Western Conference Finals Match-up
So then there was two….Not much surprise here as Arizona won their series against Colorado but I will give Colorado some credit as they did put up a fight on Monday night and even took a game in the series but as anticipated Arizona worked out their rust from the week off and finished the Avs off Tuesday to advance to the Western Finals to face…..
The #2 Seed St. Louis Blues, but honestly they had been the 2nd best team in the West all season long and deserve a chance to dethrone the top seeded Arizona Coyotes. St. Louis had a much different series in round 1 as I previously predicted that Seattle would be an extremely tough match up and as predicted it was. St. Louis won the series 4-1 but like most of their games against each other they were all 1 goal games except for game 5 in which St. Louis won convincingly by 5 goals
So who will come out of the West and represent their conference in the Finals?
Lets breakdown this match
#1 Arizona 39-6 vs #2 St. Louis 34-10 (Season Series ARI won 3-2)
Best Line Prediction
Arizona:
LW – xToxiCBoY GP:5 G:9 A:8 P:17 +/-: -1
C – Fluri37 GP:2 G:1 A:10 P:11 +/-: +5
RW – Fishhure GP:5 G:6 A:11 P:17 +/-: -2
LD – sendthemnoods GP:3 G:2 A:2 P:4 +/-: +4 GV: 15 TK: 6
RD – Xtracts07 GP:4 G:0 A:2 P:2 +/-: -1 GV: 15 TK: 9
G – dophares2000 GP:2 W:2 L:0 SV% 66.6 GAA: 4.00
St. Louis:
LW – PistolPete7788 GP:3 G:6 A:7 P:13 +/-: +4
C – Kidmon3y GP:5 G:9 A:3 P:12 +/-: +4
RW – MoTm_Rah GP:4 G:6 A:7 P:13 +/-: +4
LD – Beantwn_Beatdwn GP:2 G:0 A:3 P:3 +/-:+1 GV: 10 TK: 4
RD – curtisx18x GP:5 G:0 A:9 P:9 +/-: +4 GV: 30 TK: 13
G – Jeiel9876 GP:3 W:3 L:0 SV% 85.96 GAA: 2.66
Advantages:
Offense: Arizona over St. Louis
Defense: St. Louis slightly over Arizona
Goalie: St. Louis over Arizona
Key to Success:
Arizona: This team might have just been rusty after a week off but giving up 18 goals to Colorado is not good. I did not see the series but looking over the stats the goalie play was not up to normal standards and its something that Tommy will need to possibly address if it continues going into this match up vs STL. Now outside of that this team is firing on all cylinders after Tuesday’s games and look ready to take that step up onto the big stage and play in the Finals. If they can cleanup the defensive end and control the puck at the other end like they have all season then this should be an easy series for these guys
St. Louis: Well they knew last series was going to be a dog fight and it was exactly that but for this series it will be an uphill climb. They will need to attack Arizona and score early and force Arizona to play catch up. Not an easy task but one St. Louis is capable of implementing. Then as I noted in the Colorado series I am stating the same here for St. Louis…they will need to be physical with Arizona but stay out of the box. If they can accomplish this along with making Arizona chase them on the scoreboard this team will find itself representing the West in the Finals
Key Match-up:
GM Tommy vs GM Pete
I can easily pick out some guys from each roster or even pin it to the goalies but really this will be a game of cat and mouse for each of these GM’s. What they do with their lineup and with the availability from their guys will be HUGE
I feel the GM who can match his line the best will get the win in this series
Prediction:
Arizona is easily the pick but after Monday’s results they have me 2nd guessing. Yes, they came out Tuesday and handled business but they were not impressive in the first 3 games of the Colorado series which has me questioning their ability to close out this St. Louis team who is in my opinion battle tested after the Seattle series. St. Louis has faced and handled being in close games of 1 or 2 goals and have won the most of those games and their goal tending is in better shape if than Arizona. Even their games against each other during the regualr season went to Arizona 3-2 but the games were all 2 goal games 6-4 x2, 3-1 x2 and a 4-1 that went Arizona’s way
So…I feel Arizona will come out on top…they have been the best team all season and to judge them over one bad night after a week off is not doing them any justice…but this is not Colorado this St. Louis team is going to test them
Arizona 4-2
Best of luck to both these teams
Cuban