Weekend Linkage: Playoff picture no clearer; Geoffrion's heritage

I don’t see why Pred nation is so eager to avoid San Jose. I feel alot more confident in beating the Sharks than the Blackhawks. The Hawks are on a tear and finally figured out a good combination for their blue line after all the injuries. Niemi is also looking like a legit goalie. The Blackhawks defense would smother a Preds team that doesn’t have the most explosive offense. Meanwhile the Sharks have proven year after year to crumble in the playoffs. The Sharks blue line doesn’t scare me nearly as much as the Hawks. The Sharks do have a great offensive attack but good defense and solid goaltending from Pekka can slow that down. Taking an already mediocre offense that the Preds have and putting it up against one of the best blue lines in the Blackhawks is a recipe for disaster.

I’d also like to see the Preds play the Sharks because the Hawks are my number one team and I’d like to be able to root for the Preds for at least one round of the playoffs!

Personally I would rather see the Sharks. I think come playoff time, defense is what matters most and I just see the Chicago blue line being too much for Nashville. I think the Preds play the Sharks pretty well outside that ridiculous 3rd period. I just think that whatever is in the heads of the Sharks come playoff time is still in their heads and will be a distraction. Plus Nashville also boasts one of the league’s best blue lines and a very hot Pekka Rinne, they can slow down the Sharks offense. Since the Olympics, the Sharks have been nothing special and have been coasting to the playoffs. I think this could be recipe for an upset. Then again, the Sharks could view the number 2 seed as less pressure and just come out and dominate whoever they face.

And like I said it’s also because I’m a northerner who grew up loving the Hawks and they are my number one. Going to the Bridgestone night after night watching the Preds claw their way to the playoffs, I’d like to be able to root for them in the playoffs. If it’s the Hawks I’ll have no choice to bust out my Hawk gear to the Bridge.

Doesn’t that mean that no matter what we won’t play SJ?

Then if Detroit wins tomorrow, SJ gets the first spot, and if SJ wins, we pass Detroit?

Gotta love how both the headline of the Detroit Free Press article and the body text contain the line “… first player from Wisconsin to win the Hobey Baker …” with not one mention of his hometown in Brentwood, Tennessee.

While I realize that the Wisconsin reference was for his school, the idiots at the Freep could have said the first for the University of Wisconsin and could have been considerate by at least mentioning his hometown of Brentwood. The way they wrote it makes it seem like he is a Wisconsin native.

The crap never ends.

That’s kinda ridiculous.

…if there was a tie between us, L.A., and Detroit, us and L.A. have control of the tiebreaker in overall wins (Max 47 wins) because Detroit (Max 44 wins) has earned too many points in OT loses (14), which puts them in the bottom of the tie breaker. We also dominate over L.A. in the tiebreaker because we have beaten L.A. in the series (3-1-0)

So we have to win tonight and hope L.A. can at least lose one game to avoid any match-up with San Jose. We might even go back to 5th place if Chicago beats Detroit Sunday.