Re: NHL Playoffs
 

My (new)predictions;
SJ over Calgary in 7, SJ only is down 1 game now. Nabokov can(and will) be a shutdown goalie, not to mention Toskala. Marleau and Cheechoo are both great offensive, AND DEFENSIVE, players(cheechoo's dive in Game 3-i think it was 3 anyway- vs. colorado). Calgary has proven it can win without Iginla, but a lot of their miraculous wins have been luck. We'll see it, like we did with anahiem last year, luck can only carry you so far. Its virtually impossible for Cinderella teams like Calgary to win a cup.

TB over Philly in 6, Khabibulin, and St. Louis, need I say more? Philly cant seem to put it all together at the same time during the play-offs. The have good defese for a couple games, then good offense, then a hot goalie, but never all at once. TB is playing their hearts out, and under captain dave Adrechuk(or however its spelled) leadership, and his desire to win his first cup, they can do it.

SJ over TB in 7, a goalies battle. Both have good offenses, but better defenses and better goalies. SJ cements it place as a western conference powerhouse with their first cup. Both these teams have used their speed as an advantage so far, but now it can get countered by the opponents speed. SJ has proven it can deal with fast teams when it beat colorado. TB has had an easier road and we dont know how they will fare under the pressure of the stanley cup finals against such a high quality team in SJ.

Re: NHL Playoffs
 

Marleau has been as inconsistent in the playoffs as he has been throughout his career. His 7 playoff goals have come in only 3 of the Sharks’ 14 playoff games. When he has scored, he has scored a lot, but he hasn’t put points up when the team has needed them (I.E. games 4 & 5 vs. Colorado, and 1& 2 vs. Calgary). He has incredible talent, but he is invisible for large portions of games, and whole games sometimes. He has also been marginal, at best, defensively.

If the Sharks are going to beat Calgary in either 6 or 7 games they’ll need to better adapt to the Darryl Sutter obstruction and interference based defense that the Calgary Flames employ. They’ll also need to stop getting caught in the offensive zone with all 3 forwards below the hashmarks. They’ve given up what seems like hundreds, but probably is only dozens of odd-man breaks in this series. They backchecked a lot better against St. Louis and Colorado. They should remember how they won games with Sutter as a coach and then remember how they were beaten by other teams as a Sutter coached team.