Carnac the Guru: What We Need? The Perfect Pair

By Hockey Guru


One up, one down last night as Philadelphia did in fact get their first lead of the series a mere 152 seconds into the game. However, the second goal never came and the Boston Bruins Mo-Jo is still rising - is there something magical unfolding ala the 2006 Edmonton Oilers?

This Cinderella story can't continue all the way to the Cup, can it? The Krejci injury certainly has sped up the clock - which is fast approaching midnight. More on this series tomorrow...

The winner from last night was the very confident selection of the Chicago Blackhawks. But no need to dwell on the Dustin Byfuglien show.

So the Guru will look to get back to picking another perfect pair in tonight's game 4's:



Montreal doesn't have the depth or firepower to beat Pittsburgh in a wide open game. Their formula for success remains the same: tight defense, build a human wall in the slot, frustrate Pittsburgh, create some turnovers and capatilize on the few opportunities that will arise.

Pittsburgh defeated Montreal in game 3 in the low scoring defensive game Montreal wanted.
Pittsburgh knows it can win that style of game. In fact, it seems they may have uncovered a plan to defeat Montreal in the following statistics and want to play that style of game:

• Jaroslav Halak's record when facing 35 or more shots this season is 15-1-2 and
  
• When facing 40 or more shots, it's 10-0-1.
  
• When facing less than 35 shots - his record: 11- 14-0.

The Penguins will take the ER approach to this game (props to long-time reader Grossman for the terminology) - meaning that the Penguins will use "sick patience" in this game. They will not be throwing pucks to the net left and right, but picking their spots to get shots off one-timers and getting Halak moving side to side and creating shots prior to his getting set.

This is expected to be a low scoring affair - another shut-out by Fleury would not be a surprise to the Guru - but the predicion will be 3-1 Pittsburgh (with a chance to really open up the lead toward the end of the game).

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"Detroit has too much pride to get swept." "Detriot won't go down without a fight." Phrases like these are surely be thrown around by talking and blogging heads everywhere.

Of course, Detroit hasn't played badly to go down 3-0 in the series. They wanted to win each of the first three games as badly as they want to win this fourth game to continue their quest for the Cup.

However, the Guru's gut tells him there's no reason to expect a different result tonight than we've seen in the first three games. If anything, San Jose may not have to come back in game 4 - they may get ahead and keep on rolling. The depth players on San Jose are much more dangerous than the depth players on Detroit. The top 6 players on San Jose are fresher, bigger and stronger than the top 6 on Detroit.

The Sharks close this series out tonight and will look the part of Stanley Cup Favourite in the process. Prediction: San Jose 6 - Detroit 2.

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