Clearly I know nothing about hockey and this and all future hockey writings should be ignored.
(2)Chicago Blackhawks vs (7)Philadelphia Flyers: Flyers win in 6.
A lot can be said about how stacked the Blackhawks are. A lot can be said about the return of Jeff Carter sparking the Flyers after Montreal looked like they were going to extend the series. But there are only two players everyone should look out for: Marian Hossa and Chris Pronger. First, the Hossa curse. Marian Hossa has been to the Stanley Cup finals for the past 3 years, including this year, all on different teams. The past two times, his teams have lost. Hossa was also held goal-less in the series against San Jose, despite his past success in Western Conference finals appearances. This is a really bad time for Hossa to turn cold, and although the Blackhawks have shown they have more than enough personnel to cover the lack of scoring from one of their top point getters, no doubt Hossa has a lot to prove about being able to perform when everything is on the line.
Second, Chris Pronger. Every year Pronger is traded to a team, the first year he leads them to the Stanley Cup finals. With Edmonton, they lost in the Cup finals to the Carolina Hurricanes. In Anaheim, they won the Cup with Pronger anchoring one of the most stacked Stanley Cup teams in history. Now, he comes to Philadelphia, and when everything seemed going wrong for them in the last half of the season (Ray Emery out for the season, Jeff Carter injured, down 0-3 to the Bruins, Brian Boucher injured), Pronger showed why, despite all the bad rep from the media about his locker room presence and his old age, teams are still willing to pay big bucks every off-season to get him on their team. Pronger was robbed of a Conn Smythe trophy in Edmonton largely because they lost in the Cup finals, but despite all the offense from the Flyers forwards Richards, Gagne, Giroux, etc., Pronger is my front runner for Conn Smythe in the East, and just behind Jonathan Toews for the Hawks in the entire NHL.
Basically, despite the clear star power advantage Chicago has over the Flyers, and how the West is the much tougher conference and breeds the better teams, the Flyers has all the hockey mojo going in their favor. And as we've seen in hockey, especially this year's playoffs with all the bad reffing and unlucky bounces, mojo goes a very long way.
The one edge I will give Chicago is the fact that they've been so dominant on the road ever since the Nashville series. Both teams sport two of the greatest crowds in the sport, and it wouldn't surprise me for a lot of people to pick Chicago purely on the fact that they'll have home ice advantage. But look for how Chicago plays the road games in games 3 and 4. Chicago might go up 2-0 after games 1-2, but how they perform in 3-4 might be the ultimate deciding factor in whether or not they end their 40-something year championship drought.
I was debating whether to watch the finals or not, but honestly the NHL's marketing campaign has been nothing short of brilliance the past 2-3 years and if this commercial doesn't get you hype for the series, I don't know what will:
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