Conference Finals Match-Ups

It's a heavy duty match-up in the Western Conference Finals, as the Anaheim Ducks, the top team in the West, will take on the number four team, Chicago Blackhawks, who were no slouches in the regular season either.

Anaheim dispatched the Winnipeg Jets and the Calgary Flames in the opening two rounds of the playoffs, while Chicago did in both the Nashville Predators and Minnesota Wild.

In the hockey pool, these two teams were definitely up there in the selection department, the Blackhawks actually being the favourite, as they beat the Ducks in picks, 92-78.  Apparently, there were a few people that thought the Ducks would stumble out of the gates, while they were fairly confident that the Blackhawks would be making it this far.

The headline selection of this series is Patrick Kane, who was taken 26 times in Box 7, but in the key match-up, Anaheim's Frederik Andersen leads Chicago's Corey Crawford in net, 12 selections to nine.

If you were to have a look at the scoring from each team, Andersen leads all players in this series with 18 points and he's getting chased down by teammate Corey Perry, who has 17 points.  Leading in points for the Blackhawks are Patrick Kane with 15 points and Duncan Keith with 12 points.

This series might lean one way or the other on paper, the Ducks leading in scoring and the Blackhawks leading in picks, but it's going to be the product on the ice that matters the most.  This one can go either way and it has the potential to be an excellent series.

This series will get underway on Sunday afternoon, a 1pm MT start on CBC.

In the East, under the bright lights of Broadway, it's another set of superstars looking to go head-to-head, which seems to be the path that the Rangers have had to traverse to another Cup Final.

Henrik Lundqvist and the Rangers have had to go through Sidney Crosby and the Penguins and then Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals, only to get Steven Stamkos and the Lightning in the Conference Finals.  It was no picnic for the Bolts either, as they had to get through Pavel Datsyuk and the Red Wings and then beat Carey Price and the Canadiens to get here, so they should be ready to rock.

This series couldn't be much closer in the selection department, as the Rangers hold the slightest of edges, 88-86, over the Lightning into this series.  These two were the favourites in the East going into the pool, so everyone seems to have gotten what they wanted, by virtue of the numbers.

Lundqvist was the most popular player between the two teams, taken 18 times, while a trio of Bolts players, Ondrej Palat, Ryan Callahan and Valtteri Filppula all had 12 selections each.  Of course, being the most popular player between the two teams, Lundqvist leads the goalie battle, but this is a fairly sizable lead, beating Ben Bishop, 18-4.

Bishop is the leader going into this series with 19 points in the playoffs, thus far, having a shutout and an assist more than Lundqvist, who only has 16 points.

This series encompasses the old versus the new, as some of the older superstars in the league, Martin St. Louis, Rick Nash and Lundqvist, are taking on some new and exciting talent in Nikita Kucherov, Tyler Johnson, Stamkos and Bishop.  The Rangers have been here before, but the Lightning are full of piss and vinegar and want to upstage everyone.  This could be a real show of remarkable hockey.

This series gets started on Saturday afternoon, an 11am MT start on CBC.