2003 Playoff Preview: Conference Semifinals

Wow. Easily my worst year for first round predictions. Instead
of looking a nice fat 7-1 or even 6-2, I’m seeing a 3-5. The second round could
be friendlier, but who’s the Cup favorite now? The Wings – done. The Avs – done.
The Blues – done. The Stars? Happy… They now face the Ducks in the second
round and aren’t overly worried about the Conference Finals now either. That
could be the only thing that stops them from competing for the Cup now – looking
too far ahead. You may say you’re surprised by the East winners, but #1 through
#4 advanced. Time to breakdown who’s left and what to expect.

Eastern Conference

Matchup: 4. Philadelphia Flyers: 45-20-13-4; 107 pts; 37 fights 1. Ottawa Senators: 52-21-8-1; 113 pts; 45 fights
2002-2003 Team Fight Leaders:
PHI: Donald Brashear – 11
OTT: Chris Neil – 15
Regular season info (this year and last)
2002-2003 season’s games:
10/29/2002	@PHI 2 OTT 1	0 fights
12/21/2002	@PHI 1 OTT 3	0 fights
12/23/2002	PHI 2 @OTT 2	0 fights
2/6/2003 (OT)	PHI 2 @OTT 2	0 fights
2002-2003 season’s fights:
No fights this season
2001-2002 season’s games:
10/25/2001	@PHI 2 OTT 7	1 fight
1/15/2002	PHI 4 @OTT 1	0 fights
1/22/2002 (OT)	@PHI 1 OTT 1	0 fights
1/30/2002	PHI 1 @OTT 3	0 fights
2001-2002 season’s fights:
Luke Richardson – Andre Roy
Playoff series info (past 5 years)
2001-2002 playoff games:
4/17/2002 (OT)	@PHI 1 OTT 0	0 fights
4/20/2002	@PHI 0 OTT 3	0 fights
4/22/2002	PHI 0 @OTT 3	0 fights
4/24/2002	PHI 0 @OTT 3	1 fight
4/26/2002 (OT)	@PHI 1 OTT 2	0 fights
2001-2002 playoff fights:
Donald Brashear – Chris Phillips

Notes:	The Flyers are easily going to motivate themselves through the "revenge" angle after last season’s collapse. It’s going to be a tough first few games for the Flyers after playing so much first round hockey compared to the Sens. Philly battled hard against the Leafs to advance while the Senators sat back and let the Islanders beat themselves. However, momentum plays a part and even if the Flyers are sluggish in game one, it’s unlikely they’ll just die off. Ottawa’s also been sitting on their butts a week now, sometimes it’s not so easy to just pick up where you left off after so much down time. While you might be expecting a low scoring series, don’t be surprised to see one or two 5-4 games, the Flyers have their offense clicking a bit now and won’t be held to the two goals of last season’s series.
Fight Fans:	Hard to say what to expect here. This should be a hard hitting series, but once again you shouldn’t expect to see Ray on the ice. Possible scrap or two, and many scrums, but the gloves won’t hit the ice as much as you’re anticipating.
Prediction:	Someone in 7. The coin says tails. Don’t know who that is, so I’ll say Flyers.

Matchup: 3. Tampa Bay Lightning: 36-25-16-5; 93 pts; 31 fights 2. New Jersey Devils: 46-20-10-6; 108 pts; 41 fights
2002-2003 Team Fight Leaders:
TAM: Chris Dingman – 9
NJD: Jim McKenzie – 13
Regular season info (this year and last)
2002-2003 season’s games:
10/26/2002	TAM 1 @NJD 5	0 fights
11/23/2002	TAM 3 @NJD 1	2 fights
1/11/2003 (OT)	@TAM 3 NJD 3	3 fights
3/27/2003 (OT)	@TAM 2 NJD 2	2 fights
2002-2003 season’s fights:
Andre Roy – Turner Stevenson
Jassen Cullimore – Colin White
Chris Dingman – Turner Stevenson
Andre Roy – Jim McKenzie
Cory Sarich – Colin White
Andre Roy – Jim McKenzie
Cory Sarich – Jay Pandolfo
2001-2002 season’s games:
11/23/2001	@TAM 2 NJD 0	1 fight
12/4/2001 (OT)	TAM 1 @NJD 1	0 fights
1/15/2002 (OT)	TAM 5 @NJD 4	0 fights
1/21/2002	@TAM 3 NJD 2	2 fights
2001-2002 season’s fights:
Vincent Lecavalier – Andrei Zyuzin
Gordie Dwyer – Ken Daneyko
Gordie Dwyer – Colin White
Playoff series info (past 5 years)
No matchups in the past 5 years

Notes:	Hey -Tampa Bay made the playoffs! Second round and it still sounds weird, huh? A good goaltending matchup here: Khabibulin vs Brodeur along with a good defensive-offensivee one: Stevens and Madden vs Lecavalier and St. Louis. Tampa’s riding a good high right now and needs to have St. Louis keep producing to compete with the Devils. The Bolts don’t have the same depth and any production from Jersey’s lower lines will be a big factor.
Fight Fans:	This should be a good one. What? I’m willing tuning in to a Devils game looking for excitement? You bet. The regular season series between these two was entertaining and the Bolts, who had only 31 fights all season long, had 7 of them against the Devils. Roy will most likely sit, but Dingman and McKenzie get some icetime.
Prediction:	Devils in 6 or 7. Definite overtime games here.

Western Conference

Matchup: 7. Anaheim Mighty Ducks: 40-27-9-6; 95 pts; 33 fights 1. Dallas Stars: 46-17-15-4; 111 pts; 50 fights
2002-2003 Team Fight Leaders:
ANA: Kevin Sawyer – 12
DAL: Aaron Downey – 9
Regular season info (this year and last)
2002-2003 season’s games:
10/11/2002	ANA 2 @DAL 4	3 fights
11/22/2002	@ANA 0 DAL 4	1 fight
1/5/2003 (OT)	@ANA 1 DAL 1	0 fights
2/14/2003	ANA 4 @DAL 2	0 fights
4/2/2003	ANA 1 @DAL 2	0 fights
2002-2003 season’s fights:
Mike LeClerc – Brenden Morrow
Kevin Sawyer – Bill Guerin
Kevin Sawyer – Aaron Downey
Kevin Sawyer – Aaron Downey
2001-2002 season’s games:
11/11/2001 (OT)	@ANA 2 DAL 2	0 fights
1/25/2002	ANA 6 @DAL 1	0 fights
2/10/2002	@ANA 1 DAL 5	0 fights
3/24/2002	ANA 2 @DAL 1	1 fight
4/7/2002	@ANA 4 DAL 1	1 fight
2001-2002 season’s fights:
Mike LeClerc – Brenden Morrow
Aris Brimanis – Manny Malhotra
Playoff series info (past 5 years)
No matchups in the past 5 years

Notes:	Jiggy. Jiggy. Jiggy. The Ducks need him to steal another series if they’re to pull off another upset. The Stars will start this series off as the stronger team and will actually get better as it goes along when Bill Guerin, Jason Arnott and Pierre Turgeon all return. For the Ducks not to drown Paul Kariya has to score more big goals and rookie Stanislav Chistov also needs to play as strong as he was in the first round. Definitely won’t call this one hopeless as the Ducks will come out strong. Can their initial push be enough?
Fight Fans:	Nah, don’t expect it here. Any series can erupt, of course, but this should be on the bottom of the list in terms of possibility.
Prediction:	Dallas in 6.

Matchup: 6. Minnesota Wild: 42-29-10-1; 95 pts; 43 fights 4. Vancouver Canucks: 45-23-13-1; 104 pts; 29 fights
2002-2003 Team Fight Leaders:
MIN: Matt Johnson – 13
VAN: Darren Langdon – 9
Regular season info (this year and last)
2002-2003 season’s games:
11/25/2002	@MIN 1 VAN 2	0 fights
12/7/2002	MIN 4 @VAN 2	1 fight
1/16/2003	@MIN 5 VAN 2	2 fights
1/28/2003 (OT)	MIN 2 @VAN 2	0 fights
2002-2003 season’s fights:
Matt Johnson – Murray Baron
Brad Brown – Murray Baron
Jeremy Stevenson – Jarkko Ruutu
2001-2002 season’s games:
11/11/2001	@MIN 0 VAN 5	1 fight
11/27/2001	@MIN 2 VAN 1	0 fights
12/22/2001	MIN 2 @VAN 1	2 fights
3/2/2002	MIN 3 @VAN 6	3 fights
4/5/2002	MIN 4 @VAN 5	0 fights
2001-2002 season’s fights:
Sylvain Blouin – Murray Baron
Sylvain Blouin – Jason Strudwick
Jason Marshall – Matt Cooke
Jason Marshall – Mike Brown
Brad Brown – Jason Strudwick
Matt Johnson – Brent Sopel
Playoff series info (past 5 years)
No matchups in the past 5 years

Notes:	A pair of comebacks, that was fun, eh? Well, that’s over now and neither team will look to play possum here. This series will be the Canucks O vs the Wild D. Scoring vs the trap usually favors the trap, but the skill-level of Vancouver is much higher, although not too deep. Neither goaltender is a sure thing and if either falters just a bit, their team is probably done. No matter which team pulls out in a lead it’s obvious neither will give up, this should be another long series.
Fight Fans:	This one could get rough. If the trapping Wild don’t bore you to death, you might want to tune in here.
Prediction:	Canucks in 7. I’ll call Stars in 5 in the next round, that’s probably the easier prediction anyway.