Kyle's Round 1 Wales Playoff Battle Breakdown

VS
NYI vs TB (NYI By a Landslide)
The 1st place overall New York Islanders take on the 8th seed Tampa Bay Lightning, The Islanders are an easy favourite to win the series finishing the season with a stellar 122 pts and 9-1 in their last 10. The lightning will have to step up their game to come up with a huge upset in this one and definately have their work cut out for them. Tamps has been in a rebuilding mode this season and were surprised when they were able to acquire the 8th seed in the playoffs. The season series Tampa played against the NYI ended up close which shows some promise that this series might be a huge CLUTCH upset Tampa went 0-1-2 vs the Islanders only being out scored 9-7 in the regular season. Tampa will have to rely on Kubina and McLaren to shut down the top two scorers in CLUTCH (Peca 107pts & Sakic 102pts). The goaltending tandem of Jani Hurme & Kari Lehonten may simply be out matched vs. Vezina candiate David Aerbisher. The Islanders have too much going for them this year and an upset would shock the CLUTCH hockey world.


VS.
PIT vs PHI (Too Close to Call)
Pittsburgh finished the season with one point fewer then Philadelphia but won their divison and snuck into the 2nd seed in the Wales and will have Home Ice Advantage vs the 7th seeded Flyers. Their is no clear cut predictable winner in what may be the hardest series to guess at in the 1st round. The season series went 2-1-0 for the penguins but the Flyers finished the season with more points and Penguins starting Goaltender Aubin will not be available for play until the 3rd game of the season. The Penguins added Defensive talents Ward & Madden near the deadline while the Flyers roster remained the same. The Flyers Power Play was the best in the league so the Penguins need to show more discipline during the playoffs in order for them to succeed.


VS.
WAS vs FLA (Panthers too much for Capitals)
The 3rd seed Panthers vs the 6th seed Capitals should be a hard fought battle indeed. The Panthers are an easy favourite led by players like Bondra (99 pts), Novoseltsev (92 pts) and the excellent goaltending of Roberto Luongo in between the pipes the Panthers may have the right line-up to make a very decent cup run this year. The Capitals went 1-2-1 vs the Panthers this year and are relying on outstandish performances from Manny Legace, Ziggy Palffy, Patrick Marleau and recently acquired David Vyborny if they are going to have any chance at upsetting the high flying Panthers.

VS.
CAR vs. NYR (Are the Rangers deadline additons enough?)
The 4th seeded Rangers take on the 5th seeded Hurricanes in what will be a close battle. Both teams made some big moves nearing the end of the season, the biggest of course seeing Mario Lemieux in what might be his last CLUTCH season come to the Rangers, Lemieux has the most points of any Ranger and may be the deciding factor in this series, The star studded 1st line of Lemieux-Sundin-Alfredson that is expected to be played might be enough to crack the very solid Hurricanes defensive tandem of McKee & Klesla. Nearing the end of the year Carolina actually made what could be considered as a Downgrade when they sent Tucker to the Devils in Exchange for Letowski. The Goaltending battle is equal but with the addition of Lemieux I see New York as having a slight offensive advantage over the Canes. Will the Rangers deadline upgrades and the Hurricanes late season downgrade be the difference in this well matched battle? We will see.