Playoff Match-Ups in the East

The unbelievable season for the Washington Capitals earned them the President's Trophy for the 2010 season and a berth in the playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens. This series has some definite entertainment potential and it will get started on Thursday night, being broadcast in Canada by TSN.

Leading the charge into the series will be Alex Ovechkin, who led all players in this series in regular season scoring with 109 points. He'll be a very popular player in the Playoff Pool this year, mostly because the Capitals are going to be a popular team to go a long way in the tournament. If you think the Canadiens are going to be your pick as an Eastern Conference upset, the top player on the team for points was Tomas Plekanec, who had 70 points.

This series has a pair of teams that have some goaltending question marks, maybe one team more than the other. The Capitals have a decision to be made between Jose Theodore and Semyon Varlamov, both making adequate arguments for the job. It really looks like Jaroslav Halak has taken the number one job from Carey Price, going into the playoffs, so I'm thinking I have the right player in the box there. The Playoff Pool boxes have a match-up between Theodore and Halak, but choose at your own risk.

Looking at the Playoff Pool injury situation... Glen Metropolit (Box 19) is the only major injury to speak of, as he'll likely be missing the first round of the playoffs, but there has been word that he is on skates and getting some laps in. He is suffering from a separated shoulder, so skating is likely just for fitness.


It's going to be a great series between the New Jersey Devils and Philadelphia Flyers, in my opinion. There is a lot of grit between the two sides and it's going to be one of those playoff battles that you can rely on statistics alone to prognosticate. This series will be full of raw emotions and either team will be looking to capitalize on that early. This series will be split between TSN and TSN2 in Canada, just in case you were wondering.

The top pool player going into the series was Martin Brodeur, who finished up the season with 111 points. After the Devils picked up Ilya Kovalchuk from Atlanta, there might be more than enough reasons to pick the Devils to go all the way to the Cup Finals from the Eastern Conference, but even if you're unsure about another team's goaltending, Brodeur should be an adequate replacement. From the Flyers, their best player in the hockey pools was Mike Richards, who finished up the year with only 62 points in 82 games, which suggests that the Flyers did suffer a bit from a lack of scoring. Will they make it through?

As for the goaltending match-up, I think we all know who's starting for the Devils, so there isn't any doubt there. As for the Flyers, it looks like they will be riding Brian Boucher into the playoffs, thanks to his shootout win versus Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers. Sure, it was only one game, but beating Lundqvist isn't an easy task by any stretch of the imagination.

On the Playoff Pool sheet, it looks as though everyone is healthy and ready to go. Colin White is the only player from either team on the injury list, just because he was a healthy scratch in the Devils last game. I would expect him to be ready to go.


The number 3/6 match-up sees the Buffalo Sabres with the home-ice advantage against the Boston Bruins, starting Thursday and being broadcast in Canada by CBC. The Sabres had themselves a great, hard-working season, while the Bruins have fought through injury and much despair, just to make it into the playoffs. This series will be a battle of wills and probably some expert goaltending.

Leading the pool scoring race from the regular season was Ryan Miller of the Sabres, who finished the year with 92 pool points, thanks to his 41 wins and 5 shutouts. He's a strong candidate for your goaltending position in the Eastern Conference, especially if you really like the Sabres to go all the way. For the Bruins, their best pool points player was Tuukka Rask, who finished with 57 points this season. In what looks to be a paragraph saving view, I think its fair to say that this will be our goaltending match-up for this series, which has quite a bit of potential for some great games. Are the Bruins a good underdog pick for your Playoff Pool team? Well, then Rask might be your guy going forward.

On the injury side of the equation, the Bruins will be without trade deadline acquisition, Dennis Seidenberg for at least the first round after undergoing surgery to repair some torn tendons in his wrist. That's a pretty significant loss, unless you think the Bruins are not going to make it out of the first round. The Sabres are also dealing with some injuries on the Sheet. Tim Connolly (lower-body), Jochen Hecht (upper-body) and Drew Stafford (concussion) are all listed as out day-to-day at the moment and are all optimistic starts for Game One of the series.


The Pittsburgh Penguins and the Ottawa Senators round out the Eastern Conference match-ups in the first round and it also has the makings of being a pretty good series. The current Cup Champs will open their defense of their title in a Canadian city, to which all of them want a share of the big prize at the end of the rainbow. It will likely be a hostile environment for each visiting team in this series, even in Pittsburgh, which is seeing the final playoff run in Mellon Arena.

It shouldn't come as a big surprise that the leading scorer coming into this series is Sidney Crosby. He had a very strong finish to the season and ended up finishing second in the Art Ross Trophy standings and tied for first for the Rocket Richard Trophy. He'll get some looks in the Playoff Pool for sure. On the Sens side, it was Daniel Alfredsson who led the team in pool scoring through the regular season, as he finished with 71 points in 70 games for Ottawa. If you were going to pick this as an upset, you are probably looking at some more depth players than solid scoring, unless you have some grand wishes that the Senators will make another appearance in the Cup Finals.

In goal, it should be a battle between Marc-Andre Fleury for the Penguins and Brian Elliot for the Senators. Both of these goalies are on the Playoff Pool Sheet for your choosing pleasure and it should play out to be a pretty good goaltending match-up. Obviously, the advantage in most people's eyes will go to Fleury, but there should be enough of the fatigue factor to sway some minds towards Elliot.

The Senators have the biggest injury concerns on the Sheet, as both Alex Kovalev and Filip Kuba are not going to be in the line-up in this first round. Kovalev is actually done for these playoffs altogether, while Kuba will likely just miss the first round of the playoffs, saying that the Senators can get past the Penguins. The only injury concern for the Penguins going into the series is Chris Kunitz, who is suffering from an undisclosed injury, which is suspected to be a shoulder injury. He's currently listed as out day-to-day, so take that for what its worth, as we don't really know if he'll be ready to go or not for the playoffs.

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