ShareThisThe key to a good run in the NHL playoffs is not how many games you win down the stretch in the regular season, but how well you are playing.
"It's like your record in the preseason," said Toronto president and general manager Brian Burke, who won a Stanley Cup in 2007 with Anaheim. "At the end of the regular season, our (win-loss) record does not concern me as much as how we play.
"You need to be hot in the sense your systems are operating efficiently. Ask a coach. Even if his team has gone 2-3 in its last five games, if his power play is going and his team is executing, it's okay."
An unscientific survey of several other GMs finds them in agreement with Burke. Carolina GM Jim Rutherford says stretches like the surging Hurricanes' recent nine-game winning streak are nice, but only in the sense that they boost the players' confidence.
"You certainly like to go in with confidence and if your team is playing well the players are going to feel good about the team," he said. "But once the regular season ends and playoffs start, the regular-season record really goes out the window.
"Some teams that really had good runs early (in the season) don't necessarily have the same pressure on them going down the stretch to win as many games as other teams do for positioning or to get in the playoffs."
Naturally, there are exceptions to this. Injuries are the most important. Teams with injuries to key players will probably not last beyond the first round. And one player above all cannot be hurt or struggling.
"In particular, the goaltender has to be making some stops," Ottawa GM Bryan Murray said. "And yes, if you have key injuries, you're in tough shape."
Murray knows whereof he speaks. One year ago, the Senators lost three important players at the wrong time. One year after making the Stanley Cup final in 2007 against the Ducks, the Senators meekly went out in a first-round sweep by Pittsburgh.
"I felt things were starting to come together and then we had three major injuries -- Daniel Alfredsson, Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly -- and we were done," Murray said. "You could see the psyche of the team was done. Success has everything to do with the mental state of your team. You only do that by feeling good down the stretch."
This offers no comfort to the NHL's two coldest teams going into the playoffs. The New Jersey Devils and the Calgary Flames are suffering from injury and goaltending woes, although the Devils may only have to worry about goaltender Martin Brodeur now that forward Patrik Elias is back from a groin injury. Another team that wobbled down the stretch, the Montreal Canadiens, also has problems on both fronts.
Conversely, the hottest teams are seeing important players returning to the lineup. San Jose, for example, was missing seven regulars at one point and then righted themselves in late March as goaltender Evgeny Nabokov got hot in the wake of his injury problems. In the last few days of the season, the Sharks' remaining two important pieces, Patrick Marleau and Ryane Clowe, came back, which meant their top six forwards were all healthy.
It was almost the same story for the Ducks, who shook off a poor first half to put on a late charge. François Beauchemin, who missed almost the entire season because of knee surgery, was an important part of the defense behind Chris Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. He came back just in time for the playoffs. And while Jean-Sebastian Gigue faded in goal, Jonas Hiller proved to be an excellent replacement.
The Devils and the Flames go into the playoffs as the best candidates for a first-round upset. Actually, scratch the Flames as an upset. They were so bad of late they squandered home-ice advantage and will open the first round in Chicago against the Blackhawks.
And Canadiens fans had also better not count on a long run this spring. They are missing their most important defenseman, Andrei Markov, at least for the first round. Questions surround defenseman Mathieu Schneider's shoulder despite his dramatic return after supposedly being finished for the season. Without Markov, the power play died despite Schneider's return, even though the line of Saku Koivu, Alexei Kovalev and Alex Tanguay was the hottest in the league for a spell. And goaltender Carey Price inspires more worry than confidence, just like his teammates, who went on a long slide for the last half of the season.
(Contact David Shoalts at shoaltsd(at)globeandmail.com)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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