For a more inspired effort from passionate hockey players, check out Dan vs. Tara from a recent ‘Make Dan Sweat’ shootout showdown, featuring a fun cameo from JoeB and Craig.

Eastern Conference

Prediction: Caps in 5; (Alex however has a Caps’ sweep)

The first round matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils is full of questions. Will the goaltending hold up for both teams? Will Ilya Kovalchuk emerge for the Devils? And of course, the inevitable question of whether Daniel Carcillo, also known as the cleanest player in hockey(note sarcasm), will earn himself a suspension.

While there are so many questions in the series, picking the winner is really a no-brainer. Philadelphia is just lucky to be in the playoffs, and they may steal a game or two in the series, but there is no way they will prevail. The boys in orange and black just don’t have enough offense and goaltending is just a wee bit of a question mark.

On the the other end of the ice is the New Jersey Devils, a team filled with All-Stars, Olympic medalists, and some guy named Martin Brodeur. Sure, Marty hasn’t been stellar in all high pressure situations, but he remains a top-5 goalie in the league. Not only that, but he has a solid defensive corps in front of him. By no mean do any of them stand out as a top-5 d-man, but they certainly have the experience and hockey knowledge to take the team a long way.

In short, despite the inevitable antics, the Flyers do not have a snowball’s chance in hell to win this series. Rangers blogger for SNY, Jimmy Hascup, described Philadelphia’s style of play perfectly. He said, “they don’t even play hockey, they should be in the MMA Octagon.” That is exactly why they will not win this series.

Prediction: Devils in 5

Ryan Miller moves from the pressure of the Winter Olympic Games to the pressure of the NHL playoffs. That said, the job should be a little easier for him this time around because he won’t be facing an offensive powerhouse like Team Canada. Instead, Miller and Sabres will be facing the Boston Bruins in a divisional matchup.

Fans will be lucky if Buffalo and Boston combine for more than 20 goals in this series. Both teams are built on their defense and lack a lot in the scoring department. Boston is led by Zdeno Chara and Dennis Wideman, while Buffalo’s defense features Calder candidate Tyler Myers and Henrick Tallinder.

In all reality though, both team’s live and die with their goalies. Miller is right at the center of discussion for the Vezina Trophy and has even garnered discussion for the Hart. Tuukka Rask will oppose him  between the pipes for the B’s. He has had a solid season between the pipes, posting a 1.97 GAA and a .931 save percentage. That said, there was a stretch of time where he did lose nine games in a row.

All in all, the deciding factor of this series will be Ryan Miller. Tim Connolly, Thomas Vanek and Derek Roy will only have to provide modest offense if the Miller we have seen all year shows up. If he is not on his game though, this could be a longer series, with neither team lighting the lamp more than three times in a game. Sorry Boston fans, I know you were happy you made it, but the worst thing for a team to run into in the playoffs is a hot goalie. And in the case of Ryan Miller, maybe the world’s best.

Prediction: Sabres in 6

This matchup may be one of the most deceiving of all the Eastern Conference first-round pairings. On one side of the ice there is the Pittsburgh Penguins, the defending Stanley Cup Champion, and one which has been to back-to-back Cup finals. Opposing them is the somewhat undervalued Ottawa Senators. Ottawa flew under the radar for a lot of the season, but the talent and experience is in place to make a deep playoff run.

Pittsburgh has a star-studded lineup, but you don’t need us to tell you that. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Sergei Gonchar lead a team with high expectations and fans with higher. Anything but a repeat will be unacceptable, and the biggest thing that might prevent them from hoisting the Stanley Cup sat on the bench during the Olympics. Marc-Andre Fleury is a talented but erratic netminder.

If Ottawa’s veterans can knuckle down and play the kind of hockey that once won them a conference title, then they have a fighting chance against Pittsburgh. Jason Spezza, Daniel Alfredsson, and Mike Fischer possess the skills needed to steal a game or two in Pittsburgh, and there’s always the human shot-blocking machine, Anton Volchenkov. A huge blow perhaps to Ottawa’s chances was the end of season injury to Alexei Kovalev — a torn ACL.

Still, Ottawa’s goaltending could be one of the more under-reported storylines of the first round. Brian Elliott doesn’t have to stand on his head, but he has to be better than Marc Andre Fleury. And he’s plenty good — one of the best goalies this past season. This is not the same Pens’ Cup-winning club of a year ago — it’s a team whose blueline doesn’t look nearly as strong and stable absent the departed Rob Scuderi and Hal Gill. Pittsburgh should be able to pull it out, but it won’t be without some nail biting in the closest series of the Eastern Conference.

Prediction: Penguins in 7

Western Conference

What’s not to like about the other conference’s first/last first-round series? If people are calling Montreal/Washington the David and Goliath first-round series, then this series might be more in the realm of Sparta versus Persia proportions. San Jose is the perennial second-round flop that everyone expects will do well and Colorado is the little engine that could, a team that wasn’t even supposed to be around right now, and almost wasn’t.

The reason we’ll take San Jose in this matchup is only because they normally lose in the second round (last year against Anaheim was an exception). The season series was even, and Craig Anderson had an outstanding first half but slipped up a bit this calendar year. Not forecasting necessarily that he will, but we’re also not going to be the ones to say he can’t pull off an awesome April turnaround. If Colorado’s young team, led by Matt Duchene and the trade deadline-acquired Peter Mueller, gells and is olivious to postseason pressure by virtue of their collective youth and inexperience, they stand a chance at upsetting San Jose and Dany Heatley. He might realize he should have stayed in Ottawa.

Prediction: Sharks in 7

If Chicago had reliable netminding we’d call this one of the early enders in round one. It still might be — that’s how loaded the Hawks are. But Nashville plays the Western conference’s most physical brand of hockey, and that could pose a challenge to Chicago’s fleet of skilled scoring forwards.

It’s Antti Niemi vs. Pekka Rinne in net — advantage Preds. Still, while Nashville has an unheralded corps of offensive weapons up front, and some terrific bangers on the back end, they’re no match for the elite Hawks.

Prediction: Hawks in 5

After scraping through with the Art Ross Trophy, Henrik Sedin and the Canucks will be at full force in the first round and a force to be reckoned with. But, if there’s one upset that is likely to occur in the first round, it’s gotta be this one. Los Angeles has an amazingly gifted young core, and more than capable goaltending in Jonathan Quick. They also have a great supporting cast in vets like Jeff Halpern and Ryan Smyth, who reignited his scoring touch with Anze Kopitar at center.

Vancouver’s lineup is as deep as they come in the NHL, but we’re not so confident that Roberto Luongo and the British Columbians will be as physical as Los Angeles. The secondary scoring on this team is fantastic, though, with last summer’s acqusition of Michael Samuelsson a clever signing. Alexandre Burrows, Mason Raymond and Ryan Kesler all had career years, and it seems they’ll continue their top-five goal production in the postseason. But we’re willing to take a gamble on Los Angeles and say they’ll wear Vancouver’s forwards down physically with the likes of Drew Doughty, Rob Scuderi and bone-crusher Jack Johnson on the blueline.

Prediction: Kings in 6

This may be the most intriguing first-round matchup — the Cinderella story Coyotes, owned and managed this season by the league, and flirting with no. 1 overall out West well into March, and the late-surging Wings, who’ve battled through ravenous injuries to earn an underdog-with-an-edge status this postseason.

The Coyotes will need Vezina candidate Ilya Bryzgalov to keep up his backbone backstopping ways in this series. Bryzgalov merely won 42 games in the regular season and posted an eye-popping eight shutouts. Detroit will counter with rookie netminding (and Calder candidate) sensation Jimmy Howard. All the experience in this series is obviously on the side of Detroit. All the MoJo appears to be with the Wings. But wouldn’t it be an amazing feather in the Phoenix cap if they took down the perennial conference power?

Prediction: Wings in 6

Both the Kings and Ducks were on the road at the time, so it seemed there’d be no hockey on this trip; instead, I attended a filming of Jeopardy! It was November, so we were a bit surprised when announcer Johnny Gilbert asked us all if we’d enjoyed the holidays and were ready for New Year’s. It seems they were filming shows well in advance of the planned broadcast dates, and finally those episodes are airing this week.

The final episode filmed that day will air New Year’s Eve at 7:30 p.m. on ABC. To my surprise, it was Jeopardy! that gave me a little taste of hockey, and of home: Alex Ovechkin was part of one of the show’s answers.

Now Oveckin’s name has popped up once before on the show — just a few weeks ago, when contestant and Virginia resident S. R. Sidarth enticed viewers to “Watch me light up the scoreboard like Alex Ovechkin on Jeopardy!”

In the episode airing on 12/31/2009, the very last question before “Final Jeopardy” will involve the Caps’ superstar. So now you can watch the show and amaze friends with your prescient wizardry . . . “Somehow I get the feeling the Capitals will be mentioned on the show tonight.” Or something like that.

It is the first time Ovechkin has been a Jeopardy! answer but, given Ontario-born Alex Trebek’s love of hockey, I suspect Canadian Alex will see to it that Russian Alex reprises his role as a Jeopardy! answer.

Three seasons ago, in just the second year of his tenure with the Capitals, Clark had been placed on the same line as the league’s brightest young star, Alexander Ovechkin. The 6’0” South Windsor, Connecticut, native put together the most impressive year of his entire career. In 74 games that season Clark scored 30 goals, had 24 assists, and fired an unprecedented 164 shots on goal.

While the Caps didn’t make much noise in the league, finishing fourth in the Southeast division, Clark’s performance gave hope for the future. They had their franchise player, a captain who looked like a reincarnation of Steve Yzerman, plenty of promising young prospects, and therefore seemed a franchise poised to make a turn around from the basement of the Eastern conference. Washington ended up doing just that, but that turn around happened laregly without the on-ice help of their captain and leader.

Clark sustained a groin injury not even a quarter way through the following season. It took him several months to return from the painful and year-killing injury. Once it had healed and everything looked good to go, Clark took the ice against the Philadelphia Flyers, but barely made it through one shift. Number 17 stepped on the ice and promptly re-injured the same groin muscle, ending his season.

He returned next year in the team’s new red, white and blue colors, looking to the put the past of painful injuries and a painful season behind him. The pain was just beginning however, as Clark would miss a majority of the season yet again, playing in only 31 games because of a bad wrist.

The wrist would plague him through the rest of the season. While he would return for the Capitals second-round playoff battle with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he was offensively ineffective and was pushed to third line duty.

Perhaps more important than his return in the postseason was the vote of confidence Head Coach Bruce Boudreau gave him during their first round playoff tilt with the New York Rangers. After being asked whether or not Clark would lose the captain’s ‘C,’ Boudreau responded by reaffirming Clark as the captain,  their leader on and off of the ice. It is quite the endorsement, considering that Clark had been one of the least productive players on the squad.

Clark finished the playoffs and still had the ‘C’ on his jersey.

Last summer he took the blows and demotions like a true leader thinking of the team first. Training camp began this September and it came out that Clark had agreed to be moved to the third line, also known as the retirement home for formerly skilled players. There was one problem with that, though: Clark decided he didn’t want to be confinced to the team’s third line.

Maybe Chris Clark isn’t quite a candidate for comeback player of the years award, but his is still a strong story of a leader’s perserverance. In November alone he had a four-game point streak that helped the Caps take five out of their last seven, and he capped that off with the winning shootout goal in a wild 11 round tilt against the Islanders.

While yes he has been clutch in several situations, and yes he has finally returned to the top line with Ovechkin, it is what he has meant to this team that is more important than his offensive firepower. Young stud Mathieu Perreault has come up from Hershey and been an absolute delight. He has made a playmaker’s precision passes, scored a couple of goals, and even doled out some hits. Much of the youngster’s poised play must be credited to his natural talent, but what we can’t overlook is the line he was put on. Perreault had Clark on his flank, and the captain certainly helped the young and nervous French Canadian get acclimated to the league.

It is just another demonstration of how much Boudreau actually trusts Clark. He knows that it doesn’t matter how many points Clark has on the season – he is in some sense a thread that holds the team together. He is the true meaning of leader.

On top if those leadership abilities, Clark also has the real ability to become a serious X-Factor. Recently he returned to the top line with former linemate Ovi and center Nicklas Backstrom and was +1 with an assist. Staying healthy is going to be key if Clark is to have a stellar season. The skills are clearly still there — especially the grit and warrior’s will in traffic — but the health is the only thing left in doubt.

Regardless of whether he stays true to form on the top line or falls back to the third, it will be Clark that will play a pivotal leadership role for this team on toward the playoffs, as he is the heart and sole of Washington Capitals hockey.

“The Samuelis have been terrific owners. They’re perhaps the most community-minded and charitable people in all of Orange County,” Bettman said. “I am not going to fret about something that may or may not be substantiated at the end of the day.”

Read all about it at The Star.

I’ve included picks made by the Whale with those of the Hurricanes, and of those made by the Nordiques in association with Colorado, to even out the survey period. No need however to add Winnipeg to Phoenix’s draft woes — the Desert Dogs know how to screw the draft pooch up high all on their own. Take a look:

Hey John,
Whenever I watch [Alexander] Ovechkin, I see that he looks really mad that he’s in Washington. Where do you think he will end up next season, assuming he doesn’t re-sign (which I doubt)?
Jeff
Philadelphia
[Buccigross]: Alexander Ovechkin isn’t going anywhere. Probably. He is a restricted free agent and the Capitals would match any offer. I’m sure Oilers GM Kevin Lowe is preparing a 45-year, $421.7 million offer sheet as we speak. Would the Capitals ever considering trading Ovechkin? Well, if No. 8 pushed the matter and wanted to play in a market, like say, Los Angeles, then something could be done there.
The Kings have enough young talent, and potentially the overall No. 1 pick, that the Capitals could make a deal there and potentially make their team better. Would the Kings trade goalie prospect Jonathan Bernier, Jack Johnson, and Michael Cammalleri and their No. 1 pick for Ovechkin, the Caps’ first pick, a top defensive prospect and perhaps a character guy like Chris Clark, or a framework similar to that? Putting prospect Karl Alzner along with Johnson in front of a prospect like Bernier could reap huge dividends. The NHL is a “defense first” league and it will remain that way. You need to be a good defensive team with great goaltending to win playoff rounds, and while the Caps have played well recently, can you picture them winning a playoff series any time soon?
The trade sounds like a lot for the Kings to give up, but having a star in the Los Angeles market is vital for the Kings. Put Anze Kopitar with Ovechkin and any upright mammal and you have a No. 1 line. Dustin Brown can play with Alexander Frolov and maybe Patrick O’Sullivan on the second line. The third and fourth lines can be constructed with young players and veteran free agents. The major issue is giving up a goalie prospect like Bernier. Goalies are always tough to gauge. How many “can’t miss” goalies have we seen fizzle out? Being bold results in championships. Maybe the Capitals, multiple assets away from being a playoff force, are pondering such a bold move involving their star player who appears to be looking to max out his earning potential.