And the playoff picture in the NHL is really beginning to shape up. Well, at least in the Western Conference. It seems as though the teams who are qualifying for the big dance are all but wrapped up officially. And in no particular order, they are:
Vancouver
Calgary
Anaheim
San Jose
Dallas
Minnesota
Nashville
Detroit
And if recent history has taught us anything, the playoffs will go as such:
All teams from the Central division (the weakest in the NHL) will be knocked out in the first round (unless Nashville plays Detroit in the first round, then one will last until the second), Anaheim and Dallas won’t prove as strong as San Jose, and a team from the Canadian Northwest, not figured as a contender early in the season, with a newly acquired goalie, will defeat San Jose in the Conference Finals and be the third Canadian team in three years (Edmonton and Calgary the previous two).
So, in other words…
CANUCKS go to the cup!!!
The sad shame of this is, once there, some team from the south, in the Eastern Conference, who has NO BUSINESS being in the NHL, let alone the playoffs, or the Stanley Cup, will disgrace hockey further by beating Vancouver four games to three and further blemish Lord Stanley’s Holy Grail.
Won’t Bettman learn? Put hockey in places that HAVE ICE!
Go ‘Nucks Go!
That is all.
