Conference Finals 2009

The Eastern Conference Final will see the Carolina Hurricanes try and keep the Pittsburgh Penguins from making a repeat appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Hurricanes had to overcome tough match-ups against the Devils and the Bruins, which should make them qualified enough to do the job, but they are facing a Penguins team that had to get through two rivals in the Flyers and Capitals. This has the potential of being a good mix of all four series leading up to this one.

The Hurricanes are led by Cam Ward in the pool this year, as he managed to win the series (8 wins) and have a shutout in each as well for 20 total pool points, scoring 10 in each series. Ward was only taken 4 times in the pool, taken only once in the top 10 in the pool.

Eric Staal and Ray Whitney lead the forwards in scoring, with 14 and 10 points, respectively. In the top 10 of pool scoring, Staal occurs only once and Whitney was completely passed over.

The most popular Hurricanes player in the top 10 is Dennis Seidenberg, the Box 23 defenseman, who seemed to be a good filler pick this year and he could keep a couple teams afloat.

Player	Mike D.	Benson	Paul	Steve	Dale C. #2	Mike D. #2	Mike E.	Clayton	Trevor	Blair
Eric Staal								x
Sergei Samsonov									x
Rod Brind'Amour										x
Erik Cole	x							x		x
Matt Cullen										x
Joni Pitkanen			x
Anton Babchuk			x
Dennis Seidenberg	x		x		x	x
Cam Ward								x

The Penguins were led in first two rounds by their captain, Sidney Crosby. Crosby was an absolute monster in the points department in round two versus the Capitals, where he put 14 points on the board. He leads the team with 22 points in the playoffs altogether, 12 goals, 1 winner and 9 assists. Crosby was a popular pick on the sheet, being taken 38 times, including 8 times in the top 10.

Goaltending for Pittsburgh fell upon Marc-Andre Fleury again this year and he has only posted 8 wins for 16 points in the post-season, but of the two Eastern Final goalies, he is more popular than Ward in the top 10, with 3 selections.

Crosby is by far the most popular Penguins player on the sheet, second place going to Kris Letang, who has 20 selections, including 3 in the top 10. Letang has done well in the playoffs thus far, having 3 goals, 1 winner and 6 assists.

Player	Mike D.	Benson	Paul	Steve	Dale C. #2	Mike D. #2	Mike E.	Clayton	Trevor	Blair
Evgeni Malkin	x			x					x
Sidney Crosby		x	x	x	x	x	x		x	x
Bill Guerin		x					x	x
Jordan Staal			x		x
Ruslan Fedotenko			x
Kris Letang	x				x	x
Alex Goligoski								x
Brooks Orpik								x
Marc-Andre Fleury				x			x		x

The young Blackhawks have the chance to now knock off the current holders of the Stanley Cup, the Red Wings. The Blackhawks knocked off a pair of popular Canadian teams in the Flames and the Canucks in order to get to the Conference Finals. The Red Wings went through the Blue Jackets and Ducks in their quest to repeat as Cup champs this year. The stage is now set for a battle between youthful enthusiasm and veteran savvy. This has the makings of one hell of series.

The Blackhawks have found themselves led by their goaltender as well in this post-season. Nikolai Khabibulin has been playing some similar hockey to his run to the Cup in Tampa Bay, winning 8 games, none by shutout, for a total of 16 points. Khabibulin was taken 3 times in the pool and only once in the top 10 of pool scoring. He now becomes quite the wild card in the money hunt.

Up front, Martin Havlat leads all Blackhawks forwards in pool scoring with 14 points, 7 points in each of the first two rounds. Havlat was taken once in the pool, but that team is nowhere to be seen in the top 10. Both Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews each finished with 12 points in the pool and the both of them will feature prominently in the top 10, as Kane was taken twice and Toews three times.

The most popular Blackhawks player in the pool is Duncan Keith, who features on 22 teams in the pool and on five teams in the top 10. He'll be looked upon to provide some quick transition offense for the Hawks, if they are going to make it past the Wings. He finished both series with only 5 assists, so hopefully there is more to come.

Player	Mike D.	Benson	Paul	Steve	Dale C. #2	Mike D. #2	Mike E.	Clayton	Trevor	Blair
Patrick Kane		x								x
Jonathan Toews	x	x		x
Patrick Sharp	x		x	x		x				x
Andrew Ladd							x
Samuel Pahlsson					x			x
Brian Campbell					x				x
Duncan Keith			x	x		x	x		x
Cam Barker			x		x			x
Dustin Byfuglien								x	x	x
Nikolai Khabibulin		x

Finally, it should come as no surprise that Chris Osgood has finished on top of the Wings scoring through two rounds, leading the team with 19 points. He goes into the Conference Finals with 8 wins, 1 shutout and 1 assist. Osgood has been good in these playoffs, but he was only taken 8 times in the pool, twice in the top 10. He should be an important player going forward.

Johan Franzen, last year's major omission, was not forgotten when the sheet rolled around or when it was filled out. He is tied for the lead in selections for the Detroit with Marian Hossa at 29, but Franzen shows up on every team in the top 10, eliminating him from his usefulness going forward for the money. If you didn't take Franzen, you would be missing out on 16 points in the pool, while Hossa only has 8. You can see why teams with Franzen are doing so well.

Well, I pretty much wrapped my paragraphs for the Red Wings quite quickly, so I guess that's your preview. Good luck to all in the top 10... it should be a good finish!

Player	Mike D.	Benson	Paul	Steve	Dale C. #2	Mike D. #2	Mike E.	Clayton	Trevor	Blair
Pavel Datsyuk		x			x					x
Henrik Zetterberg			x						x
Marian Hossa			x			x	x		x
Johan Franzen	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Tomas Holmstrom								x
Jiri Hudler				x
Mikael Samuelsson				x
Nicklas Lidstrom	x	x				x				x
Brian Rafalski								x
Chris Osgood					x		x