2010 NHL Playoff Predictions: The 5 Most Dangerous Underdogs in the Playoffs

April 12th, 2010 by Ryan Pickard Leave a reply »
The 2009-10 NHL regular season has officialy ended and what a season it was. From the Chicago Blackhawks winning the Central Division for the first time in 17 years to the Phoenix Coyotes making the playoffs despite all the talk about them possibly moving out of Arizona. After a long 82 game season that did take all 82 games for certain teams such as the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers we finally know who will be in the playoffs and the matchups for the first round. In the east the Capitals ran away withe Southeast Division and Eastern Conference piling up a whopping 121 points while the Flyers were able to squeak in by beating the New York Rangers in a shootout earlier today. The defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins find themselves sitting in fourth this year, the exact spot they held last year on their way to the Stanley Cup. Meanwhile out west the San Jose Sharks clinched the top seed with the Chicago Blackhawks losing to the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings, Western Conference Champions ago have battled numerous injuries this year and find themselves in fifth place and a matchup with the Phoenix Coyotes looming. The big surprise out west was the Colorado Avalanche. One of the youngest teams in the NHL the Avs got off to a fast start and were able to hold on down the stretch to make the postseason after being picked by many to finish dead last in the league. As always during playoff time people will be looking to see who might be able to pull of a couple of upsets and make a surpise run. There was the Edmonton Oilers in 2006 who as the eight seed made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals only to be beaten by the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year as a six seed. So without further adieu lets take a look at the five teams that might be able to make a run and capture the Cup.

Begin Slideshow




This story was originally syndicated from Bleacher Report - Front Page.
Read the original Article Here

Incoming sports news and scores search terms for the article:


Posted in Boston Bruins, Hockey, NHL, Preview/Prediction, Stanley Cup

Tags:

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.




eXTReMe Tracker