In 1987, the NHL, somewhat concerned about the number of first-round playoff upsets, expanded its initial series from best-of-five to a best-of-seven.
So much for that theory in the New NHL, which prides itself on leveling the ice. None of the four top seeds in the Western Conference advanced to the second round this season. Detroit, Dallas, Calgary and Nashville fell in six, five, seven and five games, respectively. It is the first time in league history four Davids upset the top four Goliaths.
“It’s pretty amazing, but in another way, it isn’t really,” Avalanche defenseman Rob Blake said. “I can’t remember a conference that was as close as ours was this season. I mean, there were, like, 12 teams that all had a good shot at making it. It was a struggle just to get in, and I think when it was over, you had eight real good teams in there. In the past, you might have only had two, three or four real good teams in a conference, but not this year.”
Who is the West favorite now? Does anybody want to be the favorite now? Who has the edge between the Avalanche and Mighty Ducks when they begin their second-round series tonight at Anaheim? That’s hard to say, looking at the teams’ records and first-round showings.
|
MATCHUP: AVS vs. DUCKS
|
|
|
“It’s going to come down to bounces and working hard and little things,” Avs captain Joe Sakic said. “The teams are all too close to each other for there to be big blowouts.”
If you must pick a favorite in the West, the numbers suggest San Jose, the No. 5 seed and the hottest team in the conference the last month of the season. But those are just the numbers. It’s a toss-up to see who will represent the NHL’s most competitive conference in the Stanley Cup Finals.
“You can make a good case for every team still standing, why they will make it to the Finals,” said former Avs forward Dave Reid, now a television hockey analyst. “There are no bad teams, and maybe no dominant teams. They’re all just real good.”
In the Eastern Conference, all four top-seeded teams advanced, contrary to the Wild, Wild West.
“There just wasn’t a lot of difference between the teams in the West this year,” Sakic said. “It was so tight all year. Every night, it seemed like there was a whole new (order) in the standings. And the bottom teams really had to fight just to get in.”
Perhaps that gave the lower-seeded teams a competitive advantage against Detroit, the NHL’s winningest team in the regular season, and Dallas, the No. 2 seed. Both wrapped up their seedings early.
“I don’t know about that. I don’t think you can ever catch a team flat in the playoffs,” Blake said. “I think Dallas was ready for us, and I think Detroit was against Edmonton, too. You look at our series, and a bounce or two here and there and we could have lost. For a five-game series, it was tight. I just think all eight teams are pretty well evenly matched this year. And it’s going to be that way until whoever wins in the West. Hopefully that’s us.”
The Avalanche has been on the other end of this scenario twice in previous first rounds, losing to lower-seeded Edmonton in 1998 and to Minnesota in 2003. Upsets seem to come more frequently in hockey.
Unlike the NBA, it doesn’t take a hundred or so points to win a game. One goal can do it. Unlike football, the underdog team gets at least two games in front of its home crowd. Unlike baseball, where three or four good pitchers may be needed to win a series, one hot goalie can do wonders in the NHL.
But what makes upsets easier in hockey is the strength that builds in the eventual champion. That team will weather all kinds of hazards along the way to hoisting the Cup.
“That’s what’s great about hockey,” Sakic said. “You really have to earn it in our game. You have to beat four teams, four times each. There aren’t any shortcuts.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
