Detroit's Round 1 opponent tracker

[Doggy 130]

With only eight games to go... we still have very little of an idea who our first round playoff opponent will be. It is however, all but a certainty that it will be one of five teams, regardless of if we finish 1st or 2nd in the conference. So, let's take a look:

Current Western conference standings

7. Anaheim Ducks - 88 pts, 2 GR, 41 wins

8. St Louis Blues - 88 pts, 2 GR, 39 wins

9. Nashville Predators - 86 pts, 2 GR, 39 wins

10. Minnesota Wild - 85 pts, 2 GR, 38 wins

11. Edmonton Oilers - 83 pts, 2 GR, 37 wins

Tight much? 2 points between 7th and 11th all with equal games played. It will be one of these five but the probability of any one of them is literally equal. All have 8 games left, some of them (in italic) against each other which will make for some early playoffs games.

7. Anaheim Ducks

HOME vs. Edmonton 3-5 L

HOME vs. Colorado 4-1 W

ROAD vs. Edmonton 5-3 W

ROAD vs. Vancouver 6-5 W(SO)

ROAD vs. San Jose 5-2 W

HOME vs. San Jose 2-3 L

HOME vs. Dallas

ROAD vs. Phoenix

8. St Louis Blues

HOME vs. Columbus 4-3 W(SO)

ROAD vs. Columbus 5-2 W

ROAD vs. Chicago 1-3 L

ROAD vs. Detroit 5-4 W

ROAD vs. Dallas 4-5 L(OT)

ROAD vs. Phoenix 5-1 W

HOME vs. Columbus

ROAD vs. Colorado

9. Nashville Predators

HOME vs. Los Angeles 4-3 W(OT)

ROAD vs. Detroit 4-3 W

ROAD vs. Columbus 2-1 L

ROAD vs. Chicago 1-3 L

HOME vs. Columbus 5-4 W(SO)

HOME vs. Chicago 2-4 L

ROAD vs. Detroit

ROAD vs. Minnesota

10. Minnesota Wild

ROAD vs. Calgary 2-3 L

ROAD vs. Edmonton 3-2 W

HOME vs. Vancouver 1-2 L (OT)

HOME vs. Calgary 4-0 W

ROAD vs. Detroit 2-3 L

HOME vs. Dallas 3-1 W

HOME vs. Nashville

ROAD vs. Columbus

11. Edmonton Oilers

ROAD vs. Anaheim 5-3 W

HOME vs. Minnesota 2-3 L

HOME vs. Anaheim 3-5 L

HOME vs. San Jose 1-2 L

HOME vs. Vancouver 5-3 W

HOME vs. Los Angeles 1-2 L

HOME vs. Calgary

ROAD vs. Calgary

Personally, I kinda hope St. Louis and Nashville squeeze in because I think it'd be awesome to see 5 teams from the same division make it, but that's probably a long shot as they seem to have the toughest schedules, which makes sense being in the Central. Also, notice Detroit mentioned a few times in games that could end up being first round previews.

I'll update this as these teams play and hopefully soon we'll get more of an idea who we'll get. Although, I'm not promising s***. I doubt we'll have a clue until April 12.

Edited April 8, 2009 by Doggy

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Great thread Doggy. I look forward to your updates.

[Guest MrSandMan]

Whoever it is, I hope it's not Columbus. I like it when Detroit score lots of goals. If we play the BJs, we'll have to be defensively sharp and Ozzie will need to be on his game.

Also, I'd rather Wings not play Minny in the 1st series.

[Grypho 195]

By way of preface, I'm a Sharks fan, so when you see me write "us" that's who I'm referring to. Looking just at the current 7 and 8 seeds...

I know the old saying that the regular season doesn't apply in the playoffs, but if we were to go by that alone, who do you think the Ducks and Preds players would rather face, given a choice between the Sharks and the Wings?

It's interesting to note that our respective record of wins against each of these teams, with four total games played, is the same. 2-2 vs. the Preds, 3-1 vs. the Ducks. With that in mind, I think that both the Sharks and Wings players would rather take on the Ducks in the first round.

The Ducks beat the Sharks only once. It was early in the season, but it was also a convincing shutout. They only beat the Wings once also, but that was an OT win.

The Preds beat the Sharks twice, but only by one point each time, and one of those was in OT. One of our wins against them was in a shootout, with only one convincing win early on, so the matching against the Sharks and Preds feels somewhat even going in.

The Preds most recent victory against the Sharks brought them even in RS wins. But that wasn't a decisive win. Their last win over Detroit, however, was a major 8-0 blowout. A stinging, humiliating attitude adjustment wakeup call defeat for the Wings.

So I think:

The Ducks' players would much rather take on the Sharks.

The Preds' players would much rather take on the Wings.

To make matters more interesting: The Ducks have two more games to go against the Sharks (none against the Wings), while the Preds have two more games to go against the Wings (no more against the Sharks). And both teams are desperate!

SHARKS v. PREDS (2-2)

Winner / Score

Preds / 4 - 3 OT

Sharks / 4 - 1

Sharks / 2 - 3 SO

Preds / 2 - 3

WINGS v. PREDS (2-2)

Winner / Score

Preds / 2 - 3

Wings / 5 - 3

Wings / 2 - 6

Preds / 0 - 8

SHARKS v. DUCKS (3-1)

Winner / Score

Sharks / 1 - 4

Ducks / 0 - 4

Sharks / 0 - 2

Sharks / 1 - 0

WINGS v. DUCKS (3-1)

Winner / Score

Ducks / 4 - 5 OT

Wings / 1 - 2

Wings / 4 - 3

Wings / 2 - 5

All of that aside, it will be interesting to see if either of these teams is able to hang onto their leads to even secure a berth. The Oilers, Blues and Wild aren't going to roll over and play dead for either of them! It's still very possible that neither the Ducks nor the Preds will even be in the playoffs this year.

Either way, what a great race to the finish. Glad we're looking at all this from clinched positions.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Grypho

[Doggy 130]

God post Grypho, thanks for the summation. Although I think the four games to be played between Det/Nas and SJ/Ana will say more about their sentiments towards each other than the previous four games does.

[stormboy 47]

By way of preface, I'm a Sharks fan, so when you see me write "us" that's who I'm referring to. Looking just at the current 7 and 8 seeds...

[ ... ]

Either way, what a great race to the finish. Glad we're looking at all this from clinched positions.

intelligent post. thanks for not being STOOpid (which is my default opinion of opposing fans).

anyway, i generally agree with your conclusion about what the ducks' and preds' players would want for the first round draw...i would honestly not be too worried about either, though certainly think both would be a solid challenge--the ducks always seem to play of really tough, i think because they still remember being able to push around physically, and so they always get their hitting hats on when they play us; the preds because they have a great goalie, and we tend to make good goalies look great and great goalies look inhuman... so we'll see.

i appreciate this thread because, if we do keep it updated, it will give an increasingly-accurate picture of who we will likely play, rather than who we all would prefer/not prefer to play. while those discussions are interesting and worthwhile for fans to have, it obviously doesn't matter at all at the end of the day...

looking at the OP's post, i'm guessing the pack will break up a little bit as several of the bubble teams play each other shortly. then again, we could get a lot of three-point games and such and keep it really close.

also, i assume this has been mentioned elsewhere (haven't browsed yet much today) but, correct me if i'm wrong here, i think this is the first time that the wings actually control their own destiny completely. we are even in games and points with the sharks but ahead in wins--so if we win every game for the rest of the season there's no way we can lose first. that being said, despite our slight edge in home games, the sharks have a pretty cake schedule the rest of the way, assuming they can handle the sharks. flames are a playoff team, but, despite beating us, have also been getting kicked around a fair amount of late.

[stormboy 47]

God post Grypho, thanks for the summation. Although I think the four games to be played between Det/Nas and SJ/Ana will say more about their sentiments towards each other than the previous four games does.

i agree totally, and would also say that they'll be a better indicator of what a potential playoff matchup will look like between those two teams. that is to say, i think our last two games against the preds (and the sharks' last two games against the ducks) will be a much better preview of a playoff series than the rest of the season series to this point. if either ranking team (sharks or wings) get swept in the last two games by either one of these teams, i'd start getting pretty afraid.

that being said, there's a reason they actually play the playoff series.

[akustyk 84]

I'd rather have Preds than Ducks. we beat Preds already twice in playoffs and they will

be eager to prove they can win it. and with them running and gunning it would be

a solid 1st round to wake up the Wings. or eliminate, because you never know for sure..

what I also like about Predators is that they are pesky, but not goonish and that big

into trying to injure other team's players like Disney *ucks or teams like Flames.

taking a (hopefully) longer playoff run into consideration, this is much safer solution

than Pronger and the rest of Disney goons.

[lets go pavel 2]

Looks like the Ducks and Blues have the fewest games against playoff/playoff hopeful teams, and they've also been playing the best of the 5 teams lately. In their last 10 games:

Anaheim 6-3-1

Nashville 4-2-4

Edmonton 4-3-3

St. Louis 6-3-1

Minnesota 4-3-3

As for who I'd like to play ... I'd prefer to avoid Anaheim, Giguere just seems to have a habit of finding his groove against us. I'd probably also rather not play Minnesota, mainly because I hate watching us play them.

[OsGOD 3]

well damn the BJ's for being so good this season!

i guess i am hoping for da blues

[stormboy 47]

i just posted this in another thread because it caught my eye when i was looking at stats for something else, but here's copypasted what i uncovered:

"i was just poking around NHL.com's stats, and minnesota is second best in Times ShortHanded and has the league's second best penalty kill. overall, this means that that they have half or less PPGA as 5 teams, and are a fully 20 PPGA behind all but six other teams. if our powerplay is our best weapon, i suddenly to NOT want to meat these guys in the first round...or ever."

this has probably been stated elsewhere, but i didn't realize up until now that minnesota will not be pushed around by powerplays. damn. as i also stated in that thread, our 5-on-5 has been good this year, too: 3rd best in overall ratio. but s***.

[Vladifan 680]

With only eight games to go... we still have very little of an idea who our first round playoff opponent will be. It is however, all but a certainty that it will be one of five teams, regardless of if we finish 1st or 2nd in the conference. So, let's take a look:

-------->

Personally, I kinda hope St. Louis and Nashville squeeze in because I think it'd be awesome to see 5 teams from the same division make it, but that's probably a long shot as they seem to have the toughest schedules, which makes sense being in the Central. Also, notice Detroit mentioned a few times in games that could end up being first round previews.

I'll update this as these teams play and hopefully soon we'll get more of an idea who we'll get. Although, I'm not promising s***. I doubt we'll have a clue until April 12.

Doggy, this is really a nice thing you're doing here. Thanks for taking the time and I will definitely check in early and often to see where it's all headed. Thanks again!

[T-Ruff 47]

Very much looking forward to these playoff races... It will probably literally come down to the last game of the season for some of those teams....

[CanadaBoy 151]

I hope we face either Edmonton or Trashville. (We will sweep either)

[BigTex 1]

It would be great to see the Blues make it in. I think that city really deserves to see their team in the playoffs and they're a really hard working team.

Nashville or Edmonton wouldn't be a bad opponent either.

Definately don't want the Ducks. The playoffs are too long to have even minor injuries in the first round. But, if it were to happen we've got the depth to make up for it. Thank you, Kenny.

I think Minnesota is pretty much out of it. You can drop them from the list barring some sort of minor miracle.

Edited March 27, 2009 by BigTex

[GMRwings1983 8,804]

I hope it's the Blues.

It's been a while since the Wings have had an easy 1st round matchup.

[RyanK 1]

Im hoping for SL Blues round 1. I'd love to see that match up.

[Guest MrSandMan]

On a second thought, Detroit can break the CBJ's goalie.

We have the offense to turn him inside out. Bring it!

[Dimaline312000 51]

Although it looks like it may happen and probably will I hope the Wings don't play the Predators in the 1st round again.

[rick zombo 3,739]

Whatever team has the shakiest goaltending. So St.Louis.

[Datsyerberger 279]

I'm just hoping the Hawks tank so we end up with Chicago Quennville.

[wingsgirl001 983]

Wow, great thread. I'm sure we won't know until the last day of the season, but I'll keep checking here for updates. Thanks!

[Detroit # 1 Fan 2,204]

I want the Ducks, just to watch my favorite team embarrass those clowns.

[DYags 0]

I had a really vivid dream about 3 weeks ago... the Wings lost game 1 of the playoffs to Nashville.

[Guest DetroitBoy313]

I had a really vivid dream about 3 weeks ago... the Wings lost game 1 of the playoffs to Nashville

I'm telling you,I think Nashville would be scarier than people think.We've beaten them twice (playoffs) and they will have fire in their eyes to get some revenge.Plus they ALWAYS play us tough.I personally don't care who they play because if you're going to repeat you gotta beat anybody that's going to be thrown in front of you anyway.I would hate to play some of these western teams because of time reasons but other than that,BRING IT!!!!!!