Familiar trend is surfacing in Predators-Hawks series

As the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs commenced last Wednesday, I was on campus at George Mason University doing the sports talk radio show I hosted my last two years in college.

Not surprisingly, a good portion of the show was spent breaking down all of the first round match ups and who we thought was going to move on to the semifinals. As we broke down the match up between the Chicago Blackhawks and Nashville Predators, the overriding opinion was the Blackhawks had too many talented forwards for the Predators blue line to handle, and that Chicago would no doubt move on to the second round.

The difference in opinion occured when each of us gave our predictions for how long the series would go. The consensus among my fellow co-host's was the Blackhawks would win in no more then five games. There offensive firepower was too much for the defensive minded Predators. My prediction, however, was slightly different.

I said the Hawks would win in six, as I felt that Pekka Rinne was the kind of goalie that could steal a few games in a series.

Well, after three games, my prediction has already come to fruition, and the question now is whether or not the Predators can actually pull of the upset.

On Tuesday night, Rinne stopped 26 of the 27 shots he faced, and held the Blackhawks scoreless over the final 42:25 of the game. Rinne has now stopped 74 of the 78 shots he has faced through the first three games of the series, and has held the Western Conferences' second highest scoring team in the regular season to just four goals through three games.

This is a familiar trend come spring time in the NHL. One of the league's best and highest scoring teams in the league runs into a hot goaltender who swallows shot he faces and sends the favorite home for the summer wondering what just happened?

Jose Theodore did it twice in the early 2000's as a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Theodore twice befuddled the higher seeded Boston Bruins in the first round; once as the 8th seed in 2002, and as the 7th seed in 2004 after the Canadiens had fallen behind the 2nd seeded Bruins three-games-to-one.

Theodore did it again in 2008, this time as a member of the Colorado Avalanche. The Aves, the 6th seed in the West that year, knocked off the 3rd seed Minnesota Wild as Thedore stopped 96 of the 100 shots he faced over the final three games of the series as the Avalance ripped off three straight wins in route to a four-games-to-two series win.

And, who can forget what Jean-Sebastien Giguere's Conn Smythe Trophy winning performance in the 2003 playoffs for the Anaheim Ducks? Giguere was unbeatable as the Ducks swept the defending Stanley Cup champion Red Wings in the first round, then lost just two games over the next two series, both in the Western Conference semifinal to the Dallas Stars in route to the Ducks first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, which was an eventual seven game loss to the New Jersey Devils.

Point being, the Blackhawks better be careful. For all the offensive weapons they have, the Predators have the natural equalizer; a goalie who isn't afraid of the logo on the opposing jersey.