As the playoffs near, who's ripe for a fall?
Written by Chris Burton   
Tuesday, 16 March 2010 08:01

As the playoff chase reaches its climax, some teams will be left on the outside looking in. Will we see another late (late) push from a team, similar to the St. Louis Blues of last year? Who will fall apart in the final days like the Nashville Predators in 2009? Lets take a look at the teams most likely to collapse when push comes to shove, and who could be making a run.

Fall

Colorado Avalanche

Unproven playoff goaltending. Young players carrying the mail. Rookie head coach. Getting outshot in crucial situations. The recipe the Avs are currently cooking with doesn't appear to leave much room for error. Joe Sacco needs to get better production out of his veteran players like Milan Hejduk, Marek Svatos, and to some extent, Paul Stastny, because when crunch time arrives, rookies Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly may be in over their heads. They currently have a tentative hold on sixth place, only three points ahead of hot Nashville.

Boston Bruins

One point clear of the ninth place Rangers, the Bruins were already near the bottom of the league in scoring and are now without leading scorer Marc Savard for an extended period. They failed to address the scoring need at the deadline, acquiring only Dennis Seidenberg, and a team led offensively by Marco Sturm is a team you won't be seeing around for long. The Bruins can steal a game or two behind Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask, but goaltending only gets you so far when you can't put pucks in or on nets. The loss of Phil Kessel is coming back to haunt the Bruins, who finished one point away from winning last year's President's Trophy.

Rise

Detroit Red Wings

As inconsistent as this year has been for Mike Babcock's team, have a look at the defending conference champions' roster and try and convince yourself that they won't make noise. You can't. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nick Lidstrom, and Johan Franzen are world class talents who were also the catalysts behind a Cup championship two years ago and a conference title last year. The big question mark remains in goal with Calder dark horse Jimmy Howard, but you know that Babcock will have them ready to go in April. A series with the West-leading Sharks looms, and San Jose can't be looking forward to that, considering both teams' track records.

Philadelphia Flyers

The Bullies are an interesting study. A fantastic blueline is led by veterans Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen, but the forward corps remains streaky and overpaid, with high salaried players like Scott Hartnell and Daniel Briere not playing up to their pay. They've gotten great goaltending from waiver-wire pickup Michael Leighton, and highly-touted youngesters Claude Giroux and James Van Riemsdyk have stepped up to fill some scoring void. If Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne can get hot, this is a team that will win a round or two in the postseason.

 

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