NHL Hockey

ROAD TO THE CUP: BLACKHAWKS

The Blackhawks are clearly the best team in the NHL so far. The Blackhawks have yet to lose a single game in regulation time. The Blackhawks’ key player is all-star right wing, Patrick Kane. Kane leads the team in assists, goals, and points. The Blackhawks also have a good looking goalie in Corey Crawford. Crawford has the fourth best goals against average (GAA) in the league with a miniscule 1.65 per game.

The Blackhawks have all the stats to back up their performance as well. They are fourth in the league in goals per game, second in goals allowed, third in penalty kills, and fourteenth in power play percentage. All of the Blackhawks’ losses have been from shootouts. There is no doubt that the Blackhawks are the most exciting and best in the NHL.

The future of the Hawks looks bright and there is no doubt that they will make it into the playoffs and possibly to the Stanley Cup.

ROAD TO THE CUP: RED WINGS

The Red Wings have been known as the Yankees of hockey for the past decade. However this year they don’t have their all-star defender, Nicklas Lidstrom and they are feeling the pain. They have definitely lost some of their power due to his retirement. Detroit is currently fourth in the Central division and 12 points back from the current leader, the Chicago Blackhawks. Detroit is not producing stats this year after ranking only fifteenth in goals per game and ranking in the back half of the league for goals against and power play and penalty kill percentages.

Their all-star center/left wing Henrik Zetterberg has lead the wings through the season so that they can hang on to a half decent season. Zetterberg has 5 goals and leads the team with 17 assists. As helpful as Zetterberg has been this year you have to wonder when he is going to retire and how the Red Wings are going to respond to the loss of one of their top scorers.

My prediction is that the Red Wings will narrowly get into the playoffs but will be eliminated in the first round.