Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
I would hate to be any team right now that has to face big fast physical teams like the Ducks, Kings and Hawks in the playoffs.
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There are two things very wrong with this sentence.
First, one of these things is not like the others. The Ducks are actually pretty bad - they're this year's version of last year's Minnesota Wild, lite. As in not as bad as the Wild last year but by no means should they be in 2nd in the conference. The underlying numbers reveal their performance is unsustainable and the reality is probably closer to what the record has been the last 10 games or so. If the Ducks play the Blues in round 1 I'm picking St. Louis. Same goes if they play San Jose.
Also, the Hawks are not physical. They're 3rd from the bottom of the league in hits. They win because they've gotten good goaltending and more importantly they always have the puck. The Kings actually do have a fair bit of physicality to them (though considerably less sans Mitchell and Greene), but the reason they're so good is much the same - the puck is barely ever in their end of the rink.