Top of the Table (East Preview)

Tonight, the Eastern Conference Finals begin and today, I'll offer up the match-up between the the Top 4 teams in the pool, who probably have the best shot at the money, heading into the Final Four. It's no real surprise that Daniel Briere and Ryan Miller appear on three of the four teams, but it is a pleasant surprise that Thomas Vanek appears on all four and will not count against anyone throughout this series.

	Dan Wallace	Rob Andersen	Mike Emery	Ben Greenley
BUF	Daniel Briere	Daniel Briere	Thomas Vanek	Daniel Briere
BUF	Thomas Vanek	Thomas Vanek	Derek Roy	Thomas Vanek
BUF	Ryan Miller	Derek Roy	Ryan Miller	Ryan Miller
OTT	Mike Fisher		Dany Heatley	Mike Fisher
OTT	Andrej Meszaros		Wade Redden	Joe Corvo
OTT			Joe Corvo

After eyeing the match-ups, it looks as though the East will not be very kind to Rob, who matches up well with all his Buffalo players, but did not go with any Ottawa players through the playoffs and we all know that the Sens are scoring in bunches. The one team who looks to benefit the most from the Ottawa side of the ice is Mike. Having Dany Heatley, one of the hottest players in the playoffs should make it a walk to take a big chunk of points from this series. Both Dan and Benson are banking on secondary scoring from the Senators in Mike Fisher, which may prove handy if the Sabres can shut down the top line and the Sens keep winning.

	Brian Mineault	Aaron Andersen	Tim Locke	Don Deptford
BUF	Daniel Briere	Daniel Briere	Daniel Briere	Daniel Briere
BUF	Thomas Vanek	Thomas Vanek	Thomas Vanek	Thomas Vanek
BUF	Ryan Miller	Brian Campbell	Ryan Miller	Ryan Miller
OTT	Andrej Meszaros	Joe Corvo	Wade Redden	Dany Heatley
OTT			Andrej Meszaros	Peter Schaefer
OTT			Joe Corvo	Tom Preissing

On the outside looking in, the general favourite in this group lies all the way down in 8th spot, Don. With both Heatley and Peter Schaefer, there is quite a bit more scoring, which will help on the big games for the Sens. On the Buffalo side, everything is fairly even, but if the Sabres are winning, then Aaron is going to drop, because there is very little hope in Brian Campbell out pointing Miller in points.

If this series becomes a shootout, then both Mike and Don should sit quite well in the Standings and it would be a different look Top 8 by the time everything is said and done.

Technorati Tags
NHL, Hockey Pool, Injuries, Playoffs, Scores, Hockey

Go to the Hockey Pool standings Page
Go to the Trash Talk Page