVER won a playoff series since moving to the desert going 0-7 in the playoffs. This is a good note for the Coyotes as it is the first time they have ever won the division. Ray Whitney leads the team in points with 77 and assists with 53 while Radim Vrbata leads with 30 goals. Shane Doan also hit the 50 point mark this year. Mike Smith has been the #1 man in goal playing in 67 games with a record of 38-18-10 making hime a strong candidate for the Veznia as top goalie. But there is a solid backup in net if Smith somehow faulters in the playoffs in the form of Jason LaBarbera who can play goal but was under 500 this year.
As for the Hawks they are in the playoffs for the 4th straight year. After winning the Cup in 2010 they were bounced in 7 games in the first round last year by the Canucks. Marian Hossa led the team with 44 assists and 73 points and Patrick Sharp led in goals with 30. It's been a down year for both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews registered under 60 points as both battled injuries this season. Corey Crawford carried the bulk of the load in net for the Hawks playing in 50 games with a record of 26-16-5 while his backup Rey Emery played in 32 games going 15-9-3. As we know both goalies have and good experiance in the playoffs so we know.
Here is the schedule for the series:
Thursday, April 12, 2012 10 p.m. Chicago at Phoenix NBC Sports Network, TSN Saturday, April 14, 2012 10 p.m. Chicago at Phoenix NBC Sports Network, TSN Tuesday, April 17, 2012 9 p.m. Phoenix at Chicago CNBC, TSN Thursday, April 19, 2012 8 p.m. Phoenix at Chicago CNBC, TSN *Saturday, April 21, 2012 10 p.m. Chicago at Phoenix NBC Sports Network, TSN *Monday, April 23, 2012 TBD Phoenix at Chicago TBD *Wednesday, April 25, 2012 TBD Chicago at Phoenix TBD
This is the first playoff series between these two teams. Phoenix won this year's four-game regular season series 3–1–0. What I am about to say may come as a surprise to some but not to most. The Coyotes are long overdue for a playoff series victory and this si going to be the year it happens. Hawks are good but I take the Coyotes in 6.
Finally it's the 4-5 matchup in the west as the Nashville Predators play the Detroit Red Wings. The Nashville Predators entered the playoffs as the fourth overall seed in the Western Conference with 104 points. The Detroit Red Wings earned 102 points during the regular season to finish fifth overall in the Western Conference. Detroit hs struggled a little bit in the playoffs and this regular season. The Wings have not missed the playoffs since 1989-90 and have won four Stanley Cups since then. Pavel Datsyuk led the team with 60 points and 43 assists while Johan Franzen led the club with 26 goals. The Wings have been balanced as they usualy are but nobody on the roster was healthy enough to play 80 games this season which would explain the low point totals for the Wings. Jimmy Howard played 52 games going 33-15-3 but then had to deal with the injury bug so Joey MacDonald and Ty Conklin had to finish out the season. Howard could have easily hit 40 wins had he stayed fully healthy. Patrick Eaves is the only Wings regular out with injury right now. The Wings looked great for the first half of the season, then the injury bug took hold of the team and caused them to fall to 5th.
As for the Predators, they have only made the playoffs 7 times in franchise history and winning one series in the opening round of last years playoffs against the Ducks before losing to the Canucks so the Predators have proven they can pull off upsets in the playoffs. Martin Erat led the team in assists with 39 and points with 58, while Patric Hornqvist led the team with 27 goals. The Preds have gotten a lot better since the addition of Alexander Radulov who had 3 goals and 4 assists for 7 points in 9 games since joining the team. Pekka Rinne had a big regular season and is expected to come up big again in the playoffs. Rinne played in 73 games for the Preds going 43-18-8 leading him to be a strong candidate for the Vezina trophy. Rinne is going to have to be good again for the Preds to go deep into the playoffs. Nashville is going into the playoffs 100% healthy.
Here is the Schedule for this series:
Wednesday, April 11, 2012 8 p.m. Detroit at Nashville CNBC, CBC Friday, April 13, 2012 :30 p.m. Detroit at Nashville CNBC, CBC Sunday, April 15, 2012 Noon Nashville at Detroit NBC, CBC Tuesday, April 17, 2012 7:30 p.m. Nashville at Detroit NBC Sports Network, CBC *Friday, April 20, 2012 8 p.m. Detroit at Nashville CNBC, CBC *Sunday, April 22, 2012 TBD Nashville at Detroit TBD *Tuesday, April 24, 2012 TBD Detroit at Nashville TBD
This is the third playoff series between these two teams, with Detroit having won both of the previous playoff series in six games, and the most recent matchup occurring in the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinals. The teams split this year's six-game regular season series. And for anybody who forgot this rivlary has produced one of the great playoff goals of all time:
As sweet as those goals were, and they were great, it won't be enough. I am actually calling a quick playoff exit for the Wings as I say Nashville wins the series in 7! So there you have it the first round preview for the the Stanley Cup Playoffs!
And here we are the final divisional previews for the 2012 MLB season and its the eastern divisions of the AL & NL. We are going to kick off the final preview with the AL East. This is a division that had been dominated by the Yankees but over the past few years the balance of power has shifted a bit more to even out among the Yankees Rays and Red Sox. And we are going to kick off the preview with the Baltimore Orioles.
It has been a rough stretch for the O's as they haven't made the playoffs since their last division title in 1997. In fact 1997 was also the last time the Orioles had a winning season. Zach Britton and Jake Arrieta were the only two Baltimore pitchers to hit double digits in wins last season for the O's. the 3rd best pitcher the team had last season was Jeremy Guthrie who won 9 games for the team, and he now pitches for the Colorado Rockies. Heading into opening day Arrieta is the teams #1 pitcher and Britton is on the DL at the moment, so it will be a rough start for the pitching staff. The club has yet to name its closer. Kevin Gregg had the job last year saving 22 games for the team, and quite frankly seems the only guy in the pen who can get it done from what it looks like. As for the O's offense it seemed to be powered by three guys last year, Mark Renyolds, Adam Jones, and J.J. Hardy. All three guys drove in over 80 RBI's and Hardy and Reynolds each hit 30 + Homers. All three have been returned to the team for this season. The elder statesman on the club is Nick Markakis who last year put up OK numbers with 19 homers and 73 RBI's and will again be counted on to provide leadership for the club. The Orioles seem to have a good enough team on the field to contend but the biggest factor to determine the team success is it's pitching staff and that seems to be a question mark for them. Baltimore will again be in the basement in the AL East. Sorry Baltimore.
Next up is the Toronto Blue Jays. The Jays haven't made the playoffs since they won the World Series in 1993, they have been hovering around 500 the last few seasons but haven't placed higher than 4th in the division since 2007. Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow were the two Jays Pitchers hitting double digits in wins last year and both are right back at the top of the Jays pitching rotations again this year. Sergio Santos will be taking over the role of closer this season, when last year it was Frank Francisco and Jon Rauch had split time as the teams closer both of whom picked up double digit saves a year ago. Both guys have since been traded to the New York Mets. The Jays were able to pick up some insurance for the pen with acquiring Francisco Cordero from the Reds and Darren Oliver from the Rangers. The Jays pen looks ok and can probably hold its own but the starting rotation don't look too promising outside of the top two starters. The offense for the Jays will of course be lead by Jose Bautista who hammered 43 Homers and 103 RBI's to lead the club. He will be back in the fold again this season patrolling right field. Adam Lind was 2nd on the team in RBI's and homers last year and is back anchoring down first base for the Jays. The Jays appear deep enough if they can have Edwin Encarnacion and Omar Vizquel coming off the bench. The Jays will climb back to around 500 again but its going to be tough getting into the playoffs with how loaded this division is.
Next up is the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays have made the playoffs 3 of the last 4 years going as faor as the world series in 2008 before losing to the phillies. the only year they missed was in 2009. Last year they got in as the wild card and they won the east in 2010 so Tampa is looking to keep up its strong play again this year. The club is returning its starting 5 pitching rotation from last year. James Shields (16-12), David Price (12-13), Jeremy Hellickson (13-10), Jeff Niemann (11-7) and Wade Davis (11-10) are all back except Davis will be starting the year in the Pen and Matt Moore will be pegged as the teams #4 Starter. Kyle Farnsworth will once again be closing games for the team coming off a 25 save season a year ago. The Rays have a very solid pitching staff that will be able to take them places again in the division. Evan Longoria and Ben Zobrist led the offensive charge last year. Longoria had 31 Homers and drove in 99 runs while Zobrist hits 21 homers and drove in 91 runs. Both guys are expected to lead the charge again this season. BJ Upton Matt Joyce and Carlos Pena are also expected to bring big things to the Rays this year. Pena comes over from the Cubs bringing along with him 28 Homers and 80 RBI's while Upton and Joyce each add 15-20 Homers and 75-90 RBI to the mix. Right there is the heart of the Rays order and will be carrying the team this season I see the potential for another playoff birth here for Tampa.
Now on to the Boston Red Sox. The Sox have not had a losing season since 1997 and have finished in 3rd place in the East the last two years so the Sox are looking to get back into the swing of things this year. The top four winning pitchers from last year, Alfredo Aceves (10-2), John Lacky (12-12), Josh Becket (13-7) and John Lester (13-9) are all back in the fold for the Red Sox. Aceves will be doing most of his work out of the pen this season, while Becket Lester and Lacky are still in the starting rotation although Lacky is currently on the 60-day DL. Clay Buchholz Felix Doubront, Daniel Bard and Daisuke Matsuzaka round out the rotation. The Sox have to try to find a replacement for the loss of closer Jonathan Papelbon who saved 31 games for the team will now be doing that for the Phillies. Red Sox pitching staff will put them right in the thick of things in the East. Mike Aviles comes over from the Royals to play shortstop and Ryan Sweeney comes in from Oakland to play right field. The biggest change to the red sox is the retirement of Jason Varetek at Catcher. Right now the team has Jarrod Saltalamacchia as the starting catcher but he is going to have some mighty big shoes to fill with the retirement of Varetek. The offense is going to be powered right now by the same four guys who powered it last year, Adrian Gonzalez (27 Home Runs 117 RBI), David Ortiz (29 Home Runs 96 RBI), Jacoby Ellsbury (32 Homers 105 RBI) and Dustin Pedroia (21 Homers 91 RBI). The Red Sox have a good lineup that can compete and should be able to hang with any team in baseball. One thing that worries me is really how deep this club actually is, because if something happens to one of the Sox regulars then I don't really know how deep this team is. New manager Bobby Valentine is gonna have a very good ball club to work with.
Finally we get to the New York Yankes. This ball club has missed the playoffs only once in this decade and that was in 2008. That was the first Yankees team to miss the playoffs since 1993 so yes the Yankees are very very good. The Yanks won the East last year. And here is how you know that the franchise is good they have not had a lossing season since 1992. The Yankee offense hasn't changed at all since the end of last year. The only real change to the Yankee offense was at Catcher. Russell Martin is still the starting catcher for the team but his backup has changed. Jesus Montero was viewed as the next star catcher for the yankees but he was shipped off to the Seattle Mrainers so Russel Martin has the job outright as of now. Curtis Granderson is looking to build off last years MONSTER year of 41 Homers and 119 RBI's. Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira each also drove in 110 runs last season, whit Tex adding 39 homers and Cano hitting 28. A-Rod had a down year by his standards only appearing in 99 games hitting 16 homers and driving in 62 runs, but I think Rodrigues qill return to his form again this season and hit at least 30 homers and drive in around 100 again. The Yankees pitching staff took on a bit of an undertaking. CC Sabathia is still the #1 starter for the Yanks going 19-8 last season. Ivan Nova (16-4) and Freddy Garcia (12-8) are also back in the rotation. Phil Hughes is hoping for a bounc back year after going 5-5 in a slight injury plagued year last year. Hiroki Kuroda joins in the mix after going 13-16 for the Dodgers last season. Michael Pineda appears to fill out the starting rotation after going 9-10 for the Mariners last year. Bartolo Calon went 8-10 in New York alst year but was no longer needed for the Yankees so he is now in Oakland. And of course the team still has the greatest closer ion the history of of he game in Mariano Rivera coming out of the pen. Rivera had another awesome season last year saving 44 games for the Pinstripes. The only slight question mark for the yankees is how they are possibly going to bridge the gap between the starters and Mariano. But manager Joe Garadi will be able to find a way to win.
Here is how I see the AL East finishing at the end of the season.
1. New York Yankees 2. Tampa Bay Rays 3. Boston Red Sox 4. Toronto Blue Jays 5. Baltimore Orioles
Not it's time to take a look at the NL East! The Phillies have won the last 5 straigth division titles. Them and the Braves have won the division Every year siance 1992. the only other team to win teh division was the 2006 New York Mets. This division has been basically controlled by two teams and it looks that way again this year. Lets start things off with the Washington Nationals.
The Nats have only made the playoffs once in thier history and that was when they were the Expos back in 1981 and the last time the team was at 500 was its first year in Washington in 2005. They finished 3rd in the East last. John Lannon lead the team in wins with 10 and Drew Storen lead the team in saves with 43. This season the Nats have Brad Lidge coming out of the pen wioth him pitching with the Phillies last season with Henry Rodriguez expected to be the closer. As for the starting rotation in Washington Stephen Strasburg is expected to return as the #1 man in DC after missing all of last year due to tommy john surgery. Edwin Jackson, Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmermann, and Ross Detwiler round out the starting rotation. The Nats pitching staff may be one of the weaker staff's in thet East. Michael Morse was the leading hitter in the Nats lineup last year with 31 Homers and 95 RBI's. He will be playing this year but currently he sits on the DL with Rick Ankel who are going to be impact players with this team. Washington is going to have a solid lineup everyday as of now. With what they have to field everyday Adam LaRoche Jason Werth and Ryan Zimmerman are going to be leading the charge. With what they have the Nats should bue around 500 this season.
Next uop is the Miami Marlins. The Marlins haven't made the playoffs since winning the World Series in 2003 and havent had a winning season since 2009. last year they were in last place in the east and are looking to berak out of the basement this year. Javier Vazquez and Ricky Nolasco hit double digits in wins. Vazquez isn't even in teh league at this point so that is 13 losses out the window from last season. Nolasco is slated as the #3 starter in the rotation behind Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson. Carlos Zambrano and Anibal Sanchez round out the rotation. Zambrano is coming in from the Cubs while Sanzhez is returning to the rotataion from last year. Juan Oviedo paced the Marlins last year with 36 saves but he has been replaced by Heath Bell as the closer which is set at about 40 saves a guarentee. Giancarlo Stanton paced the Marlins offense with 34 Homers and 87 RBI. He and other leading hitters Gabby Sanchez and John Buck will be back in the lineup again this year. Hanley Rameriz had a down year last year and is looking to try and bounce back. Now he has to try and adjust to the new position of 3rd base. The reason for the position switch is the monster contract the Marlins issued to their new Shortstop Jose Reyes. Reyes comes over from the Mets after winning the batting title last year in the NL. So with Reyes thrown into the mix, the Marlins are going to be over 500 and a contender in the East.
Next up is the Atlanta Braves. The Braves have finishied in 2nd place in the division the last two seasons and haven't won the East since 2005. Tim Hudson, Jair Jurrjens, and Tommy Hanson were the only Atlanta pitchers to hit double digits in wins last season, adn Derek Lowe was under 500 and missed the double digit mark by one win. Lowe isn't returning to the team but the other three will be in the starting rotation again this season for the Braves. Craig Kimbrel led the team with 46 saves last season and will be back in the closer role again this season for the team from Hot Lanta. Dan Uggla was able to pace the Braves offense with 36 Homers and 82 RBI. He will be joined by Freddy Freeman and Brian McCann as the big hitters in the Braves lineup. They had Chipper jones in the lineup and he will be back when he comes off the DL but this is the last year for Chipper as he will be retiring at the end of the season. Plus throw in the talent of Jason Heyward. The Braves have talent but it won't be enough to get over the hump in the division. I can see a 3rd place finish at best for the club.
Next up is the the champions of the east the Philadelphia Phillies. The fighting Phils have won the Eastern Division each of the last 5 seasons. The pitching staff in the city of Brotherly Love was unstoppable last year. They were lead by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hammels, and Vance Worley, all of whom hit double digits in wins. Roy Oswalt fell one game short of 500 and one game short of double digit wins. Oswalt was the only one of the big pitchers who didn't return to the team. So to fill the void in the rotation the Phillies added Joe Blanton and and Kyle Kendrick to the mix which is making the Phillies starting rotation dangerous. Ryan Madson led the club in saves last season with 32 but has been replaced as closer with former Red Sox Jonathan Papelbon. Otherwise the Phillies have kept their team in tact. Ryan Howard paced the club with 36 Homers and 116 RBI's but he is recovering from a torn Achilles tendon which is causing him to be out for a while. The Phillies have plenty of depth at 1st base in Ty Wiggington and Jim Thome so the team is covered till Howard can return. This is almost a no contest the Phillies are going to win the East again.T
Finally we end the predictions with the New York Mets. The Mets havcent made the playoffs since winning the division in 2006. Dilan Gee John Neese and Chris Capuano were the lone Mets in double digit wins. Capuano is now a Dodger out in LA. neese and Gee are back in the rotation as is the returning Johan Santana. Throw in the Knuckelball throwing RA Dickey and the Mets may have an OK starting rotation. The question for the team is how well will Santana be pitching after missing all of last season with Tommy John Surgery. So Santana is a question. Teh Bullpen for the Mets has been a big question the past few season but has gotten a needed improvement in the winter months. Last year K-Rod led the team with 23 saves before he got traded to the Brewsrs in July. Now Frank Fransisco is expected to be an improvement as a closer. And if all else fails the team has other guys in the pen with experiance as closers such as John Rauch who they picked up from the Blue Jays. The team did lose their best centerfielder in Angel Pagan to the Giants in the Fransisco trade. Carlos Beltran led the team with 66 RBI and he is now playing for the Birds in St Louis. David Wright had a very down year driving in 61 runs on 19 Homers. Ike Davis missed most of the season after a freak ankle injury after a collision with David Wright, but Davis is 100% and should be ready to rock and roll. Andres Torres will take over in centerfield with the departure of Pagan. Torres was picked up for his defenseive play in center. Slugger Lucas Duda will be getting the starting role in right field and Jason Bay will be back patroling left. Bay hasn't exactly been living up to his big contract but hopefully this will be a breakout year for him Wright and Davis in the heart of the order. With Reyes signing with the Marlins, Ruben Tejada will get th8e starting job and shortstop and Justin Turner willbe holding down the fort at 2nd. Finally Josh Thole will handle the bulk of the catching duties this season. The Mets may not have the strongest lineup in the east but there is a chance they may be able to surprise a few people in there and hopefully hover right around 500.
Here is how I see the NL East playing out:
1. Philadelphia Phillies 2. Miami Marlins 3. Atlanta Braves 4. New York Mets 5. Washington Nationals
So there you have it the predictions for all of Major League Baseball!
