Questions ahead of the National Hockey League play-offs - Part 11
Can the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive time?
The Hawks have shown that they are good team after they were on the downfall for most of the season, but climbed their way back into the play-off cut on the last day of the regular season. They have a very rough, tough and steep mountain to climb if they
want to go to the very top and be crowned champions once again.
The very first stop on the road is with the Vancouver Canucks, who are energised with tons of confidence, as they won the President’s Trophy after they bagged the most impressive season in franchise history. The Hawks finished the season as the eighth seed
in the Western Conference with a big favour from the Minnesota Wild who defeated the Dallas Stars on the last day. This effectively ended their play-off hopes with a difference of only one point between them and the Hawks.
The last two times these two met in the play-offs, the Hawks were not only the better team but they showed that they were the dominating force in the regular season defeating the Canucks on both occasions. However this time out, things are different and
everything is completely the opposite with the Canucks being the stronger of the two.
The Hawks emergence as winners during the previous two seasons will certainly play a role, but the other important point is that there are some key players in the Hawks that are no longer part of the franchise. They still have the likes of Jonathan Toews
and Patrick Kane who have done pretty well during the regular season and if they click in the play-offs then they can certainly give the Canucks a very tough time. The Hawks have an outside chance of winning their first round tie considering the fact that
the Canucks will be under a little bit of pressure as they are being considered as the favourites to not only win the Conference but also the Stanley Cup Final.
Though this might not happen, but there are two sides of a coin. The Hawks are one side where there is a probability that they might emerge as winners.
Can the top seeded teams handle the pressure of high expectations?
The top teams in the league have done well so far, but this is one question that time will answer. So far, the only team that can be said to be in a strong position is the Vancouver Canucks, who thrashed all records to bag the most wins in a single regular
season and also score the most points during the course of a single season.
There are many other strong teams in the play-offs like the Penguins, Flyers and Lightning. These teams were very good at the start but they were unable to continue it into the final and crucial phase of the regular season.
Being the top seed at the end of the season brings about a lot of expectations as this means that the teams did well during the regular season to endure the day-to-day games. This means that the teams are expected to do well in the play-offs, as there are
gaps in between the games.
However, it is the Canucks that look to be the stand-out team that can handle the pressure but for the others we will have to wait and watch.
Continued in Part 12
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