The Goods: Western Conference First Round Preview

04/11/2010 7:10 PM -  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.

Eastern Conference First Round Preview

San Jose Sharks (1) vs. Colorado Avalanche (8)

Players to add: Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton (yes, do so despite the known playoff failures), Dan Boyle, Paul Stastny, Milan Hejduk

Possible sleepers: Ryane Clowe, Joe Pavelski, Chris Stewart, Brandon Yip, TJ Galiardi, Ryan O’Reilly

Players to avoid: Devin Setoguchi (five points in 15 playoff games), Rob Blake, Manny Malhotra, Matt Duchene, Peter Mueller (injuries), John-Michael Liles, Kyle Quincey (possible healthy scratches), Marek Svatos, Stephane Yelle, Adam Foote

Prediction: San Jose in 5. The Sharks own the patent on playoff failure, but they’ll get a nice easy one in the first round. The Avs have sputtered down the stretch and barely hung onto the 8^th seed. Craig Anderson should see a lot of the Sharks’ Team Canada line, as only five teams gave up more shots on goal than the Avs this season. The outcome of Round 2 for the Sharks is anyone’s guess at this stage, but the Sharks that you draft should be good for at least a couple rounds this season, even if they don’t reach the promised land.

Chicago Blackhawks (2) vs. Nashville Predators (7)

Players to add: Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews, Marian Hossa (don’t let the Stanley Cup failures fool you), Duncan Keith, difficult to find any Predators player who is a must-own in playoff pools (leading scorer had 51 points)

Possible sleepers: Patrick Sharp, Kris Versteeg, Dustin Byfuglien, Brent Seabrook, Patric Hornqvist, Jason Arnott, J.P. Dumont, Martin Erat, Shea Weber

Players to avoid: Brian Campbell (injury), Troy Brouwer (two points in 17 career playoff games), Andrew Ladd (nine points in 34 career playoff games), John Madden, Steve Sullivan (11 points in 29 career playoff games), David Legwand, Ryan Suter

Prediction: Chicago in 5. The Predators are a nice underdog story who have not garnered nearly the attention of the Coyotes and Avalanche this season. Their game is centered around a solid defense and the underrated Pekka Rinne in net, along with a physical style deserving of the “Smashville” moniker without the usual high penalty minute total of a physical team. However, the Preds’ glaring lack of goal scoring will hurt both their real-life and their fantasy chances, while making Antti Niemi look like a world beater in this series. The Hawks’ most serious question mark is in net, but that weakness should not be a glaring one in this series.

Vancouver Canucks (3) vs. Los Angeles Kings (6)

Players to add: Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Ryan Kesler, Alex Burrows, Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty

Possible sleepers: Mikael Samuelsson, Pavol Demitra, Christian Ehrhoff, Alexander Edler, Ryan Smyth, Dustin Brown, Alexander Frolov, Justin Williams, Jarret Stoll, Michal Handzus, Wayne Simmonds

Players to avoid: Kyle Wellwood, Sami Salo (injury), Kevin Bieksa (five points in 19 playoff games), Fredrik Modin, Jack Johnson

Prediction: Vancouver in 7. This won’t be an easy series for the Canucks or Roberto Luongo, who allowed eight goals at the hands of the Kings in a March meeting. The Kings, however, are playoff newbies; with core players Kopitar, Doughty, and Jonathan Quick boasting a grand total of zero playoff games’ experience. Smyth could be a clutch performer in this series for the Kings; however, the Canucks’ second-ranked offense should give Quick nightmares. The Canucks’ hobbled defense will mean that they barely scrape by in this series, but Luongo can still lead the Canucks to a win even if he’s not on the top of his game.

Phoenix Coyotes (4) vs. Detroit Red Wings (5)

Players to add: Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Shane Doan, Wojtek Wolski

Possible sleepers: Tomas Holmstrom, Todd Bertuzzi, Dan Cleary, Valtteri Filppula, Brian Rafalski, Niklas Kronwall, Matthew Lombardi, Lee Stempniak, Keith Yandle, Ed Jovanovski, Robert Lang

Players to avoid: Jason Williams (three points in 24 playoff games), Kris Draper, Kirk Maltby, Scottie Upshall (injury), Radim Vrbata (no points in nine playoff games), Martin Hanzal

Prediction: Detroit in 6. This playoff series might be the most interesting of the bunch; a series that no one in their right minds would have predicted at the start of the season. Yet, here we are with the underdog Coyotes (a fitting term) facing the juggernaut Red Wings. The Coyotes will be the sentimental choice, and Ilya Bryzgalov will be their most important player as he has been all season. Playoff experience rules out here, however, and the Wings’ late-season run should continue into the playoffs. Canucks, Blackhawks, and Sharks fans are all breathing a sigh of relief that they don’t have to face the Wings in Round 1.

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.