(5) DETROIT RED WINGS VS (4) PHOENIX COYOTES<\/strong><\/p>\nThe most important thing for bettors to remember entering this Western Conference Quarter-final matchup is that the Red Wings who finished the season so strongly are closer to the \u201creal\u201d Wings. The reason: they\u2019re healthy now. Their early-season struggles were the result of injuries to Johan Franzen, Nicklas Kronwall, Valtteri Filppula and Dan Cleary, to name a few. Once all those seasoned vets (and former Stanley Cup champions) returned to the lineup, things changed for the better.<\/p>\n
The Red Wings may not have the same firepower they had when Marian Hossa, Jiri Hudler and Mikael Samuelsson were part of the attack last season but they still have plenty. Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk are big-game players who may be saving their best efforts for the playoffs this season and both Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom have a knack for scoring in the clutch.<\/p>\n
The Wings\u2019 defense isn\u2019t particularly big (though Nicklas Kronwall can still take the body quite well), relying instead on crisp skating and superb positioning. It\u2019s the Nik Lidstrom school of thought and it\u2019s worked well for years.<\/p>\n
The host team of the series, Phoenix, has been an inspiring story this season. A year ago, they only popped up in the news for talk of relocation and bankruptcy. This season, they challenged the Sharks for first place in the Western Conference. So how did they do it? ![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
<\/p>\n
First and foremost, 2009-10 was the Ilya Bryzgalov show. The former castoff from Anaheim looks like a shoo-in to be a Vezina Trophy finalist this season after posting 42 wins, a 2.29 goals against average, a .920 save percentage and eight shutouts.<\/p>\n
Bryzgalov\u00a0was <\/em>the Coyotes this season \u2013 so much that I wonder if they even would\u2019ve made the playoffs at all without him. Don\u2019t believe me? Consider that (a) Only six teams scored fewer goals than Phoenix this season, (b) Phoenix had the NHL\u2019s 28th<\/sup>-ranked power play, (c) Radim Vrbata led the team with just 24 goals and (d) Shane Doan led the team with just 55 points. On paper, the Coyotes have a decent amount of offensive talent, with guys like Martin Hanzal and Matthew Lombardi flashing good wheels, but the bottom line is that this team was not any good at all offensively during the regular season.<\/p>\nEven the Coyotes\u2019 \u201cD\u201d may have been propped up by Bryzgalov\u2019s play during the season. Adrian Aucoin, Ed Jovanovski and company have plenty of experience but they\u2019re slowing down as they exit their primes.<\/p>\n
To me, Phoenix\u2019s only chance to win the series comes down to goaltending. Detroit\u2019s Jimmy Howard finally came into his own and seized the starter\u2019s reins this season but he\u2019s unproven in the playoffs. That means Bryzgalov could outduel him and keep the Coyotes in the series. But even a stellar performance from Bryzgalov may only buy the Desert Dogs a win or two. And let\u2019s not forget that the Wings\u2019 backup goalie, Chris Osgood is eighth on the all-time playoff wins list. Not a bad insurance policy.<\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Red Wings in six.<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SPORTSBOOK.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS!!!!<\/h3>\n
<\/strong>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7 game series between the Detroit Red Wings and the Phoenix Coyotes opens on Wednesday night, here’s the odds and our prediction for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[10330,27701,27694,27706,21458,27702,27703,27704,27705,27684,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-21173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-detroit-red-wings-vs-phoenix-coyotes-predictions","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-red-wings-coyotes-lines","tag-red-wings-coyotes-picks","tag-red-wings-coyotes-predictions","tag-red-wings-vs-coyotes-series-preview","tag-red-wings-vs-coyotes","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-stanley-cup-playoff-prediction","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108173,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21173\/revisions\/108173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}