The Goods: Eastern Conference First Round Preview

04/12/2010 1:07 AM -  Ian Gooding

Why should fantasy leaguers have all the fun in the regular season? After all, aren’t the playoffs known as the “second season”? Thank heaven for fantasypostseason.com, where you can continue your fantasy hockey fix all the way to June. Armed with some solid playoff advice, we’re hoping that you’ll stay in contention for your playoff pool title the whole time.

For each playoff series, I’ve provided a simple format: players to add, possible sleepers, and players to avoid; along with a prediction of the series, which is important since playoff pools are all about picking the players who go deep into the playoffs. Some terminology: “Players to add” refers to players that you should target in the early to middle rounds of playoff pools (depending on the format). “Possible sleepers” are players to target in the later rounds that could, of course, make an impact. “Players to avoid” are players that you should avoid completely either due to injury or poor regular-season or playoff production.

I will also be covering just forwards and defensemen in this article, since many playoff pools are only about scoring. David Satriano will provide a ranking of the playoff goalies shortly.

Western Conference First Round Preview

Washington Capitals (1) vs. Montreal Canadiens (8)

Players to add: Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, Mike Green, Mike Cammalleri, Tomas Plekanec, Scott Gomez

Possible sleepers: Brooks Laich, Mike Knuble, Brendan Morrison, Eric Fehr, Joe Corvo, Brian Gionta, Andrei Kostitsyn, Andrei Markov

Players to avoid: Tomas Fleischmann (four points in 16 career playoff games), Glen Metropolit (injury), Benoit Pouliot, Sergei Kostitsyn (possible healthy scratches)

Prediction: Washington in 5. Montreal has two slight advantages over Washington in this series: 1) a 2-1-1 head-to-head record with the Capitals this season, and (2) a firmly established number one goalie (at least for this series) in Jaroslav Halak. However, the Caps finished 33 points ahead of the Habs for a reason. Halak will steal one game – maybe two – for the Habs in this series. However, likely Caps starter and ex-Hab Jose Theodore should be all that the Caps need to win this series. Ovechkin and company will use the 1980s Edmonton Oilers’ style of play to score early and often.

New Jersey Devils (2) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (7)

Players to add: Zach Parise, Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrik Elias, Mike Richards, Jeff Carter, Chris Pronger, Daniel Briere (57 points in 63 career playoff games)

Possible sleepers: Travis Zajac, Jamie Langenbrunner, Paul Martin, Andy Greene, Claude Giroux, Simon Gagne, James van Riemsdyk, Kimmo Timonen, Braydon Coburn

Players to avoid: Brian Rolston (28 points in 65 career playoff games), Dainius Zubrus (24 points in 63 career playoff games), Rob Niedermayer, Scott Hartnell (15 points in 39 career playoff games)

Prediction: New Jersey in 6. I don’t think the Flyers are as bad as they are made out to be. Sure, Brian Boucher hasn’t looked like the second coming of Bernie Parent. But the Flyers will give the Devils fits if they can turn this into a run-and-gun series or an overly physical series, as the Flyers outmatch the Devils in both areas. Martin Brodeur is Martin Brodeur, but the last season’s playoffs and this season’s Olympics have shown us that he can be a mere mortal. In the end, though, Boucher and a possible unknown backup goalie won’t be enough to tame the Devils, and Flyers faithful will continue to ask GM Paul Holmgren why he didn’t pick up another goalie at the trade deadline.

Buffalo Sabres (3) vs. Boston Bruins (6)

Players to add: Derek Roy, Jason Pominville, David Krejci

Possible sleepers: Thomas Vanek, Tyler Myers, Tyler Ennis, Patrice Bergeron, Mark Recchi, Milan Lucic, Dennis Wideman (10 points in 17 playoff games)

Players to avoid: Tim Connolly, Jochen Hecht, Drew Stafford (injuries), Marc Savard, Dennis Seidenberg (injuries), Zdeno Chara (20 points in 63 career playoff games), Blake Wheeler (zero points in eight career playoff games), Marco Sturm (19 points in 45 career playoff games), Michael Ryder, Miroslav Satan

Prediction: Buffalo in 7. I see this as a series in which the goalies take over; in other words, you’ll have a tough time finding solid scorers to pluck from this series. However, if goalies are a part of your playoff pool, Ryan Miller and Tuukka Rask are two definite possibilities. By winning the Olympic MVP, Miller has proven that he can be a go-to goalie for a team. Since the Bruins have gone from the league’s second-best offense to the league’s worst offense all in the matter of a season, Miller should have an easy time. Rask led the league with a 1.97 GAA and a .931 SV%, so he will make things close against an average-at-best Sabres offense.

Pittsburgh Penguins (4) vs. Ottawa Senators (5)

Players to add: Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Sergei Gonchar, Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza

Possible sleepers: Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz, Alexei Ponikarovsky, Bill Guerin, Ruslan Fedotenko, Kris Letang, Alex Goligoski, Mike Fisher, Erik Karlsson

Players to avoid: Matt Cooke (injury), Maxime Talbot, Brooks Orpik, Alexei Kovalev (injury), Milan Michalek (16 points in 39 career playoff games)

Prediction: Pittsburgh in 6. Winning a Stanley Cup doesn’t automatically mean that a team will advance past the first round the following season. The Pens have been generally missing scoring depth beyond Crosby and Malkin, which could play into the hands of Brian Elliott. However, the smart money is on the Pens to at least advance past the Senators, who many feel have overachieved under coach Cory Clouston this season. The Pens also swept the Sens in four games two seasons ago in the first round, which also factors into my decision to pick the Pens to advance to Round 2.

Questions? Comments? Complaints? Compliments? Ideas? Email Ian at ian@fantasyhockey.com. Or follow fantasyhockey.com on Twitter for up-to-the-minute updates, general hockey discussion, and any fantasy hockey questions that you have. You can also become a fan on Facebook.