This should be a great series. Being a duck fan i was really wishing that SJ could have taken you guys out because we owned SJ this year, went 5-2-1 against them and we would have had home ice. Against the Wings it was 2-2 each team winning at home, and now we don't have home ice and we have to steal one at the Joe, which is no easy task.
In all honesty, I think the ducks don't get much respect on Defense after Nieds, Prongs, and Beauchy, however we have a realiable D-man in O'Donnell and Kent Huskins has been a great sight to see in the post season (think Niedermayer/Lidstrom esque), not that good, but very similar.
It's true that we have been rolling only 3 lines in the first 2 rounds, but that is changing with this series as Todd Marchant will be back after having sports hernia surgery April 6th, and that alone will allow our 4th line a lot more minutes having Marchant out there centering May and most likely Thornton/Parros.
I think honestly Lidstrom/checking line will dominate over our Top Line of Selanne, McDonald and Kunitz, and I honestly feel our checking line/Niedermayer will shut down Datsuyk and Zetterberg. This series is going to be decided by the second and fourth lines on both teams. Without Schneider there is going to be a little hole on your D. Is that going to be enough to contain Getzlaf, Perry and Penner? Who knows, if they show up they will be the difference in the series. Getzlaf and Perry have been amazing, while Penner has disappointed a bit this post season. I would love to see The Getzlaf line matchup with the Bertuzzi line (isn't holmstrom on that line too) the ice would collapse under the weight of those two lines out there at the same time. Bertuzzi vs. Penner would be an awesome battle to watch, especially since Bertuzzi appears to have elevated his game finally.
Another X-factor in this series is actually Pronger, he is that extra phenomenal D man that the Wings don't have, but the Wings play that Babcock trap defense when they get the lead which is almost impossible to break through, we saw how the sharks struggled.
I do not make predictions as I am superstitious as my team always loses when i make a prediction, but I will say that both teams have their work cut out for them and being as they are the number 1 and 2 teams in the conference this is how the Conference Finals should be.
