Western Withdrawal?

Don’t blame the majority of Western conference hockey fans for not paying too much attention to the rest of the playoffs. Of the four teams that remain, (Anaheim, Colorado, Edmonton, and San Jose), three teams have a lack of legitimate playoff goaltending, defense, and experience. This can be disputed of course, but if you take a closer look, you’ll see why Western fans are looking away. The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Dallas Stars in an extremely lopsided series that was largely determined by the Stars’ goaltending, (or rather, lack of goaltending), along with an overall lack of effort. The Avs’ lack a true ‘playoff calibre’ goaltender. If 30 shots were fired at Jose Theodore, I’d guess anywhere from 5-8 goals would go in. Colorado lacks playoff experience on their blue line, with the exception of Rob Blake. Joe Sakic and the Avs’ offense were red hot in this series, will need to keep that up if this team has any chance. For the Avs, the goal is to score more frequently than the opponent, rather than to try to stop the opponent from scoring (a lost cause, given that Theodore is in net).

The Anaheim Mighty Ducks were able to pull off a huge 4-3 series victory over the Calgary Flames in the first round. Although the Ducks played well, the majority of the series outcome was decided by the lacklustre play of the Flames. All season long, Calgary was unable to consistently put the puck in the net. Anaheim’s goaltending situation is terrible (the Bryzgalov/Giguere limbo), but the Calgary Flames were unable to exploit this flaw. Bryzgalov is a backup goaltender. He cannot cover the net sufficiently to ever become a reliable number 1 goalie in the NHL. Calgary’s offense (or lack thereof) was the only reason that the Ducks were able to take this series.

Finally, the San Jose Sharks. They’re a good team. They’ve got good players. But really, they have a reasonably weak blueline, 2 scoring lines, and another goaltending limbo situation. Vesa Toskala and Evgeni Nabokov have alternated throughout most of the year, and Toskala has played all of the playoff games. The defensive core of the Sharks has a noticeable absence of any allstar caliber players. I suppose one could argue that Scott Hannan might qualify, but his offensive skills are lacking, and he has made several big defensive lapses this season. The Sharks were only able to make it through to the second round because of the play of the Nashville Predators. The Preds, of course, were missing their allstar goaltender, Tomas Vokoun, and defenseman Marek Zidlicky, but they were still able to consistently shut down Joe Thornton. The Sharks were able to win the series due to the extremely hot play of Patrick Marleau.

All in all, these three teams (the Avalanche, Ducks, and Sharks) have not earned a spot in the second round of the playoffs. They have arrived in the second round mainly due to the shoddy play of their opponents. The Edmonton Oilers are the one team remaining that won their series due to hard work, dedication, perseverance, and Dwayne Roloson. Roloson is the only goaltender in the West who has stood on his head to keep his team’s playoffs alive. The players on the Oilers are the only players in the West who have sacrificed “enough” in their quest to get to the second round.

Western Conference fans won’t exactly be salivating over the traditional rivalries of San Jose vs. Edmonton and Anaheim vs. Colorado. The top four seeds are out, along with many of the best players. Now, instead of getting to see a great matchup like Calgary vs. Edmonton, Detroit vs. Colorado, or even Vancouver vs. Minnesota, we’ll be stuck with these duds. Since 75% of the teams didn’t even earn their place in the second round, I’m guessing 75% of fans won’t be paying too much attention to it.