Of concern: Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist showed signs of wearing down as the regular season wore on. (Scott Levy/NHLI via Getty Images)

If you’re looking for Stanley Cup predictions, you’ve come to the wrong place. As we’ve previously written, predictions are a waste of time. However, we’re willing to take some stabs at what is each playoff team about. What do they have to do to win? What must they avoid to prevent things from going south?

So here are the keys to the first round match-ups in the Eastern Conference. You can find the keys to the Western Conference here.

NEW YORK RANGERS (1) vs. OTTAWA SENATORS (8)

Rangers - Who they are and how they win:  This team is all about character and sacrifice, starting with captain Ryan Callahan. The Rangers play with unmatched passion, and their shot-blocking and energy are exceptional. They don’t lose a lot of races for the puck and they take hits to make plays. They roll four lines and have better team speed than some think, especially up front, which gives them a dangerous quick-strike offense. Some  people believe New York is a one-line team, but it had decent secondary scoring this season and, because coach John Tortorella has juggled lines all year, he can probably correct any imbalance. Solid defensively, the Rangers keep opponents to the outside and have world-class goaltending with Henrik Lundqvist.

What could go wrong: . The Rangers’ shot-blocking and physical sacrifice could lead to injuries and a depleted lineup. Lundqvist was not at his best in the late going and that would be problematic if it continues in the postseason. They also don’t have a great power play and taking advantage of those opportunities in the postseason is crucial. The Rangers could get frustrated if their power play falters. The worst thing they could do is be overconfident or take Ottawa too lightly. The Senators are just as fast a team and they have played well against New York all season.

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No team wins a championship without productive, selfless role players like winger Pascal Dupuis (left). (Gregory Shamus/NHLI via Getty Images)

It’s nine Ws in a row for the Pittsburgh Penguins, all without Sidney Crosby, who has been absent for most of the season. And during these nine games, top defenseman Kris Letang has missed five and most of a sixth. Paul Martin, another top four defenseman, has missed the last two. Yet the Pens kept on winning. After defeating Boston on Sunday afternoon, Pittsburgh was a mere two points behind the Rangers for the top spot in the East before the Blueshirts eked out an overtime win that evening against the Islanders.

How do the Penguins do it?

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Steven Stamkos still has a legitimate chance to become only the second 60-goal scorer since 1995-96. (Scott Audette/Getty Images)

Should a player whose team fails to make the playoffs get consideration for the Hart Trophy as NHL MVP? That’s a question voters for the award may be faced with this season because Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning has been so valuable player to his club.

It’s possible that the question won’t need to be asked, though, because Tampa Bay’s improved play during the last six weeks has given them a shot at the postseason. A main reason they have, however, it is Stamkos.

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Jochen Hecht of the Sabres is experiencing scary concussion symptoms that have alarmed his team. (Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

When we spoke with Ken Dryden for our post earlier this week on concussions, he proposed an annual conference on head injuries that would involve every aspect of the hockey community. The first item on his ideal agenda would be to hear from those who have suffered concussions and give these players a chance to “tell their stories, very simply. This is what it’s like, this is the impact, these are the consequences, these are the stakes.”  That would certainly open the proceedings with an emotional wallop.

That was on our mind when we came across an item by John Vogl in The Buffalo News about center Jochen Hecht of the Sabres being concussed in Saturday’s game against the Blues, but the symptoms not emerging until Tuesday at practice.

“He’s not good,” Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said after Tuesday’s game in New Jersey. “Wasn’t feeling bad [Monday]. He took a hit from [T.J.] Oshie in St. Louis, kind of an elbow — and came off [Tuesday] and he was a mess. He couldn’t focus. Emotionally, he was really unstable. He’s in a tough place right now. We’re worried. … To come off and be the way he was tells you that there’s something wrong.”

That’s scary stuff. This is Hecht’s second concussion of the season and third in less than a year. As we know, each one makes the victim more vulnerable in the future and potentially makes the reaction more severe.  We wish him well. As Dryden said, “This is an ongoing thing. It’s not something that’s random bad luck. This is tomorrow unless you start finding a way to make a better tomorrow.”

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Perhaps a spirited battle against the rival Penguins will spark Caps captain Alexander Ovechkin, who was chided by coach Bruce Boudreau for a lackluster start, and his linemates. (Geoff Burke-US PRESSWIRE)

Last season’s Winter Classic and HBO 24/7 foes, the Penguins and Capitals, squared off for their first meeting of the season on Thursday night in a game full of storylines and import for two of the NHL’s marquee squads, not the least of which is Alex Ovechkin’s start to the season which, to that point, had thrilled only his opponents.

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Flyers enforcer Jody Shelley has been no stranger to league disciplinary rulings. (Jeff Conner/Icon SMI)

Brendan Shanahan’s stunning ruling on Thursday,  suspending the Flyers’ Jody Shelley for 10 games — the rest of the preseason and five regular season contests – could signal the beginning of an era in which the NHL backs up its rhetoric about player safety with action.  It is a sharp departure from the way discipline had been handled in the past, when the sort of hit that Shelley threw might earn a one- or two-game suspension, or even have not been subject to any supplementary discipline.

A quick search of stories on Shanahan’s ruling reveals widespread approval, which rarely happens in these matters. Shelley, who had five previous suspensions, told Sam Carchidi of The Philadelphia Inquirer he was “definitely” surprised at the length of the suspension, adding that Shanahan “set the tone in a sense” for how he will handle matters this season.

Peter Lukko, president of the Flyers’ parent company, Comcast-Spectacor, told Carchidi the league showed it was “trying to get serious” about these type of incidents. “When it’s  your own player, you always think it’s wrong,” he said of the suspension’s  length. “The important thing is that it’s consistent all year.”

On the top link announcing the decision from NHL.com, Shanahan himself not only presents video of the play, but shows why it is illegal and explains his reasoning for the decision. That itself is a significant step forward for the NHL.

Below is our post from Thursday, which discussed Shelley’s hit prior to Shanahan’s decision, and that of the Flames’ Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond, who Shanahan also suspended Thursday for the rest of the preseason and one regular season game.
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Among the most notable trades so far, Chris Stewart was surprised to end up in St. Louis after believing that he would be part of Colorado's future. (Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)

Last Friday, 11 days before the NHL trade deadline, when GMs seemed to be suddenly swapping players like kids trading hockey cards, TSN’s James Duthie, who hosts the annually excellent trade deadline show on that network tweeted, “Wow, quite a day. Well, thanks for watching Tradecentre 2011. We’ll see you nex…wait…what? Oh. Right. Crap.”

Earlier, Duthie had tweeted, “TSN commentators secretly rehearsing dance numbers so that if no trades are left, Tradecentre will become most disturbing Glee episode ever.”

For years, teams waited until the last moment and the countdown was suspense-filled. This year, instead of a one- or two-day drama leading up to the Feb. 28 deadline, we’ve gotten a trading season that started just after the All-Star break. Since Feb. 9 (as the SI.com NHL Trade Tracker reveals), there have been 18 deals involving 36 players and 14 draft choices. On Friday (and early Saturday morning) alone, there were seven deals involving 16 players and six picks. No wonder Duthie was muttering. Monday might prove  to be anticlimactic.
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A rough season for the Blackhawks just got rougher with the loss of captain Jonathan Toews to a shoulder injury in the teeth of a tough Western Conference race. (Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Blackhawks have staggered through the opening half of this season, in part because of the changes to their roster after they won the Stanley Cup, and because no team has had more injuries to its key players. Jonathan Toews is the latest casualty, gone for up to two weeks, and that’s going to make the task of securing a playoff spot more daunting for a team that is hanging on to the eighth spot in the Western Conference.
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The Red Wings will have to manage without Pavel Datsyuk, the NHL's most complete, if not best, player for at least a month after he broke his wrist on December 22. (Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images)

How much will the Red Wings miss Pavel Datsyuk, who will be out for at least a month after breaking his hand? How much would any team miss the guy who is perhaps the best player in the game?
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