by Joe Cunningham

I predict that the San José Sharks and the Boston Bruins will meet in the Stanley Cup finals. Both teams have the potential to win both the Eastern and Western divisions. The Bruins have already made it to the Eastern finals against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and the Sharks are in game seven with the Detroit Red Wings to try and make it to the conference finals with the Vancouver Canucks.

The Bruins have had two great playoff series with both the Canadiens and the Flyers. The Bruins beat the Canadiens in a seventh game OT thriller when Nathan Horton netted the winner early in the overtime period. The ongoing rivalry between the Boston Bruins and the Montreal Canadiens is arguably the biggest rivalry in American sports history, and this clash at the Eastern quarterfinals was very energizing for Boston and its fans and gave them the power for the semifinals.

The Bruins flew by the Flyers in four straight games to clinch a spot in the Eastern finals. Goalie Tim Thomas essentially stood on his head in all four games and led the team through each and every game.

On the other hand Brian Boucher and Sergei Bobrovsky both couldn’t stop a puck. Boucher started the first three games and was pulled in each of them. Bobrovsky started the fourth game, but unfortunately for the Flyers could not make up for Boucher’s mistakes. The Bruins scored 20 goals in four games to the Flyers 7.

The Bruins averaged 4 goals per game, and the Flyers averaged 1.5 goals per game. It was an outstanding performance by the Bruins and a disappointing one for both Peter Laviolette, the Flyers’ head coach, and for Flyers fans. After coming in second place in the Eastern conference and having such a great regular season it was quite an upset to see the Flyers collapse on such a large scale.

Over in the West the Sharks have been putting on a show for their fans. They beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-2 in the Western quarterfinals and are now in the semifinals against the Red Wings; the series is tied 3-3. Antti Niemi, the goalie for the Sharks, has really shown his potential in their postseason run. The 27-year-old from Finland has a .901% save percentage, carrying this talented team through the first series and keeping it tight in the second against the Red Wings.

Although the Red Wings have so much postseason experience and powerful forwards like Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg, I believe that the Sharks have the coaching staff and the young talent to pull off a Stanley Cup appearance.