ESPN's Buccigross Det Ana Series Prediction

[edicius 3,269]

NO ONE gives love to the Ducks, this is one guy against the Wings.

You need to listen to XM Home Ice... They loooooooooooooove the Ducks on there. Especially Pronger. They subscribe to the theory of "Pronger Physics". Must've interviewed Burke one too many times.

[C-TownWing 0]

The old comment isn't particularly valid, but he did pick the Wings to win.

Booch isn't the worst offender, and I'm not necessarily calling him out here, but I'm sick of so much being made of the Wings' age. Our average age at the beginning of this season was 30.4, oldest in the league. Anaheim was 2nd, at 30.31. The average age for the whole league is about 28. The Blackhawks are the youngest team, 25.65.

Yet to hear people talk about it, they'll say things like "the Wings are the oldest team in the league, they're lucky they got the rest after the first round." Just stuff like that and other comments that make us sound like we're lucky our guys haven't all broken their hips and/or come down with Alzheimer's. Is there really that much difference between a 30-year-old and a 25-year-old? I don't think so.

[BlakChamber 8]

yeh that doesnt say a lot and it explains why he is so bad

What makes Bucci so bad?

[SouthernWingsFan 854]

So somebody predicts the Wings to win a series, and there's still disdain in here directed towards this columnist for picking the Wings to win. Unbelieveable.

[RockyMountainWingGal 108]

I trust Burnside more than Buccigross

Exactly. The majority of analysts I've seen have picked the Wings. But who cares - people have good reason to pick the Ducks - and then if they win - they look like geniuses. Melrose was the only analyst to pick the Ducks in the first round on ESPN - everyone else piled on the Sharks bandwagon, which crashed and burned.

I like it that the Wings are not being picked by everyone - it should make them more conscientious of having to play hard to win and prove they are the better team. Although, I doubt they get worked up by all the "analysts" like we do...

[thedisappearer 291]

Bucci knows hockey. He's pretty even keel. He backed up his OPINION, you obviously don't agree, but his points are at least valid.

[RockyMountainWingGal 108]

Booch isn't the worst offender, and I'm not necessarily calling him out here, but I'm sick of so much being made of the Wings' age. Our average age at the beginning of this season was 30.4, oldest in the league. Anaheim was 2nd, at 30.31. The average age for the whole league is about 28. The Blackhawks are the youngest team, 25.65.

Yet to hear people talk about it, they'll say things like "the Wings are the oldest team in the league, they're lucky they got the rest after the first round." Just stuff like that and other comments that make us sound like we're lucky our guys haven't all broken their hips and/or come down with Alzheimer's. Is there really that much difference between a 30-year-old and a 25-year-old? I don't think so.

Freaking Cheli has got to skew our average age by several years - since he never sees a PO game these days, those stats need to drop him from the stat sheet. No matter, the "age" thing doesn't apply anymore since the Wings have mixed in a bunch of good young players.....

[weGotTheCup89 41]

I trust Burnside more than Buccigross

I trust Dr. Rahmani more than either of 'em.

[C-TownWing 0]

Freaking Cheli has got to skew our average age by several years - since he never sees a PO game these days, those stats need to drop him from the stat sheet. No matter, the "age" thing doesn't apply anymore since the Wings have mixed in a bunch of good young players.....

That's a great point--only reason I didn't mention it was because the numbers I saw were from the beginning of the year, and I don't think Cheli was counted in that since he was hurt. But if he was, he could basically add almost a full year to our average age by himself. Draper (who was counted in that number) is hurt...

Another way to look at it: Pavel Datsyuk is roughly 30.75 (July birthday). Older than our average age. Is he old and brittle? Then why draw the conclusion that our team as a whole is?

Osgood, Maltby, Draper, Holmstrom, Lidstrom, Chelios, Rafalski are the 35+ people on the team right now. Cheli generally doesn't play, Draper's hurt, Maltby's a 4th liner...leaving 4 guys who are in key roles at the moment. I just don't see that as a huge, huge deal.

Again, this isn't really about Booch, who I think is one of the best hockey writers out there. Just being all tangental...

[C-TownWing 0]

I trust Dr. Rahmani more than either of 'em.

nice work.

[akustyk 84]

Is there really that much difference between a 30-year-old and a 25-year-old? I don't think so.

I do. it's called: drink-ability

I'm almost 31 and trust me - you can't make as many beers at this age as you could at 25 :chug:

[ifonlyicouldskate 11]

if any series has the potential to go 7 games.... this is the one.. I hope the Wings win it before that, but as an insurance policy, I just bought my game 7 tickets :beerbuddy:

[Dawgs 0]

These national "analysts" crack me up. All they do is spew the same old cliches about Detroit over and over.

In one sentence Bucci says Selannes 39 but has amazing speed. No mention of his total ineffectiveness against SJ. No mention of the ancient Niedermayer brothers. Yet in the next paragraph 39 year old Lidstrom and 35 year old Rafalski are " a bit of a concern" because of thier age.

Really calling us old is getting old. The Wings arent old, they are a really nice mix of veteran talent that can play and still wants to win and young hungry guys whose best years are still in front of them.

I keep seeing Anaheims size at the back end as being so impressive that Detroit wont be able to maintain the same net front presence as they did against Columbus. Yet nobody mentions that Columbus has one of the biggest D's in the NHL and average something close to 6'4" and 225. That size didnt do much for Columbus as Detroit went to the net with impunity.

Anyone who has watched this Detroit team often, knows that there is no way that Anaheim size and physicality will hinder Detroit. In fact, Ill say that while Anaheim does have a slight edge in size, Detroit is the more physical team. I dont have the stats handy but I was looking at the matchups and they showed the top three players on each team in hits. In 6 games in the first round Anaheims top two hitters had less hits than Detroits did in 4 games, while the Anaheim player that is third had 1 or 2 more than Detroits third. And anecdotally, after watching all the playoff games these two teams have played, Detroit hits as often and thier hits are much bigger.

The one area in the physical game that without a doubt swings Anaheims way, is the scrums after the whistle. And thats not physical hockey thats just a brutish attempt at intimidation and the Red Wings have already established the fact that nobody will intimidate them. Between the whistles, when it matters, is at worst even, but I give the edge to Detroit.

[Frozen-Man 144]

i'm not sure how that's "unreal." the comments on lids and raffi are a bit suspect, but honestly, if you've only caught a bit of nick's playing this year it wouldn't be that hard to claim that it's gone down hill a bit, probably because of age. hell, i think that even with his stellar second half, you can still see him aging a bit. rafalski's problems don't stem from his age, but he certainly has them.

and osgood will certainly have to be stellar. if he starts letting in soft goals from their third and fourth line, we're cooked.

seems like a pretty reasonable analysis to me, especially since he picked the wings to win it on home ice.

Agree with most of your post but the guys is a professional hockey writer for the largest sports news agency in the world. I don't think that he can use the excuse that he only caught a bit of Nick's playing this year. But I agree pretty reasonable in his overall analysis.

[AtomicPunk 296]

All he was saying about Teemu is that he is shocked at how fast he still is for 39.

Age is something to be concerned about, although I doubt it will override the skill level of the older players.

I would not be surprised one bit if this goes 6 or 7 games. I watched a lot of the SJ series and they played them very hard. Lace 'em up for this one, boys!

[LeftWinger 4,961]

These national "analysts" crack me up. All they do is spew the same old cliches about Detroit over and over.

In one sentence Bucci says Selannes 39 but has amazing speed. No mention of his total ineffectiveness against SJ. No mention of the ancient Niedermayer brothers. Yet in the next paragraph 39 year old Lidstrom and 35 year old Rafalski are " a bit of a concern" because of thier age.

Really calling us old is getting old. The Wings arent old, they are a really nice mix of veteran talent that can play and still wants to win and young hungry guys whose best years are still in front of them.

I keep seeing Anaheims size at the back end as being so impressive that Detroit wont be able to maintain the same net front presence as they did against Columbus. Yet nobody mentions that Columbus has one of the biggest D's in the NHL and average something close to 6'4" and 225. That size didnt do much for Columbus as Detroit went to the net with impunity.

Anyone who has watched this Detroit team often, knows that there is no way that Anaheim size and physicality will hinder Detroit. In fact, Ill say that while Anaheim does have a slight edge in size, Detroit is the more physical team. I dont have the stats handy but I was looking at the matchups and they showed the top three players on each team in hits. In 6 games in the first round Anaheims top two hitters had less hits than Detroits did in 4 games, while the Anaheim player that is third had 1 or 2 more than Detroits third. And anecdotally, after watching all the playoff games these two teams have played, Detroit hits as often and thier hits are much bigger.

The one area in the physical game that without a doubt swings Anaheims way, is the scrums after the whistle. And thats not physical hockey thats just a brutish attempt at intimidation and the Red Wings have already established the fact that nobody will intimidate them. Between the whistles, when it matters, is at worst even, but I give the edge to Detroit.

The funny thing about this statement is, Nick is nominated yet agian for another Norris, Raffi was in the top 5 scoring all season and I can think of 29 other teams would give both of thier nuts to have Lidstrom on their team, and their right one for Rafalski. Lids may be 39, but he still outplays, out thinks and out scores almost all defensmen that are younger than him. That is why each year it is always him and two different defensmen up for the Norris. The only team that should be worried about Lids and Raffi is the Ducks..then the next one...then the next one...

Its like the entire panel of expert NHL analysts are just waiting for the day the Wings for from Grace. Ain't gonna happen...

[lars1970 1]

When I first opened the link I expected it to say "Ducks in 6" or something. Much ado about nothing it seems. Stats, predictions, regular season records, etc don't mean crapola in the playoffs,

Here is my part of my prediction from my Facebook page:

"If Holmstrom aggravates Hiller like he does every other goalie, that will be a huge problem. I think that the series is so even, that it will come down to game 7 where the Ducks are 3-24-3 in their last 30 at JLA. Wings in 7."