On Sunday night, the Western Conference Finals will commence in Vancouver, as the Canucks will play host to the Sharks in a battle of the top two teams in the conference during the regular season. This match-up almost seemed like there was a bit of destiny sprinkled upon these teams to meet up, both looking for their first Stanley Cup and both having some difficult roads to get to this point.
I think the safest thing to say about these two teams is that they've done just enough to get to this point, so it will be very interesting to see how each will come out of the gate in Game One, since there is so much riding on these teams and their successes. My expectations in Game One are fairly limited, as I think we'll be in for a very tight start, both teams likely going to feel out one another for the first couple of periods and someone will make that clutch mistake, sending the game into a nailbiter. Both teams are awfully offensive, so not making mistakes to capitalize on will be the key to this one.
By the numbers, the Canucks are the favourites in this series, both in the regular season standings and the picks in the pool. The Canucks led all teams with 215 of 228 possible picks, while the Sharks didn't do too badly, finishing second in the West with 183 picks. I don't think this will be the series that shifts the pool standings too much, since the Canucks in the top 10 teams are not very spread out and almost every team in the top 10 has Joe Pavelski, so the Sharks may not swing the standings either.
The most popular player in this series is Daniel Sedin, who has 54 selections, leading all player in the pool this year. He's followed by Henrik Sedin with 51, Roberto Luongo with 44 and Pavelski with 42.
Luongo leads all players in this series with 20 points, followed by Ryan Kesler with 17 points, Antti Niemi with 14 and Ryane Clowe with 13.
| Superstar | Tryst'n'Grant | Langdon River Dogs | Don't Call Me Ray | seaherwet | Another Brick in the Kronwall | Neils Corndogs!! | Pucking Luck | Tony the Tiger | Granny Smith | |
| 209 points | -7 points | -10 | -14 | -19 | -20 | -21 | -22 | -22 | -22 | |
| Dany Heatley (2) | x | |||||||||
| Patrick Marleau (3) | x | x | x | |||||||
| Ryane Clowe (4) | x | x | x | |||||||
| Joe Pavelski (5) | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Logan Couture (6) | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
| Torrey Mitchell (7) | x | |||||||||
| Dan Boyle (8) | x | x | ||||||||
| Jason Demers (9) | x | |||||||||
| Marc-Edouard Vlasic (11) | x | x | ||||||||
| Antti Niemi (12) | x | x | ||||||||
| Daniel Sedin (1) | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | |
| Henrik Sedin (2) | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | x | ||
| Ryan Kesler (3) | x | x | x | x | x | |||||
| Alex Edler (9) | x | |||||||||
| Roberto Luongo (12) | x | x | x | x | x | x |
Looking at the top 10 teams in the pool going into this series, Superstar again comes in with a different look to their team, the only one not taking Joe Pavelski, while Another Brick in the Kronwall is the only team that didn't take Daniel Sedin. Superstar can really make a push up the standings with a good showing from the Sharks, but if the rest of the pool is right on Pavelski, they might be reeled in a bit in this series as well.
No new injury news from the Sharks camp, as they have all 12 of their players ready to go for Game One of this series. Ryane Clowe was the only one in doubt, but he came back in Game Seven of the Red Wings series and should be good to go on Sunday night.
The Canucks, on the other hand, they will likely be without Mikael Samuelsson, who is currently dealing with a lower-body injury. He's still listed as out day-to-day, but it didn't sound too promising. Samuelsson isn't going to be a factor in the top 10 anyway, since he isn't selected by any of those teams.
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