Stanley Cup Finals Preview On Wednesday Night
By Adam Savard
This late in the NHL season there are several games impacting the playoff race. None may be more compelling than Wednesday night.
It’s a little premature to talk about the Stanley Cup Final with one month left in the season. Division titles are up for grabs, wild card spots are not secured and even when they are the Stanley Cup playoffs are as unpredictable as any in sports. The schedule makers have given us a gem on Wednesday night that would bring joy to traditional hockey purists everywhere.
Madison Square Garden will be the site of an Original Six matchup as the New York Rangers host the Chicago Blackhawks. No doubt the Garden will have a playoff atmosphere when these two teams drop the puck. These two teams may see a great deal more of each other in June and both are only going to get stronger.
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The Rangers lead the Eastern Conference before Monday nights games with 95 points, two clear of the Montreal Canadiens. Leading the sixth most potent offense in the NHL is Rick Nash, whom continue to battle back and forth with Alex Ovechkin for the Rocket Richard trophy. Nash leads a balanced attack that boasts eight players with at least ten goals and thirty points on the season.
While Cam Talbot has played very well Henrik Lundqvist is scheduled to come back on March 24th after taking a puck to the throat. When you put an offense this deep and potent with a goaltender as good as Lundqvist you have a team capable of winning a seven game series against anybody. For added measure GM Glen Sather plucked defenseman Keith Yandle from the Arizona Coyotes to add to an already stout back-end. The defending Eastern Conference champions will be a tough out in the Stanley Cup playoffs for anyone.
The Chicago Blackhawks are one of the few teams that won’t care about any of that because have the depth and fire power to meet the challenge. Only Montreal has allowed fewer goals this season and the Blackhawks +41 goal differential is the fourth best in the NHL. There’s also the matter of two Stanley Cup banners within the last five years hanging in the United Center.
The road to the Stanley Cup finals will be tougher for the Blackhawks because of a deeper Western Conference and the long-term injury to Patrick Kane. The timeline for Kane’s return from a collarbone fracture has him missing the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs. To bolster the lineup GM Stan Bowman acquired Arizona Coyotes forward Antonie Vermette and Kimmo Timonen from the Philadelphia Flyers. Plugging Kane back into an already deep lineup and the Hawks have the chops to come out of the West.
Wednesday night will not have Stanley Cup implications, at least not directly. The points are more important to Chicago, with the pesky Minnesota Wild six points behind and trailing the division lead by five points. The Rangers have a bit more margin of error but “President’s Trophy winner” has a nice ring to it and that is very much within reach. If you love hockey and your team is already eliminated from the playoff hunt, turn in Wednesday night and enjoy. If you miss it, you might get as many as seven more chances to watch in June.
Next: Keith Yandle Still Adjusting to New York Rangers
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