The NHL Playoffs have arrived. The CS staff is pleased to present you with a preview , a couple of keys to the series, and Sean Keenan’s prediction of the winner and MVP of each series.

 

Nucks v Kings matchup as the 1 v 8 seeds in the Western Conference. The Kings got really hot toward the end of the season, winning 6 in a row, and scoring like a normal team after trading for Jeff Carter. Then Carter gets hurt, and all of a sudden the Kings lose their lead on the division, and lose the last game of the year against rival San Jose. Carter had six goals and nine points in 16 games for the Kings after his arrival. Nothing spectacular, but apparently he taught the Kings how to score again, so that’s nice. It’s amazing how that works, isn’t it? Take a good blue line and a vezina candidate and throw in some scoring and it equals wins. Who knew?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgELOTJ3beE[/youtube]

Vancoufire knew, that’s who. They did it around Reboundo Louongo and have Cory Schneider to come in when the tears are blurring Lou’s vision. They’ve been real good this season. As always the Nucks are led by Thing 1 and Thing 2, who have had down years for both of them, but a down year for them is still better than half the league. Daniel, who will hereby be referred to as Donk, has been out since Duncan Keith gave him a concussion. Man those concussions seem to affect every team this year. Burrows will continue to be annoying, Kesler will continue to be the best American in Canada, and probably make Anze Kopitar want to pull his hair out.

 

Keys:

Jeff Carter. The Kings just cant hang with the Nucks if Carter isn’t healthy

Quick will have to continue to be really fricken good, and continue to give LA management and fans the big FU after they tried to run him out of town a couple years back in favor of Bernier.

Bobby Lou. Even without Donk, the Nucks are still good enough to beat the Kings, but that’s if Vancouver’s goaltending situation gets stabilized.

 

Prediction:Vancouver in 6.

 

MVP: one of the Sedin twins.