The 2013-2014 National Hockey League season is now past the quarter mark, and contenders for this year’s Stanley Cup finals have begun to emerge. It’s still too early to predict a winner, but one thing is for certain: the Edmonton Oilers won’t be winning the Cup this year.
So who is going to be crowned NHL champion? The preseason darling in the media was the Pittsburgh Penguins, but Marc Andre Fleury has been known to crumble in the postseason. Add in back up Tomas Vokoun’s blood clots and Pittsburgh’s goaltending situation gets a whole lot murkier.
The defending champs, the Chicago Blackhawks, are another hot choice. What people are forgetting is how much last year’s Cup-winning hero Dave Bolland, since traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, meant to the Blackhawks. The feisty center killed penalties and shut down opposing top lines; Bolland was built for playoff hockey. The Hawks have the talent, but does power forward Bryan Bickell offer enough grit to carry the Blackhawks through the grind and replace Bolland? Only time will tell.
Then there are this year’s two surprise teams: the Colorado Avalanche and Anaheim Ducks. Head coach Patrick Roy has his young Avalanche squad playing well beyond its years, but they’ll slow down soon and the team is too inexperienced when it comes to playoff hockey. Captain Gabriel Landeskog only turns 21 on Nov. 23 and has yet to get a taste of playoff hockey. The Avalanche are definitely on the upswing, but aren’t all the way there quite yet.
Anaheim has a core group of players that have tasted hockey glory in Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry. The main concern is depth, or lack thereof. The Ducks have a great top six, but their bottom six leaves much to be desired. The Stanley Cup is won with the grinders as much as it is won with the superstars, and Anaheim does not boast a strong third or fourth line.
The early picks to represent the Eastern and Western conference in the finals? The Boston Bruins and St Louis Blues, with St Louis eventually winning it all.
Boston made the finals last year behind the strong play of goaltender Tuukka Rask but general manager Peter Chiarelli actually improved his squad by adding veterans Loui Eriksson and Jarome Iginla. Add in strong blue line play from youngster Torey Krug and the Bruins have another championship-calibre squad on their hands.
St Louis on the other hand is seemingly built for playoff hockey. They have a playoff series-stealing-calibre goaltender in Jaroslav Halak, who did just that for Montreal in 2010. They boast the NHL’s leading goal scorer, so far, in Alexander Steen, who’s a big body with a ton of skill. They have budding superstar defenseman Alex Pietrangelo and a ton of depth up and down their roster.
If recent playoffs have taught us anything, it’s that depth is the key to postseason success, and St Louis has that in spades. With veteran Brenden Morrow leading young guns TJ Oshie and Vladimir Tarasenko, the Blues have tremendous upside.
The National Hockey League boasts incredible parity among its teams, so it may turn out that the next league champion isn’t even mentioned here. But that is what makes the NHL so great; nothing is set in stone, definitely not a Stanley Cup prediction made in mid-November.
