Vancouver Canucks (1) vs. San Jose Sharks (2)

The final two teams in the Western Conference are two teams that have put themselves and their fans through the ringer to get where they are. Both teams blew 3 games to 0 leads, albeit in two different rounds, and even in their other series, both teams had some level of adversity to overcome. You can look back all you want, but for these two teams, it can all be erased as the West has shaken down everyone else except for the two top teams, and now they’ll wage war in what might be the best series yet in these playoffs. Vancouver had a 3-0-1 record this year against San Jose, and besides a 6-1 Vancouver victory early in the season, each game was close with two of the games going to overtime. Traditionally Vancouver had struggled with San Jose but you can throw out anything traditional with these two teams now, as they’ve both slayed whatever dragons they had in their closet, and now must face each other for the right to play in the Stanley Cup Final. Both Ryan Kesler and Joe Thornton have been great so far, so look for them to continue their dominance, but here are the top three factors that’ll decide this series:

The Former Captain versus the Absent Captain

Recently former Shark captain Patrick Marleau was called out by now analyst Jeremy Roenick for being gutless. He hadn’t scored a point all series against the Red Wings, but did eventually score the game winner, albeit into an open net on a rebound, but sometimes that all it takes to get you back on track. Henrik Sedin on the other hand scored his only goal of these playoffs into an empty net, and it looks like he may have been injured at some point in the series against the Predators. So it may come down to which of these leaders of their respective clubs can come through. The extra rest for Sedin will help before the Sharks roll into town on Sunday. If he’s healthy, look for him and his brother to have a better series, now that they’re away from the dynamic duo of Shea Weber and Ryan Suter.

Will the Goaltending be a factor?

So far these playoffs neither Antii Niemi nor Roberto Luongo have had to stand on their heads in order to get their teams in this position. Perhaps it’s more a sign of the modern NHL that you don’t need to rely on goaltending to win a championship, as Niemi showed last year with the Blackhawks. Perhaps this series is where one of these goalies just steps up at pivotal moments with big saves. There could be some high scoring games and just like Grant Fuhr and the Oilers showed in the 80’s, one of these goalies may have to come up big to win a 4-3 game.

Injuries and Depth

At this point in the playoffs, injuries are going to start rearing their ugly heads, and new guys are going to have to step up. Ryane Clowe missed Game 6 against the Red Wings, and it really showed that they missed him with their play, so if he misses any more time that’ll be a big minus for the Sharks. For the Canucks the aforementioned Sedin looks hurt, but he’s been playing through it, as Kevin Bieksa has on the back end. Mikael Samuelsson has also missed some time, but he may just be a bonus if he does get into the lineup, because he hasn’t done much these playoffs. If he does take some time to heal, a performance like in last years playoffs where he scored 15 points in 12 games will be a big boost to the Canucks.

The Canucks should have the better legs at the beginning of this series but the Sharks have a lot of fire power, so this series could be one of streaks. Home ice may play a big part which may go against the trend of these playoffs, but so far any series that’s gone deep has gone to the team with the home ice advantage which should mean that the Canucks will go to the final for the first time since 1994.

Prediction: Canucks in 6

originally posted at betfair.net