Around the Boards 5/28/10

Hawks vs Flyers to raise Lord Stanley's Cup. Who ya got?

Stick on the Ice:

I think Chicago will be winning the Cup this year. And that really is saying a lot, because they not only have to defeat a physical Flyers team, but they also have to contend with the Curse of Hossa and any lingering Karmic debt from that horrendous mural of Toews with the Island of Dr. Moreau nosejob. However, they simply have too much talent up front for Philly to contain. Hats off to Leighton -- he has been rock solid and certainly outperformed any reasonable expectations. But he's not going to stop Kane, Toews, Sharp, Hossa and all the other threats that Chicago cycles in. It's not as though Chicago is only limited to a solid scoring punch -- they have the best blueline in the NHL right now, and Seabrook, Keith, etc. have already proven that they could shut down the most productive forward line in the league during the Western Conference Finals. Richards, Leino and Briere are really going to have trouble finding much space. And when you have a role player like Big Buff pounding in goals almost nightly, you know that they have all the intangibles clicking too. Not to be too biased towards the West, but if nothing else, I have a really hard time believing that the 7th seed from the East is going to take down Chicago. I call Chicago in five...maybe six.

Swaindog:

"We have no response, that was perfect."

Top Shelf:

'Hawks in 6. At this point, we can forget the "on paper" matchups. Forget that Philly was a 7 seed in the East and that Chicago was a 2 in the West. What we have now is two Conference champions playing a best-of-seven series for the prize that all of these players have dreamed about since they were kids. I want the Blackhawks to win, and believe they will win, but Philly quite obviously has their Broad Street Mojo working and they will put up a helluva fight. Flyers G Brian Boucher (remember him Jackets fans?) wants back in the line up after recovering from injury. It will be interesting to see if this leads to some kind of goalie carousel for Philly. If it does, that does not bode well for the Flyers.