I'd say that the player more important to the Sabres this season was Thomas Vanek. Miller missed time early in the season and again at the end, and in both cases Jhonas Enroth filled in serviceably, if not admirably. Once 2011 started Vanek took the team on his shoulders and went PPG as he willed us into the playoffs. Probably next season's captain.
My argument against Vanek is that while his stats were nearly point per game on average, Vanek is not a point per game player in the sense that when you watch a Sabres game you should expect him to get about one point. In the last 10 games of the Sabres regular season, for instance, he scored 11 points, which is pretty fantastic. However, consider this: he scored 0 points in 5 of those 10 games. He's a binge scorer, was a binge scorer all year and every year of his career, and an MVP to me has to be someone who shows up every night, not just most of the nights, which defines Miller when he doesn't have what apparently is finally being admitted as a concussion.
And Synre, I would have nominated Rinne over Weber. Small sample, but watching Rinne play the Canucks, was nothing short of God-like. Highway robbery saves in every game, and he kept the high scoring Canucks to less than 2 goals per game (if memory serves me correct) in the latter half of the season.
Similar thought to Thomas/Rinne there, Lindback had a .915 to Rinne's .930 s% this season, which while an obvious downgrade isn't nearly as problematic as losing Weber would have been, both due to his defensive contributions, which he got a Norris nod for over some people with more points than him because of, and for the fact he was 2 points off his team's lead in scoring from the blueline while leading the team in hits and finishing second for his team in shots. He's Mr. Everything for them in a way none of the other players we've talked about bar Lundqvist really need to be. Though Suter's role there shouldn't be downplayed either, they were terrible while he was out. I'm eager to see Ryan Ellis on their blue line in a couple of years, who I think would have been the OHL Playoff MVP this year had his team won their conference finals appearance(and did win the OHL's Norris equivalent)... they're going to be terrifying if they can find any offense from their forwards at all.
Round 2 predictions for me... just going off of whatever I entered in the nhl.com challenge thing while I was drinking last night so the logic I write may only vaguely support my predictions, especially considering I intentionally predicted my two favorite teams regardless of my actual expectations:
1 Vancouver vs. 5 Nashville
I'll be rooting Predators hard during this series because while I know some of our Canadian friends aren't so fond of them, they're a well-respected franchise down here for what they've managed to do with so little money. Well-coached, hard-working, but not goony the way some other similarly designed teams like St. Louis are, it's an easy team to root for as an outside observer. I don't think it's any secret Rinne would have to steal this one for the Predators to win, however, because the star power is just SO imbalanced. It's hard to look at a position other than maybe goal(unless you count the coaches!) and think "yeah, the Predators have an edge here." In spite of that, I think I would have predicted at least a 7 game series out of this if I hadn't seen the Predators post-round1 press conference where they all looked like they'd pretty much just won the lottery, especially Barry Trotz. I feel like Nashville's goal was to get to round 2 for the first time in franchise history and the Canucks' is to win the cup, and I'll take the team who isn't complacent any day. Expect the Predators to try to get a lot of traffic in front and fire away with Weber, which is a strategy that has been executed with a lot of success against the Canucks in the past, but probably fail to generate enough to get by a much better designed Canucks team that isn't going to share the puck very much.
Canucks in 6.
2 San Jose vs. 3 Detroit
My hockey savvy likes San Jose a lot in this matchup. They're maybe the only team in the West I think can score as well as Detroit with four lines, they have a similarly talented(but I'd argue, less deep) blue line, and most importantly they're just as skilled as Detroit top to bottom while being much larger. Home ice was actually a disadvantage on average in round 1, but the Shark Tank is one of the NHL's most imposing arenas and I think that there's a good chance that'll be a big factor in this series. There are two things I like for Detroit in this: one is that Jimmy Howard finally looked like a playoff calibur goalie in round 1 whereas Niemi did not, and the lines Detroit were using against Phoenix have the muscle spread out well enough that they'll be able to be pretty relentless around the net to combat the rebound machine that is Niemi. Look for Bertuzzi, Holmstrom, Cleary, Helm, and Abdelkader to have big series if Detroit is going to win this. The other is that Pavel Datsyuk was playing absolutely out of his mind in round 1 and in a series were both teams are going to try to control the puck a lot he has potential to be the x factor. I think San Jose will probably win like this if I'm being honest, but honesty doesn't have much place in sports so as a resident of Michigan
Red Wings in 6(because I can't see them winning a Game 7 in San Jose and this is really straining credulity as it is).
1 Washington vs. 5 Tampa Bay
I have to admit I'm pretty ecstatic about this series. While Tampa is only about my fourth favorite team in the East(though they'll pass Buffalo the moment the Sabres call up that chump Kassian), I love watching their stars and have warm fuzzies about their GM being the captain I grew up watch and all, so I'm hoping the winner of this series will make it to the SCF. As far as this round... I really don't like predicting against St Louis and Rolly, but Lecavalier and Stamkos have been rather inconsistent the past few months(though Vinny is in business in the playoffs thus far) and that worries me against a Caps team that is probably going to be able to get some goals in against a blueline that isn't as defensively sound as the one they played last round. Expecting both teams to clam up a bit more than you might expect for a match-up that features both Alex Ovechkin and Steven Stamkos, but with the talent on the ice any game could break open at any moment. I think these two teams will be good for many years and that this will likely be the Caps' second biggest rival to the Penguins assuming Yzerman can bring in some talent to replace St Louis in a couple years, but in the mean time this Capitals team is much farther down the development line than the Lightning.
Caps in 5.
2 Boston vs 3 Philadelphia
I predict a brawl breaks out and Mike Richards beats a fan with his own shoe, but is inexplicably not suspended for it.
Two similar teams that are built for playoff excellence with a lot of size and a decent amount of skill. I like the skill that backs up the size on the Flyers a lot more than on the Bruins, because even if Carter is out the Flyers have 3 lines of people who can score and Timonen is a much better #2 D than anyone on Boston if you consider Pronger and Chara a wash(though Pronger may not be healthy enough for that to be the case. I think Laviolette's obsessive goalie pulling might bring down a superior team, however -- Thomas has to have all the confidence in the world after outdueling Carey Price and and the Flyers tenders probably aren't even confident they'll be on the ice in the next period.
Bruins in 7.
Additional note: How smart does that Nathan Horton trade last summer look now that he scored an overtime winner? Would be nice to see some more points from him, but for a guy in his first NHL playoff series that's awfully fucking clutch.
