who will win the stanley cup?

Answer 1

THE PENS ALL THE WAY!!

Answer 2

Picking the winner right now is very hard. If you asked me this question in October I would have said the Ducks or the Sabres. With just 3 weeks left in the regular season, the Stanley Cup is a realistic goal for almost every team that gets into the playoffs. The league is so even now and once the playoffs begin the difference between the 1st place team and 8th place team is minimal. Last year in the West the top 4 seeds were knocked out by the bottom 4 seeds in the first round. The same thing could easily happen this year.

I think the team that wins will be the team that has the best goalie and has the right mix of skilled and hard working players. In the West Vancouver might surprise a few people, especially with Luongo between the pipes. In the East, the EC looks wide open for anyone to take it. Team 6 thru 11 are seperated by only a few points and whoever sneaks in as the 8th seed could easily get to the SC final.

Let's Go Rangers!

Answer 3

I believe the San Jose Sharks have what it takes to go all the way and win the Stanley Cup this year. They have a solid team with one of the best powerplays and one of the best 1-2 punch players in Marleau and Thornton. They have 2 starting goaltenders in Nabby and Vesa. They have depth, youth and size. They upgraded their defense by adding experience and leadership with Craig Rivet. They also added another awesome winger in Bill Guerin to add to their arsenal of attacks! They are on a strong winning streak right now with Nabokov just scorching hot, and they will put it all together to try and win the Stanley Cup.

Answer 4

I agree that it may be to early to tell, but I can at least predict. The east has won it the last three times, but I don't see it happening this year. The east has alot of youth and skill, but aside form Ottawa, I don't see any teams that have enough skill, depth, and experience to do anything. New Jersey could be tough simply because of Brodeur, but their forward lines are too depleated. As far as the Western Conference, I just can't tell. I look for the Ducks to go out early. They may have alot of skill and high salaries, but they are fairly young, and their goaltending is inconsistent. The sharks may have a good chance if they can get everything firing on all cylinders each night, meaning shutout goaltending AND lots of goals. Minnesota may have to outscore opponents, and if they face elite goaltenders, it may be over for them. Harding and Backstrom have been good in the net, but they are inexperienced. Detroit and Nashville have too many gaping holes to fill in my opinion, and as you can tell by my name, I would like to see the Canucks take it. Luongo is a top canidate to win the hart this year, and because of their best or second best goaltender in the league, I look for Vancouver to go extremely deep in the playoffs. People keep saying that they will suprise people, but how are they a suprise when they are only 3 points off Anaheim and 6 off Nashville and Buffalo for the Presidents cup. There is only one thing that will seperate Vancouver from neing champs, Does Naslund continue to slump? Or does he get hot come playoffs?

Answer 5

Leafs wont make the playoffs. Not the Flames cause they stink on the road, not New Jersey cause of injury, not the Habs because they lack scoring on 5-5, not Detroit cause Hasek is inconsistent and their not that tough as a team, not Tampa cause they basically have 4 players on that team, not the Rangers or Islanders cause their captains can't lead their team deep in the playoffs, not the Senators because they got rid of Chara, not Buffalo because of too many key injuries. So that leaves the Penguins, Ducks, Wild, Canucks, Predators, Sharks, Hurricanes, Thrashers (they wont win).
Hot goalies usually get you to the Finals, so Ill say Penguins over Canucks.

Answer 6

The Penguins. at the start of the season the odds of Pittsburgh winning the cup was 100-1. Now it's down to 15-1. GO PITTSBURGH.

Answer 7

Well since everyone is giving their opinions, I think that should Buffalo get their injured players back over the next week there is not too many teams that would want to face them. They have four lines that can score goals when they need to, they have a goalie that can stand the brutal attacks of shots.

Buffalo Sabres on the war path....Bring the cup to Buffalo, and not just to visit.

Answer 8

The team which wins 16 games in the post season.

Answer 9

Anaheim Ducks

Answer 10

The Minnesota F***ing Wild Baby!

Answer 11

So many people go to the hockey section, but don't know what they are talking about. The guy about mid way, please don't say something unless you know about the team. The Sabres have key injuries NOW. They just most of them back and all of them are expected to be back for the whole playoffs. Even Tim Connolly could be back in time, so I could see the Sabres going all the way. Every Sabres injury except Paul Gaustad will be back for the playoffs very likely, and Gaustad isn't one of those players you NEED to win a game. Sabres are one of the fastest, most depth, and more entertaining teams in the entire NHL. They got one of the fastest, and more interesting player in the NHL, Maxim Afinogenov, behind players like Sidney Crosby and Ilya Kovalchuk. Sabres got a very good shot at the Stanley Cup, but don't forget about Crosby, Malkin, Staal, Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pens, or Gomez, Gionta, Elias, Martin Brodeur and the Devils, they are the other 2 teams that have a good shot at it also. In the Western Conference, I can't see Nashville going any farther than the 2nd round. I just can't see it happening.. because it's Nashville. They do a lot of veterans who have a lot of playoff experience, but the Ducks would BLAZE the Predators and all the bandwagon fans over there. And by bandwagon fans, I mean 98% of their fan base, because they never have a good season, and now they sell out, out of nowhere? That has bandwagon fans written all over it. The Anaheim Mighty Ducks, easily the best team in the Western Conference, with Chris Pronger, Scott and Rob Niedermayer, Andy McDonald, Dustin Penner, Ryan Getzlaf, Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Chris Kunitz, and too many other good players to name. They got some really experienced veterans, mixed with a bunch of very good youngsters, who stepped it up, like Getzlaf, McDonald, Kunitz, and this makes them an all-around good team. A close behind team though, is the Detroit Red Wings. I could go on and on about their players, but I only need to name 3 players who can make the biggest difference in Detroit's outcome, Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, and Dominik Hasek. Zetterberg is just one of the best players in the NHL season, he just dominated, and kept dominating, until he got injured. Datsyuk stepped it up once Zetterberg went down, and is doing very good, and competing for the top players on Detroit along side Zetterberg. Hasek, yes, he may be getting old, and yea, as a Sabres fan, I don't like him once he "retired", then came back on the Red Wings, then went to the Sens, then back to the Red Wings, but he is one of the best goalies in the NHL in the present. He's known for miraculous, sprawling, and just all over the place saves that just rob some of the best players in the NHL, even Mario Lemieux. He was the biggest reason the Sabres went to Cup 9 years ago. He's one of the best goalies in the NHL behind some of the other present day greats, like Roberto Luongo, Miikka Kiprusoff, and Martin Brodeur. But in the end, I see the Sabres just doing it all, Ryan Miller just has to stop letting in so many goals, Sabres defense has to be as good, and be a bit better, and the biggest of the Sabres main threats, the offense. Sabres has to keep up the high scoring offense, and it shows. They scored the most goals than any team in the NHL, which is very accomplishing with so many highlight reel players, and amazing players who can just be so good. Pens are going to be doing what the Sabres offense is doing this season one day, but not just yet. But in the end, the Sabres will prevail over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, I believe, 4-1, but if the Ducks don't make it that far, the Red Wings will and I see 4-2 Sabres winning in a crazy star studded Stanley Cup Finals that everyone will be watching, and will be very entertaining with so many of the greats in the NHL out there on the ice at the same time. And also, to the guy in the middle, Marc-Andre Fleury may have won a lot of games recently, but look how many times he got scored on throughout the 15 or so game point streak the Pens had.