Halos vs. Destroyers

Well, growing closer to the third round, it looks like this pool is becoming a two-horse race. The Halos are running away from Dewhirst Destroyers... but you can't count anyone out just yet.

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks are already through... and between two the two leaders, there are a few ducks to speak of. The leading Halos will rely on his defensemen choices in Sean O'Donnell and Vitaly Vishnevski to pick up a few points here and there. The Dewhirst Destroyers have the bulk of the scoring from Anaheim in Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer. All players are going to get a good rest when they face the winner of the other conference semi-final.

The other team already through to the Conference Finals is the Buffalo Sabres. They are not as well represented as the other NHL teams as Daniel Briere is the only Sabre unique to both teams and he's on the Halos.

So, those are both teams who've made it through... and then we look at the series that are not finished and there we see a little bit more difference between our leaders.

The other Western Semi-Final has a major difference in pool team players. The Halos are holding onto 2 unique Sharks, while the Destroyers have 3 unique Oilers. Both pool teams have Joe Thornton, so he doesn't really count at all... but the Halos also have Jonathon Cheechoo and Patrick Marleau, so if the Sharks are to win... and win big... then the Halos are pretty much invincible to losing this pool. On the other hand, the Destroyers will rely on Dwayne Roloson, Ryan Smyth and Jaroslav Spacek to beat the Sharks and make more of a closer race in the pool.

Both of our leaders are sort of hoping for a Carolina win in Game 5, because they both have more Hurricanes than Devils. But for the Halos, Patrik Elias is on their team as the only unique Devil between the two. If the Devils win another game or two... OR three... then Elias will be one of the big reasons as to why they win. For both teams though, each of them have two unique Canes each... the Halos having Ray Whitney and Oleg Tverdovsky and the Destroyers employing Eric Staal and Frantisek Kaberle. Arguably, Staal is the better of the two scorers and we be much more beneficial in the long run.

In closing, the pool will rely mostly on the Edmonton/San Jose series... if San Jose parts with Edmonton, then the Halos have pretty much clinched the $390. That's the series to watch!

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