Ready for the finals

It will be a West Coast finals this year, with Färjestad and Frölunda squaring off. The two teams are only 3 hours away from each other so we should see lots of rival fans at each match. Färjestad went through the semis pretty easily, even though they ran into a determined team and a hot goalie. They won in four straight. Frölunda had it a little tougher, but in the end serveral things made it clear that Djurgården had no chance.

First was goaltending. Though Djurgården have a very, very good goalie, Henrik Lundquist is better. José Theodore played well, his defense played well most of the time too. But Henke stood on his head from time to time and is a tremendous goalie.

Second was conditioning. Djurgården was tired by the fifth game, they were standing around watching the play. In the third period they looked like their legs were made of stone. They also lost some players to injury in the previous match while Frölunda was fresh, had all their players, and still had some jump in their legs.

Third was defense. Sami Salo seemed a little more anonymous this round, though he scored with a rocket slap shot last night. But overall the defense was solid. Djurgården had some serious breakdowns defensively last night, and at other times they had trouble getting Frölunda out of their own zone. Frölunda can forecheck and that is a key to winning payoff games.

It will be an excellent match up this year, Färjestad is a good team. But I think Frölunda will win in six games.
The keys to the finals will be: goaltending, where Frölunda is much stronger, and physical play. If the Frölunda forwards can dish it out as well as take it, we will get some good opportunities to score. They have two excellent backs in Sheldon Souray and Zdeno Chara, and they are both tough and gritty. Frölunda have to fight through the cheap stuff and forecheck, with their talented forwards they will score goals. Pelle Presterberg is also a talented player for Färjestad so there will be some scoring on both sides.