The 2007 Stanley Cup finals start tonight and already it looks like a mismatch. Many had foreseen Anaheims rise through the ranks and they were some what of a favorite to get here, however the Ottawa Senators surprised everyone!!! Not only did Ottawa get here, but they made statements on their way. In their path to the Cup were the Pittsburgh Penguins, NJ Red Devils, and the Buffalo Sabres. Each team had a high powered offense (Buffalo had the leading offense in the league) and was obliterated 
by the Ottawa defense led by Chris Phillips and Anton Volchenkov. They came into the playoffs seeded #4 and no one expected this out of them, they are big, physical, hungry and most importantly determined to finish what they started…which looks to be a dominating series of victories to win their first ever Stanley Cup!!!
Anaheim on the other hand is more a finess team who was half expected to be here, they play a smooth fast tempo offense and like to control the rythem of the game. They seem to be physically smaller that Ottawa and if they can’t keep the Senators off tempo then its going to be a tough series for the Ducks, I just don’t see Anaheim able to handle the big guys from Ottawa who are known to slow teams down and then just pound on them and slowly wear them down, thats exactly what they did to the Sabres, they stopped the offense dead in its tracks and then proceeded to pound on them and get in a sloppy goal here and there, but just enough to win the game. Right now the odds to win the Cup is pretty even with the Mighty Ducks favored at -120 and the Senators -110 this is due mostly to the fact that in the event of a game 7 it will be played in Anaheim. The line of game 1 for tonight is Anaheim -135 with Ottawa +115 and the over/under on goals is 5. I really can’t make a pick for the winner, but I do like the under 5 goals as both teams will really be feeling each other out tonight and Anaheims offense will try to find an answer for Ottawa’s defense and viceversa, I doubt there will be a scoring frenzy. I think that the fact that Ottawa virtually came out of nowhere to dominate the playoffs is a testament to the future and my money is on Ottawa to win the whole thing in 6 games.
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