Western Conference Predictions 2
by Bo Siemsen

Colorado Avalanche vs. St.Louis Blues

PREDICTION
A tough call. On paper the Blues has a few advantages. Better depth - more experience - Patrick Roy. But history cannot be denied ... I think the Blues and the Avalanche has met 3 or 4 times in the last 5 playoffs. And they've won them all. Thats extremely significant. But still ... I tip my hat for the St.Louis Blues in a long series Blues in 7

FOLLOW-UP
The series was every bit as close as could be expected. Goals ended up 18-18 though with the Blues being more efficient getting the goals on 186 shots while the Avalanche needed 212. The Blues won games 6 and 7 in overtime and thus the series.

KEY TO THE SERIES
The series went do double-overtime in game 7 - hard to tell what made the difference if not the luck of the Blues. Looking at the whole series though you see Jaromir Jagr on the Blues getting 5 goals and 3 assists while ending up at +3 while the best of the Avalanche Peter Forsberg had 3 goals and 3 assists but was -6. Jagr Performed - Forsberg did not.

 


Detroit Red Wings vs. San Jose Sharks

PREDICTION
The Sharks can't be stopped. They will brutally outscore the Red Wings.. Sharks in 5

FOLLOW-UP
It wasn't a huge surprise that the Red Wings steam-rolled over the Detroit Red Wings. Though the Wings did put up more of a fight than expected as they pushed the series to 6 rather than the predicted 5.

KEY TO THE SERIES
Very surprisingly it was defence and goaltending that lead the Sharks to victory and not their cruel and unusual scoring potential. Apart from game 5 where the Wings hammered Kolzig for 5 goals the german-born goalie was absolutely outstanding allowing just 7 goals in the other 5 games