Wide open tournament likely for Stanley Cup

The Red Wings and Senators have home-ice advantage in the conference pairings.
NEW YORK (AP) -- You won't find any true bracket busters in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs.
There are 16 teams in the hunt for the silver chalice, and from top to bottom every club can make a case that it can skate off with North America's oldest sports trophy.
Ottawa clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference on Tuesday, the final night of the regular season, which gave the Senators the right to play the weakest playoff team.
Except this year that happens to be the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes, the guys who won the title the last time it was on the line two years ago before the lockout.
In the new NHL, anything is possible and parity is king thanks to the $39 million salary cap. Only eight teams were more than 11 points out of a playoff spot.
"It's been one of those years," said Lightning forward Brad Richards, the MVP of the 2004 playoffs. "We feel now that finally we got in, we can start over here hopefully and try to do something."
They aren't alone.
Devils edge Rangers
The New Jersey Devils finished the season on a league-record closing run of 11 straight victories. That put them one point ahead of the New York Rangers and into a tie with the Philadelphia Flyers atop the Atlantic Division. The Devils won the tiebreaker and earned the No. 3 seed.
"I think this is as open a year as ever in the NHL for a number of teams to win the Cup," San Jose Sharks coach Ron Wilson said. "The most important reason is because the rules aren't going to change in the postseason. It will be the same hockey, called by the same rules."
The Sharks also fought much of the season just to qualify for the playoffs. The early addition of scoring champion Joe Thornton from Boston after the Sharks started slowly made all the difference. He turned linemate Jonathan Cheechoo into the top goal-scorer in the league by assisting on 38 of his 56 tallies.
San Jose is fifth in the Western Conference and will face the No. 4 Nashville Predators in the best-of-seven series opener tonight.
Also starting tonight in the West is the series between No. 1 Detroit and No. 8 Edmonton, along with No. 3 Calgary hosting No. 6 Anaheim. The remaining Western series is No. 7 Colorado at No. 2 Dallas, beginning Saturday.
Eastern Conference
In the East, the Lightning and Senators will start Friday. The other three series: the New York Rangers at New Jersey; No. 7 Montreal at No. 2 Carolina; and No. 5 Philadelphia visiting No. 4 Buffalo get under way on Saturday.
The Predators are a story in themselves as they get set to make the second straight playoff appearance in their seventh NHL season.
Paul Kariya has been everything Nashville hoped he'd be when the club inked him before the season. Kariya, who helped lead Anaheim to the Cup finals in 2003, scored 85 points -- tops on the Predators.
Offense won't be the focal point for Nashville, however. The Predators are still dealing with the news that they will be without leading goalie Tomas Vokoun, who is sidelined by a blood-clotting problem. That leaves Chris Mason with the pressure to succeed.
Goaltending is always key in the playoffs but more so this year with many clubs relying on young and inexperienced players.
"You see what the CBA did," New Jersey forward Patrik Elias said. "I think we all are aware that there is no one team that can just run away with it and that everybody has a chance."
A big reason why Tampa Bay is eighth and not the NHL's top team in this first post-lockout season is the Lightning are trying to advance with the inconsistent goalie tandem of Sean Burke and John Grahame instead of Nikolai Khabibulin, who bolted the champs for Chicago last summer.
Yet, they'll get no sympathy from the Senators. Ottawa hasn't had its stellar netminder Dominik Hasek since he got hurt during the Olympics. But rookie Ray Emery has been terrific in his absence by winning 23 games and posting a 2.82 goals-against average.
Whether he can do it with the postseason spotlight on him remains to be seen. Hasek hopes to come back soon but his recovery has been slowed.
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