PITTSBURGH – Ah, the series prediction. It becomes the ubiquitous bane of every sportswriter’s life at this time of year.
Who is going to win? How many games?
Fortunately, Swedish journalist Per Bjurman of Aftonbladet has done the work for us heading into the Stanley Cup Final. He polled a massive swath of people from across the hockey world – including players, former players, agents and journalists – and received 147 responses.
The consensus choice from that group for this year’s Stanley Cup champion is San Jose by a margin of 90-57, or 61.2 per cent.
The list of current NHLers that picked the Sharks includes Nicklas Backstrom, Henrik and Daniel Sedin, Jacob De La Rose, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Hampus Lindholm and William Karlsson.
Henrik Lundqvist, whose New York Rangers were ousted by Pittsburgh in a five-game first-round series, touted the Penguins.
Henrik Zetterberg, Erik Karlsson, Loui Eriksson, Eddie Lack and Filip Forsberg are among those who agreed with him.
The former coach of the Swedish national team, Par Marts, backed the Sharks. The current Tre Kronor coach, Rickard Gronborg, believes the Penguins will prevail.
Predictions have become especially difficult to make in recent years, with 33 out of the last 44 playoff series going at least six games. The margins are usually slim. We’re talking about games that feature a bouncing piece of rubber on ice.
Even the two members of the Hockey Hall of Fame surveyed by Bjurman have differing viewpoints on how the Stanley Cup Final will unfold – Peter Forsberg likes Pittsburgh while Nicklas Lidstrom gave the edge to the Sharks.
The 2016 Stanley Cup Final is set to begin Monday.
Here's a Tale of the Tape between the #Sharks & #Pens pic.twitter.com/dndB2x4jjW
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) May 27, 2016
Daniel Alfredsson, a future Hall of Famer, also believes San Jose is about to capture its first ever Stanley Cup.
“It feels like they have a little more weight and a cruel power play,” he wrote in Swedish.
As it turns out, I’m going somewhat against the grain. I like the Penguins offensive depth to win out in an incredibly close seven-game series.
