(2) CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS VS (1) SAN JOSE SHARKS<\/strong><\/p>\nIf San Jose can finally go all the way, the second round of these playoffs, in which the Sharks conquered their nemesis Detroit Red Wings, will have a special theme. <\/p>\n
It will be known as the moment the sleeping giants finally awoke.
\nI\u2019m not talking about the Sharks as a whole; I\u2019m talking about the big line of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau and Dany Heatley. It\u2019s almost as if the stellar play of secondary scorers like Joe Pavelski took the pressure off the Sharks\u2019 superstars. <\/p>\n
The tension disappeared, they loosened up and we saw something I never thought we\u2019d see: Joe Thornton scoring in a playoff game.<\/p>\n
I said earlier that the winner of the Chicago\/Vancouver series would take the Stanley Cup. I still stand by that but the path will be extremely difficult for Chicago. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s compare the Sharks with Vancouver. Like the Canucks, the Sharks can roll two effective scoring lines virtually every night, flashing tremendous depth. <\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s shutdown tandem of Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook handled the Sedins for the most part but San Jose may actually offer a tougher challenge for them. The Sharks have more size on the wings than Vancouver did and will probably batter and bruise the Hawks\u2019 blueline more. A pity anyone who tries to check Ryan Clowe. <\/p>\n
I thus see San Jose pushing Chicago harder \u2013 to a Game 7 \u2013 but I still see the Hawks as having the slight edge on paper. <\/p>\n
San Jose has plenty of talented defensemen but, arguably, doesn\u2019t have a complete defenseman. Dan Boyle is a great puck mover and positional player but he isn\u2019t a physical guy; Doug Murray can bang but lacks offensive flare. <\/p>\n
The Canucks had the same problem; in other words, they didn\u2019t have a Keith or Seabrook. ![\"Sports](\"http:\/\/affiliates.commissionaccount.com\/processing\/impressions.asp?btag=a_3953b_677\")
<\/p>\n
Since the Sharks don\u2019t have a 30-minute-a-game shutdown guy, I see them struggling to contain Chicago\u2019s stable of big, strong, well-rounded forwards. <\/p>\n
Jonathan Toews has been the playoff monster everyone knew he\u2019d be; it\u2019s no coincindence that he became a captain at such a young age. Dustin Byfuglien has emerged as the playoffs\u2019 top agitator; Patrick Sharp is a great skater who keeps scoring at clutch moments; Patrick Kane\u2019s speed and hands are always tough to contain; Marian Hossa is strong on the puck and plays an underrated defensive game too. <\/p>\n
Goaltending looks to be a wash in this series, as both Evgeni Nabokov and Anti Niemi have good nights and bad nights and neither guy has stolen nor cost his team a game in these playoffs. I therefore see defense as the difference maker in this series. <\/p>\n
It was nice to see the Thornton line evolve, but let\u2019s see how they handle a steady diet of Keith and Seabrook. <\/p>\n
And I\u2019m not convinced the Sharks \u201cD\u201d can handle Chicago\u2019s offense. <\/p>\n
Every line is a threat to score. <\/p>\n
Prediction: <\/strong>Blackhawks 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 3 Seven game Conference Final series between the #2 seed Chicago Blackhawks vs #1 seed San Jose Sharks opens this week, here’s the odds and our prediction for the series. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":22496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[10330,27701,27694,28972,28973,28974,28975,28976,28978,28977,28979,21458,13318,27691,27692,27674],"class_list":["post-22494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-10330","tag-2010-stanley-cup-futures","tag-2010-stanley-cup-playoff-picks","tag-blackhawks-sharks-lines","tag-blackhawks-sharks-picks","tag-blackhawks-sharks-predictions","tag-blackhawks-vs-sharks-series-preview","tag-blackhawks-vs-sharks","tag-chicago-blackhawks-vs-san-jose-sharks-predictions","tag-conference-final-series","tag-conference-finals","tag-hockey-betting-picks","tag-round-3","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\/22494","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=22494"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108193,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22494\/revisions\/108193"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}