by Larry Leavitt

Chicago vs. Los Angeles: The Blackhawks in the opening game of the Western Conference Finals had a little more time to prepare for this battle than the Kings did. The Hawks were well rested and had their legs. The Kings on the other hand didn’t have their legs going for them, they didn’t have their skating speed, they weren’t as prepared as the Hawks were in the 3-1 loss.

The Kings should be ready for the next one at the United Center in Chicago, and you can best bet that this series will start in the next two or three games. The Untied Center is a tough building the fans are going to be loud and their always excited to have the Blackhawks and the Hawks have depth with talent.

If there is anything you can say about the Kings is you can never count them out, never, doesn’t matter how hard down they are, how many games out they are, the Kings seem to find a way to battle to get back into it.

They played into game seven and won it and went right into this series in Chicago with the Hawks. Where the Hawks had a few extra days off, it helped them with their health and their timing and their legs. You can never count the Kings out their going to be a tough opponent and this series should go six or seven games.

NY Rangers vs. Montreal: The New York Rangers came out prepared for the game at the Bell Centre on Saturday night but the Habs came out a little flat once they got behind and it’s like they never were going to catch up in game one.

The biggest hit to the Canadiens was their goaltender Carey Price who will be out this whole series. He got hurt in the previous series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Price is out with a knee injury and if the Habs move to the Finals it’s questionable at that juncture if Price might be back for that series.

The Canadiens after losing Carey have to regroup and have to start helping back up goalie Peter Budaj. Budaj was pelted with seven goals during Saturday night’s game one 7-2 loss and is back in net Tuesday night in game two. The defense has to step it up in front of him or the Habs are going to fold and have problems and certainly don’t want to drop the first two games at home going to New York for game three.

The Rangers are really riding a high right now, their getting hot at the right time, their rolling out their four lines, so game two is crucial for the Canadiens survival in this round.

Larry Leavitt is covering the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com