(5) Detroit Red Wings vs. (1) San Jose Sharks<\/strong><\/p>\nThey sure had to work hard for it but it\u2019s safe to say no one was particularly surprised about Detroit \u201cupsetting\u201d higher-seeded Phoenix in round one.<\/p>\n
The truth is that the Red Wings were simply not healthy in the first half of the season and that the current roster would\u2019ve had home ice in round one if it was intact all season long.<\/p>\n
For the most part, we know what we get with Detroit.<\/p>\n
Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg are playoff monsters, scoring timely goals, stickhandling in phone booths, backchecking better than any other forwards in the league and never afraid to battle in high-traffic zones. Johan Franzen and Tomas Holmstrom are almost impossible to move from the front of the net.<\/p>\n
Nick Lidstrom still has something left in the tank, as he showed with his two-goal effort from the blueline in Game 7. Checking forwards like Darren Helm perform their assignments admirably. The Red Wings haven\u2019t stopped doing what they always do well.<\/p>\n
An interesting wildcard for the Wings in these playoffs is Jimmy Howard. He\u2019s the least experienced man they\u2019ve had between the pipes in many a playoff but also may be the most talented.<\/p>\n
The dynamic rookie looked like he belonged against Phoenix, posting a .919 save percentage and more good games than bad ones.<\/p>\n
As well as Detroit played against Phoenix in round one, however, it faces a different beast in the San Jose Sharks. Chokers or not, they\u2019re a well-oiled machine. What intrigued me most about round one was San Jose\u2019s depth. Their go-to line of Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton actually did fail miserably against Colorado, combining for one goal in six games, but it didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
Secondary guys like Joe Pavelski, Ryan Clowe and Devin Setoguchi delivered in a big way.<\/p>\n
Dan Boyle was his usual winning self, own goal aside, and Evgeni Nabokov was steady even though he wasn\u2019t tested often. If the Sharks supposed stars get going, it\u2019s scary to imagine what they can do.<\/p>\n
I understand why bettors will feel bias toward history and pick the Red Wings to win this series.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s true that the Wings have a massive advantage in savvy and big-game performance from their stars. But I believe the Sharks can finally break through \u2013 at least for one more round. ![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
<\/p>\n
Thornton\/Marleau\/Heatley merely have to be average to support the rest of the team \u2013 a group that is actually starting to look \u201cclutch.\u201d San Jose was really quite dominant its Western Conference quarter-final series. Considering the Sharks had 50-plus shots and lost only on Boyle\u2019s own goal in Game 3, they were only actually outplayed once in six games against Colorado.<\/p>\n
Also, funnily enough, as experienced as Detroit is, Howard\u2019s inexperience may sink the Wings. He was hot\/cold against Phoenix but that won\u2019t cut it against a team that generates as many scoring chances as San Jose does.<\/p>\n
If Craig Anderson wasn\u2019t unbelievable for Colorado, facing 50 shots seemingly every game, that series would\u2019ve been a sweep.<\/p>\n
If Howard sees that kind of rubber, he can\u2019t be a background player anymore.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll have to be Detroit\u2019s most important player and I\u2019m just not convinced he\u2019s ready to do that yet.<\/p>\n
Expect a war \u2013 with plenty of jitters and mental hiccups from the Sharks \u2013 but I think their size and goaltending advantages will give them a narrow win in the end.<\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Sharks In Seven<\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO CHECK OUT SPORTSBOOK.COM\u2019S NHL HOCKEY BETTING LINES FOR THIS WEEK’S MATCHUPS!!!!<\/h3>\n
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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Round 2 Seven game Conference Semi Final series between the Detroit Red Wings and the San Jose Sharks opens Thursday 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":[10330,27701,27694,28366,28372,21458,28367,28368,28369,28370,28371,11979,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-21695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-conference-semi-final-series","tag-detroit-red-wings-vs-san-jose-sharks-predictions","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-red-wings-sharks-lines","tag-red-wings-sharks-picks","tag-red-wings-sharks-predictions","tag-red-wings-vs-sharks-series-preview","tag-red-wings-vs-sharks","tag-round-2","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\/21695","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=21695"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108180,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21695\/revisions\/108180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}