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These teams could be a handful in the playoffs, if they make it

March 18, 2009 01:05 PM | Posted by   Jim Hughson  

When the playoffs begin in less than a month we all know who the favourites will be, but what of the teams that have scrambled all season and still aren’t sure if they’re going to be in?

There are a few teams from each conference that could prove to be a handful for the top seeds.

Here are four teams you might not want to face in the first round – that is, if they get in.

Pittsburgh Penguins

Okay, so it’s no revelation that a Stanley Cup finalist with two of the top three scorers in the league would be a tough match up for any team, but consider how bad the Penguins looked before the coaching change.

They appeared to have packed it in on Michel Therrien, but they would have looked out of sync for any coach. The Penguins didn’t have the right players. Line combinations didn’t work so they changed almost daily. Third- and fourth-line wingers were playing in the top six. Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin had new wingers nightly and weren’t getting much done, so they’d end up playing together. That made them productive, but it left a black hole between their shifts. Add to that, Crosby and Malkin struggled to even get the puck at times due to the absences of defencemen Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney.

So it might just be that, for the second year in a row, general manager Ray Shero has had a great deadline day.
By acquiring Chris Kunitz and Bill Guerin, Shero put some other players at ease. He took them out of situations they shouldn’t have been in and at the same time gave Crosby linemates he can make something happen with. (Not unlike last season when Shero picked up Marian Hossa.)

Crosby now plays with Kunitz and Guerin. Pascal Dupuis, Matt Cooke and Tyler Kennedy get back to third- and fourth-line duty and suddenly the Penguins look like they have depth that wasn’t apparent a month ago.

Gonchar is rounding into shape, Marc-Andre Fleury looks ready for the playoffs and all on board seem to like the coaching change. The Penguins look ready to take flight.

Florida Panthers

The Dangerfields of the Southeast get no respect because they get no audience, but the Panthers have the components of a pretty good playoff team … if they can squeak in.

Most good playoff squads have goaltending and defence and both are strong suits of the Panthers.

Tomas Vokoun has one of the best save percentages in the league and is capable of winning games single handed. In front of him, the Panther defence is as good as any and better than most.

Maligned because of his days under the spotlight in Toronto, Bryan McCabe has had a pretty good season for Peter DeBoer’s team in the Sunbelt. He should be healthy for the last 15 games and along with Jay Bouwmeester, Keith Ballard, and Karlis Skrastins, they’ve got a pretty good blue-line back.

The Panthers don’t overwhelm up front but they don’t have to and they play the game as though they like it and don’t want an early exit.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Let’s see. In the space of a week, the Blue Jackets beat the best team in the West (Detroit), putting up an eight spot against them in Joe Louis Arena. They shut out the best team in the East (Boston), then beat the hottest team in the league (Pittsburgh) and for good measure went into one of the toughest buildings in the league (Chicago) and topped the Blackhawks. Pretty good playoff entry resume.

Largely it’s about the goaltender in Columbus and even coach Ken Hitchcock would have trouble arguing that’s not the case.

The rise of Steve Mason should scare any team the Jackets come up against because he could shut out the lot of them and pretty much has. But besides stopping the puck, Mason has given the rest of the team confidence to play the game without fear of tragedy in the net. Yes, the Blue Jackets can finally trust their goalie.

Hitchcock has a playoff-ready style, which means the Jackets don’t give their opponents many chances to score. Rick Nash is a star game breaker, Antoine Vermette gives the team a big lift at centre and the anonymous defence - featuring dependable Fedor Tyutin and Jan Hejda - has the Jackets among the top 10 teams in goals against.
And that takes us right back to the goalie!

Dallas Stars

Always beware of the team that has defied all odds and overcome all obstacles.

The Stars were pretty much given up for dead before the season was half over. Sean Avery had cut a swath through their dressing room, the captain was out for the season, the goalie couldn’t stop a beach ball and Fabian Brunnstrum turned out to be … Fabian Brunnstrum.

But the Stars have enough experience and leadership to persevere and they’ve scratched and clawed their way back into the playoff fringe. It would help if they got some good news for a change, for instance, having some injured players return or if they could give Marty Turco an occasional night off. But, even though that doesn’t seem likely, the Stars will be a handful for somebody.

Now it’s entirely possible the Stars will be exhausted by the time the playoffs roll around (if they make it). On the other hand, having overcome the loss of Sergei Zubov, Brenden Morrow and the wretched start, Dallas might just find a renewed vigour for the battle and they know how to play in the playoffs.

Besides, it would be a shame to see the marvellous breakout season of Loui Eriksson go to waste.

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