Round One: Carolina @ New Jersey

What Brent and Lou are e-mailing to their Devs as a reminder...a 7-1 pasting from March '07...

Carolina in 6. I don't really see this as an upset. Coach Sutter will not be back.

dennycrane wrote:Carolina in 6. I don't really see this as an upset. Coach Sutter will not be back.

Personal reasons for Sutter though, they slipped at the end, but he was a coach of the year candidate up until then - probably should still be.

Carolina in 5

While I will admit that the Canes seem to have found a new lease on life under old coach, now NEW HC Maurice, the fact is for my liking, their D is too 'iffy' and I think the Devil's patience at pouncing at just the right time will show this glaring deficiency.

Now, the Canes do have the makings of being spoilers or upsetters (YEAH, it's a WORD!) and can certainly give Marty and his crew a fight; my gut tells me the most the Canes will manage is 2 games of scares at best.

Devils in 6.

Cronie wrote:While I will admit that the Canes seem to have found a new lease on life under old coach, now NEW HC Maurice, the fact is for my liking, their D is too 'iffy' and I think the Devil's patience at pouncing at just the right time will show this glaring deficiency.

Now, the Canes do have the makings of being spoilers or upsetters (YEAH, it's a WORD!) and can certainly give Marty and his crew a fight; my gut tells me the most the Canes will manage is 2 games of scares at best.

Devils in 6.

As always, ESPN's excellent Scott Burnside is not afraid to look at the matchups as they are.

His analysis is worth a read.

Interesting series that could go the distance, but as difficult as it might be to fathom, the Hurricanes look to have the edge, both offensively and in goal.

The rest here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nhl/playoffs/2009/news?columnist=burnside_scott&id=4062800

Brodeur has shown weak side in NHL playoffs

HNIC's Hrudey points to struggles with low shots ahead of '09 opener

Last Updated: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | 11:41 AM ET

CBC Sports




Devils' Johnny Oduya, right, and goaltender Martin Brodeur likely will see plenty of Carolina's Erik Cole in their first-round series. (Bill Kostroun/Associated Press)

It's hard to imagine a future Hall of Fame goaltender who holds the record for all-time wins and sports a minuscule 1.96 goals-against average in 169 post-season games would enter any Stanley Cup playoffs as an underdog.

But that is the scenario for Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils, at least in the eyes of former National Hockey League netminder Kelly Hrudey.

"I think Marty Brodeur can be a weak link," the Hockey Night in Canada analyst told viewers on the eve of Wednesday's Round 1 series opener between the Devils and visiting Carolina Hurricanes at 7:30 p.m. ET.

"What teams identified about three years ago in the playoffs is if you throw pucks at his feet that he has a lot of problems.

"We saw it in particular, even though New Jersey beat Tampa a couple of years ago, he gave up a ton of goals from everywhere. Tampa certainly weren't shy [to shoot] from the corners. For whatever reason he'd have a hard time getting to his posts, so much so I thought he was injured."

It's no secret Brodeur's play fell off after he led the Devils to a 3-2 triumph over Chicago on March 17 for his 552nd victory to pass Patrick Roy as the league's winningest goalie.

Since then, his record is 5-6-1. But he dropped six straight decisions from March 22-April 1 and in four of those games allowed an uncharacteristic four goals or more.

NJ leads 1-0 MIke Mottau(sp) scores..... 1 goal in 80 games in the regular season 1 for 1 in playoffs

By the shot count, the Devils are ALL OVER the 'Canes.

dont really know i have rogers and they dont include tsn 2

Yeah, me neither. I'm following via nhl.com score updates.

i dont have enough tvs and channels to watch all the games like i want to

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:i dont have enough tvs and channels to watch all the games like i want to

HA HA!

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:dont really know i have rogers and they dont include tsn 2

You have to be kidding me. That sucks...I had better not miss any good games because of that Dung.

There's the old Jose Theodore syndrome.

Oops...which thread did I mean to post that in?

504Heater wrote:

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:dont really know i have rogers and they dont include tsn 2

You have to be kidding me. That sucks...I had better not miss any good games because of that Dung.

I know although i have a feeling tsn2 will be getting a fair share of the first and second round games

Hockeyhero22000 wrote:
I know although i have a feeling tsn2 will be getting a fair share of the first and second round games

Why can't Rogers have them on their original Center Ice channels? So dumb. They had better work this out soon...