Speed Kills!

1) Its not a new concept by any means. Especially in the New NHL era, it seems the team with the best skaters seems to prevail/do the best. No longer can you win with a group of plodders/muckers, in today's NHL you need a majority of your players to be swift.
2) There has been stark evidence of this the first 4 games of the NHL Conference semi finals. It seems the team that possess the better/larger number of good skaters have won each game thus far. Ofcourse its still early, and we respect the opinion of some of our regular readers(notably Vlad the Implaler) who maintains that the team with the best goalie almost always come out on top.
3) We can't argue that point, as its true quite often, but we believe that unless there is a decided edge in goal for one team, the next most important factor is team speed. Roberto Luongo couldn't carry the Canucks in game 1. Folding under the constant swarm of Ducks. Brodeur was less than average under the relentless Senator attack last night. Hasek may have played decently, but the RedWings seemed a step behind the Sharks. Lundqvist was no match for the Sabres barrage. It can be said that the better goalies ALL lost!
4) It is way early to determine if our 4 predicted winners will continue, but in the first game the winners were the better skating team, which was to a large degree why we picked them to come out on top in the first place. (Sorry Vlad)