Well the Wings barely snuck out of this series, but what a series this was.  Starting right off the bat with controversey in game one with the Hudler hit, and then the triple overtime in game two.  Moving to Anaheim we saw the disallowed goal, and then the Wings come back and chase Hiller out of the net in game 5. Game six saw the Ducks rebound and prevent the Wings from finishing another series out on the road.  Game 7 was the best game seven of these playoff we saw hits, goals, saves, and of course octapi.  With the Wings taking this series they move on to the conferance finals to meet Chicago.

The Wings won this series because of many things.  Firstly Osgood still showed us why he is one of the best playoff goaltenders of all time besting Patrick Roy in goals against average (2.11 Vs. 2.30 in the playoffs), but also following that up with three Stanley Cup Rings.  Beyond the crease Rafalski returned for game 6 and 7 quickly returning to form and moving alongside his usual partner of Lindstrom, thus keeping the other two tandums in tact (Stuart and Kronwall, Lebda and Ericsson).  The Defense played well but Lindstrom couldnt find the offensive production he had in game one, and Rafalski needs to get back on the scoreboard.  Offensively the Wings were terrific all lines were contributing, on both ends of the ice.  Babcock did shuffle the lines successfully to win game 4 moving Franzen with Filpulla and Hossa, while reuniting Datsyuk, Holmstrom and Zetterberg.  This trio didnt stay together long as Holmstrom quickley made his way into the dog house.  Babcock will keep shuffling Holmstrom around till he starts producing.

The Ducks lost for one reason they couldnt find secondary scoring beyond the first line.  Carlyle did shuffle up Getzlaf, Ryan, and Perry but never kep them apart for long.  Selanne did contribute but that was it.  The Ducks were not rolling four lines as well as the Wings were and this tired them out after that long game 2.  The Ducks weren’t the disciplined team that they needed to be taking stupid penalties throughout the whole series, but luckily the Wings powerplay took a drop without Rafalski in the lineup.  While Hiller shone greatly in this series, he lost his confidence and edge in games 4 and 5 getting chased and letting in nine goals.

Moving on for this Ducks team is this the last game for Selanne, and Niedermayer two future hall of famers?  What happens to Giguere after the emergence of Hiller. What is Anaheim going to do to adress their secondary scoring problems?

Detroit and Chicago

This will be another great series.  Detroit beat Chicago in the season series 4-2 including a great Winter Classic showdown.  Both these teams will be energized and ready to play sunday, this two day break, along with the minimal travel time between Chicago and Detroit will keep this a fast paced, high goal scoring series.

Detroit will win because of experiance and depth plain and simple They’ve been here the last two years and seem better this year then they were last year. All four lines for Detroit are firing, and Detroit still has some players in teh reserve if needed in Maltby, Mcarthy, and Meech.  Homer and Datsyuk will have to come up big this series, they need to revitalize their first line specially against the Keith Seabrook tandum.  The Franzen line will be against Campbell Hjalmarsson which will be tough but Campbell has lost some of his edge in the playoffs, and they haven’t faced players the likes of Hossa and Franzen yet so that will be an interesting battle.

Chicago  Will need to keep firing, and they have a chance if their secondary scoring comes up big like it did in round two, this is what Anaheim lacked to win.  Khabibulin hasent played as spectacular as Hiller has, but wiht cup experiance he has it in him, so we will see how he performs.  Kane, Toews, and Havlat haven’t faced a great defensive squad like the Wings so that will be the Hawks biggest test

Prediction

I think Detroit takes this in 6, the young Chicago team hasn’t played at this level yet it will be interesting to see how they react