[Raji]

San Jose Sharks vs. Detroit Red Wings (-150, 5)

Funny thing about NHL goalies – they tend to stop most of the shots they see. That was the case in Game 1 when the Wings blasted 34 shots that were all stopped by Evgeni Nabokov in a 2-0 Sharks win.

Nabokov didn’t have any trouble seeing the pucks on their way to the net because Detroit was without its best around-the-net pest and goalie-screener, Tomas Holmstrom, who is out with an eye injury. Some reports are saying Holmstrom told a Swedish newspaper he won’t be back until at least Game 4, which isn’t good news for the Wings.

In addition to Holmstrom, they missed key defenseman Brett Lebda (concussion) and questions remain about the health of the team’s second-leading scorer, Henrik Zetterberg, who suffered from a back injury late in the season.

It’s hard for Hockeytown bettors to think the Wings could drop two in a row at the Joe, but San Jose is playing pretty well if you haven’t noticed. They have depth and an explosive power play and one very overlooked factor is that they are a strong defensive club when they need to be.

The Sharks blocked 18 shots in Game 1 and have allowed just five goals in their last four games. Detroit has likely taken notice and should put out a better performance Saturday afternoon, but will it be enough?

Pick: Red Wings (-150)

Ottawa Senators vs. New Jersey Devils (-105, 5 ½)

It took the Devils about 16 minutes and 39 seconds to realize they were in Round 2 of the playoffs Thursday night. Unfortunately by that time they were down 4-0 to the Sens and they were making oddsmakers and the betting public look like geniuses.

The series odds for this matchup opened at Ottawa -130 and rose to -160 before the first game began and, as the first period neared an end, anyone who’d taken the Sens had to be feeling pretty good about things. Then the Devils woke up. They started picking their way back and by the time the game ended, the Sens were lucky to scrape out a 5-4 victory.

That Devils team you saw for the last 33 minutes and 21 seconds is likely the one that’s going to show up for Game 2. There were a few key problems that explain the slow start in Game 1, all of which they hope to remedy tonight.

For starters, it was announced Thursday afternoon that team captain Patrik Elias would miss the game with the flu. Secondly, the home crowd was a paltry 15,512 – well below capacity of over 19,000.

The third reason?

“We were overconfident, if anything,” Devils center John Madden told the New York Times. “It was not shakiness. We were doing things that were not characteristic of this team.”

No word on Elias yet, but if he is in fact suffering from the flu, he should return Saturday. You can also bet the Devils won’t be feeling overconfident. As for the fans, that has a little more to do with luck. But New Jersey can take comfort that their arena attendance increased by about 4,000 in Games 2 and 4 of the series against Tampa Bay after only 14,495 Devils supporters attended Game 1.

Pick: Devils (-105)


Raji