The 2015 Western Conference Final is officially between the Anaheim Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks. Anaheim will get home-ice advantage, something I really don't think will affect the way the Hawks come into this series. The Hawks are down Michal Roszival, meaning Duncan Keith, Brent Seabrook, Johnny Oduya & Nicklas Hjalmarsson will be relied heavily upon. Let's take a look at this matchup.
OFFENSIVE COMPARISON
DUCKS
On the offensive side of things, the Ducks have been rolling with a top 6 of Maroon - Getzlaf - Perry, Beleskey - Kesler - Silfverberg. In the bottom 6 they have speedy Andrew Cogliano, and depth goal scoring from Rickard Rakell, Kyle Palmieri & Emerson Etem. They have gritty two-way forward Nate Thompson and grinder Tim Jackman filling out a versatile bottom 6. With Getzlaf and Kesler as their one-two punch down the middle they look like a much better playoff-prepared team, and will match up against the Hawks quite nicely in that category. Beleskey had the second round of his life, we'll have to see if he can continue that vs the Hawks. One thing that concerns me about the Ducks is the lack of grit in their bottom 6, in hard-fought playoff hockey sometimes guys like Rakell, Palmieri and Etem are insufficient especially if they go quiet. That's where I think the Hawks may be able to take advantage of Anaheim. Even their subs, Tomas Fleishcmann(may have misspelled that) and Jiri Sekac don't help. We'll have to see how it plays out.
HAWKS
The Hawks also boast a very talented top 6, going with Saad - Toews - Hossa, and Bickell - Richard - Kane. Patrick Sharp is playing on the 3rd line, in case you didn't know. Wow. The Hawks have their superstars in Kane, Toews, Hossa, Sharp upfront, and those were the guys that really showed up in round 2. Then you have guys like trade deadline pickups Antoine Vermette & Andrew Desjardins, the gritty Andrew Shaw, Swede Marcus Kruger and young phenom Teuvo Teravainen, this team is deep. They have their skill, and their two-way grit, which always makes them a tall task as an opponent.
DEFENSIVE COMPARISON
DUCKS
At defense the Ducks have a very gifted offensive group - Sami Vatanen, Hampus Lindholm & Cam Fowler were all good in round 1. Then you have veterans Francois Beauchemin & Clayton Stoner, young Simon Despres, James Wisniewski is riding pine right now! (Just though I'd throw that in there.) They have a great mix of defensive players and offensive players on the back end, and they definitely have the Hawks beat on the ability to be confident on whichever line is out there, and not overuse guys. Then they have Frederik Andersen in the net, who's been good through the first 2 rounds, but yet to be tested by a team like the Hawks, so we'll see.
HAWKS
As we know, the Hawks heavily rely on workhorse d-men Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook. They've mixed them up this playoffs, throwing Johnny Oduya and Nicklas Hjalmarsson around as well. Kimmo Timonen has seen VERY limited time as a veteran, but will probably see more with the loss of Michal Roszival. David Rundblad will see some action with Roszival down and out. Again, the Hawks have Keith & Seabrook, but the Ducks have the ability to roll all lines. In net Corey Crawford was amazing in round 2, but if he runs into trouble again, expect that to be the x-factor of the series.
PREDICTION
On my last round predictions (which you don't know because I didn't have the blog) I predicted Ducks in 6 games, and Wild in 7. So my Ducks was almost there, but wow, the Wild let me down. My prediction for this series has the Hawks going back to the cup final, after dealing with the Ducks in a hard-fought 6 games. Please comment your predictions, it's shaping up to be a great end to the 2015 playoffs.
Thanks,
~UWNHL TEAM
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