The fact that I am finally getting around to posting my predictions for the NHL playoffs a full three days after they began may raise some suspicions about the integrity of my selections, but I swear, I made these picks four days ago and haven’t changed anything about them.
The NHL has, without a doubt, the best playoff system in sports from beginning to end. It doesn’t have a singular spectacle like the NFL has with the Super Bowl, and it doesn’t have the craziness of the first few rounds of the NCAA Basketball tournament. What the NHL playoffs have is three months of grinding, grueling hockey played at a high level. Hockey, like soccer, also provides a level of tension that you don’t find in the other major American sports. The end to end free flowing style of hockey when combined with the low scoring games that typify the playoffs create a situation where every shot is loaded with meaning. One goal completely changes the complexion of a game.
Enough about why the NHL playoffs are great though, on with the predictions (Note that these were my thoughts four days ago. Obviously a lot has changed since then, but I’ll stick to what I said then).
Eastern Conference Quarterfinals
1. Washington Capitals vs 8. New York Rangers
Washington is so much better but the Rangers have Lundqvist and the Caps have Neuvirth so it’s at least going to be a series. I know that the Sharks and Canucks have underachieved in the playoffs the last few years, but I cannot believe that there is a team under more pressure to win it all this year than the Caps. The Sharks and Canucks may be better teams than the Caps and their failure, particularly the Sharks failure, to achieve much of anything in the past few years is a far greater failure, but the Caps have Ovechkin and all the oversized expectations that come from having a star player like him. I think this may be the Caps best chance yet. They have improved greatly on defense while maintaining their offensive core. Unfortunately, the NHL playoffs often devolve into a “Best Goalie Tournament” as SportsPickle said recently. For the Caps this means having to rely on a goalie in Michal Neuvirth who has never played in the playoffs before. Meanwhile, the Rangers have King Henry in net. This could spell trouble for the Caps, but I still like them over the Rangers. Capitals in 7
2. Philadelphia Flyers vs. 7. Buffalo Sabres
The Flyers have come unraveled in the last month or so. On paper, the Flyers should be big favorites in this series, but they will be playing against the doubts created by the last few months as much as they will be playing against the Sabres. The one area where the Sabres should have a clear advantage is in net. Bobrovsky had a great rookie season, but he brings no playoff experience. He also still has a long way to go to being in the same category as Ryan Miller. None of this is to say it will be easy for the Sabres. They still need to overcome a sizeable talent gap to beat the Flyers. Sabres in 6
3. Boston Bruins vs. 6. Montreal Canadiens
The easiest part about this pick will be the length of the series. The Bruins and Canadiens are playing? The series is going to go seven games. Other than that, this series is tough to pick because of the nature of the Bruins-Canadiens rivalry. Although the Bruins are the more talented team, we can be sure that every single game in the series will be a closely contested exercise in brutality. Due to the disdain that these franchises have for each other, I have to imagine that, even in the playoffs, these games will produce a number of fights and borderline illegal hits. The two goalies match up pretty evenly. This season saw the reemergence of Tim Thomas from the shadow of Tuukka Rask, and it also saw Carey Price’s evolution into the elite goaltender that Montreal thought he could become. Ultimately, a combination of home ice advantage and better overally talent should tip the scales in Boston’s favor. Bruins in 7
4. Pittsburgh Penguins vs. 5. Tampa Bay Lightning
This series is virtually impossible to predict. Part of the problem is that the Pens have spent the last three months grossly overachieving. Thanks largely to the stellar play of goalie Marc-Andre Fleury, the Pens came a point from taking the Atlantic Division title and the #2 seed in the Eastern Conference in spite of playing the final three months without Sidney Crosby and the final two months without Evgeni Malkin. The Pens largely did it with smoke and mirrors. A lot of their points came from keeping the score down and just surviving into shootouts where the Pens have a huge advantage. The Pens have built quite possibly the best shootout team in the NHL with Fleury in net and Kris Letang, Chris Kunitz, James Neal, and Alexei Kovalev shooting. Unfortunately for the Pens, this will not translate into the playoffs. This is the one first round matchup where the lower seed has substantially better offensive talent than the higher seed. Stamkos, St. Louis, and Lecavalier are going to cause problems for the Pens. That being said, my guess is that Fleury will continue his stellar play and give the Pens just enough to beat Dwayne Roloson and the Lightning. Penguins in 7
Western Conference Quarterfinals
1. Vancouver Canucks vs. 8. Chicago Blackhawks
There really is not much to say about this series. The Blackhawks are in serious trouble. They backed into the playoffs when they lost to the Red Wings and then got help from the Minnesota Wild. This is not even close to being the same team that was in the Western Conference finals two years ago and that won the Stanley Cup last year. The salary cap took a significant toll on this team as they had to jettison key components of their success to get under the cap. The Canucks, however, are poised for a breakthrough playoff run being Roberto Luongo and the Sedins as long as Luongo can exorcise some of his playoff demons. He can at least take comfort in knowing that he will have a nice, easy series against the Blackhawks to ease himself into the playoffs. Canucks in 5
2. San Jose Sharks vs. 7. Los Angeles Kings
I really like the Kings, but I think the Sharks have finally put together a team that can win in the playoffs. The key for a potential playoff run for the Sharks will be new goal Antti Niemi. Fresh off a Stanley Cup win with the Blackhawks, Niemi came to the Sharks to replace Evgeni Nabokov, the regular season Superman who turned into Clark Kent every April. Most of the pieces that led the Sharks to the #1 seed in the Western Conference the past two years are still in place. What remains to be seen is if Niemi can help bring the stability in net that the Sharks have so badly needed in the playoffs. My guess is that he will, but the Sharks need to survive a tough first round matchup first. Sharks in 7
3. Detroit Red Wings vs. 6. Phoenix Coyotes
I am not sure who to feel worse for in this match-up, the Coyotes for getting the veteran Red Wings or the Red Wings for getting the quickly rising Coyotes. Despite yet another division title, the Red Wings started to show some vulnerability this past season. Frequent injuries to stay players did not help, but that comes with having a team filled with veterans. The Coyotes, on the other hand, are a team whose window of opportunity is just beginning to crack open. This may not be the year that Phoenix wins it all, but they do seem poised to start gaining valuable playoff experience and the vulnerable Red Wings offer them a chance for a great start. Coyotes in 6
4. Anaheim Ducks vs. 5. Nashville Predators
Nashville has a Vezina and MVP candidate in net, Anaheim has to choose between a guy battling vertigo (Hiller) and a guy with the focus of an 8 year old who just downed a bag of pure sugar in a toy store (Emery). Sorry Corey Perry, but the red hot Ducks will find out first hand about the importance of having a good goalie in the playoffs. Predators in 6
Looking down the line these are my provisional predictions. If I get any of these match-ups I will stick with my picks here. I will explain my predictions when the time comes.
Eastern Conference Semifinals
1. Capitals over 7. Sabres in 7
3. Bruins over 4. Penguins in 5
Western Conference Semifinals
1. Canucks over 6. Coyotes in 7
2. Sharks over 5. Predators in 5
Eastern Conference Finals
3. Bruins over 1. Capitals in 6
Western Conference Finals
2. Sharks over 1. Canucks in 7
Stanley Cup Finals
Sharks over Bruins in 7
If six year ago me could see how today me is handing a dramatic Super Bowl loss by the Steelers, he’d be shocked. Six year ago me would have been devastated. Hell, nine year ago me went to the 2001 AFC Championship against the Patriots and cried during the car ride home. I’m doing surprisingly well, and I think I know why.
For one, I had low expectations. I didn’t really expect a whole lot out of the Steelers in this game. The loss of Pouncey should have been devastating to the offense. Legursky got pushed around by the Jets and only a Herculean effort by Mendenhall spared him the embarrassment of costing the team a trip to the Super Bowl. Then there was the quickly fading defense. Going back to Super Bowl XLIII, this Steelers defense has had trouble sustaining its intensity. I have to think part of the blame lies with the quickly advancing age of many important components in that defense. Farrior is 36 year old, Casey Hampton is 33, Brett Keisel is 32, James Harrison is 32, and Troy Polamalu, thanks to years of reckless play, is the oldest 29 year old in history. As a group they seem to fade late in games and late in seasons. The Packers seemed to be in a position to exploit those weaknesses. They have a fast, talented, young receiving corp and a quarterback with deadly accuracy whose usual stellar play tends to be even better indoors on turf. With all those things working against the Steelers I didn’t have high expectations.
They did, however, exceed my meager expectations. The Steelers ran the ball well against the Packers and for much of the middle part of the game were able to move the ball at will. The defense was struggling, but it managed to get some key stops on the Packers and allowed the team to get to within one score of Packers early in the third quarter. Then, after the Steelers got fantastic field position in the fourth quarter, the game started slipping away. The Mendenhall fumble did a few things. It cost the Steelers a great scoring chance and momentum, it gave the Packers fantastic field position, and it forced a tired defense to go back on the field just minutes after forcing a much needed three and out. The game slipped away from there.
But I’m not devastated. Disappointed sure, but not devastated like I would have been in the past. I still have Super Bowls XL and XLIII to hang on to. It would have been much more difficult to handle if I was a fan of a team that hadn’t already converted so many chances at the Super Bowl. I can’t get upset with a team that’s given me two Super Bowls in the last six years. I might also be a bit spoiled. I know how difficult it is for a team to get to the Super Bowl, and yet I can’t help but think that with Roethlisberger the Steelers should have more chances. The window shouldn’t close just yet, although Steelers fans should be concerned with the future of the defense as old stalwarts move closer to retirement.
Whenever football does come back I know I’ll be rooting for a team that will at least be competitive, and as someone who knows what it’s like to root for a team that never has a chance, the Pirates, I won’t take that for granted.
Ghost Trick came out on the Nintendo DS on January 11, 2011. At the beginning of the story, your character, Sissel, is already dead. The story that follows is Sissel’s quest to discover who he was and how he died. Ghost Trick is the most recent offering from Shu Takumi, the mind behind the Ace Attorney series. Takumi’s success with the Ace Attorney series naturally led fans of the series to think about Ghost Trick in terms of their experience with Ace Attorney. This isn’t entirely unwarranted.
The two games do share a similar feel. Masazaku Sugimori reunited with Takumi for the first time since the original Ace Attorney to compose the soundtrack for Ghost Trick, and the result is that Ghost Trick’s music often contains echoes of Ace Attorney. With the return of Sugimori, Ghost Trick’s soundtrack is the best in a Takumi created game since the first Ace Attorney. Ghost Trick also has a visual style reminiscent of the Ace Attorney games, particularly the Nintendo DS entries featuring Apollo Justice and Miles Edgeworth. However, the art style does seem crisper in Ghost Trick than in those games.
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With that said, Ghost Trick is far from an Ace Attorney sequel. Although the main characters are investigating a crime and trying to set an innocent man free, the gameplay mechanics are completely different. The investigation phase of Ace Attorney games was frequently the video game equivalent of a spot the differences puzzle, and the courtroom gameplay was all about spotting inconsistencies in witness testimony. Ghost Trick is more of a puzzle game heavily influenced by Rube Goldberg machines. In Ghost Trick, you have to use your powers of the dead, your ability to possess and manipulate objects to influence events in the world of the living and save the living characters from sharing your fate. The gameplay mechanics are fun and simple to master. The game throws some new mechanics at you in the latter part of the story, but by then you are comfortable enough with Sissel’s ghost tricks to handle the change.
What makes Ghost Trick a great game, much like the Ace Attorney series, is Takumi’s storytelling and character development. Ghost Trick features a great mystery story that makes it hard to put the DS down and characters that you actually want to save. Although the story gets a little convoluted at the end, it all ties together.
The one negative thing I can say about Ghost Trick is that it’s a bit short. I wasn’t closely keeping track, but I would estimate that I beat the game in about 14 hours. Furthermore, once you beat Ghost Trick, there isn’t really any reason to go back and play it again. I may pick it up at some point in the future when the story is no longer fresh in the same way that I enjoy watching a movie I haven’t seen in years, but the replay value is minimal.
Verdict:
Pros: Enthralling storytelling, fun puzzle solving gameplay, and strong score from Sugimori.
Cons: Comes in on the short side with little replay value.
Score: 9.0/10
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