Round 1 started with a roar, lots of great hits but I would assume the league cracked down on the ’shenanigans’ which is why most of the series that went past 4 games were pretty tame.  Calgary/Chicago was a beauty all the way through, but the rest that started out with a bang seemed to fizzle near the end.  So I’m 50/50 through the first round.  I knew it would be risky picking Calgary and Columbus but I really expected the Flames experience to pay off and didn’t expect Chris Osgood to actually be any good.

Oh well, on to round 2. Continue reading

Another year, another round of picks…let’s get started:

San Jose vs Anaheim Ducks (San Jose in 7)

This will be a tough series, San Jose needs to play a tough team like the Ducks in the first round instead of playing a team they could walk all over.  Blake and Boyle on the blueline for the Sharks will be the key for the series as both have Cup rings.   Even though there is almost 30 points separating these teams in the standings, it’ll be a close series, but San Jose has better goaltending and more fire-power and much more scoring depth than the Ducks.

Detroit vs Columbus (Columbus in 6)

The playoffs are about goaltending, the Blue Jackets have it and the Wings don’t.  Osgood hasn’t been good all year and despite his 3 Stanely Cups, he’s past his time and Conklin isn’t much better (I still haven’t forgiven him for the screw up that cost the Oilers game 1 against the Canes when Roloson was injured a few years back).  Detroit is an un-beleivably talented team but Steve Mason is the difference maker regardless of the fact he’s a rookie (remember Patrick Roy anyone?) and Ken Hitchcock’s style will ultimately frustrate the Wings and the Blue Jackets will prevail.  This will be one helluva boring series to watch.

Vancouver vs St Louis (Vancouver in 5)

Vancouver has far too much depth for this to be much of a series.  Kariya likely won’t be back for this series and he has the most playoff experience on the team.  The Blues are missing their top 2 defencemen as well.  It’s a great story that the Blues came back from last place a few months ago to 6th place, but they had nothing to lose, now the games count for something and they don’t have the experience or depth to handle a club like Vancouver.  Luongo will be sensational and even though Sundin hasn’t set the world afire when he signed on, he’ll have a great playoff.  Vancouver is simply too good and will roll over the Blues, but it’ll be a good series to watch.

Calgary vs Chicago (Calgary in 6)

This will be a beauty to watch.  Chicago has a lot going for them, except experience (not counting the Bulin Wall).  Chicago is a fast team but Calgary has much more character and has the gritty players you need come playoff time.    Although Calgary faded the last few weeks of the season and had tremendous injury problems, they’ve iced the best team the city has seen since they won the cup 20 years ago IMO.    The only chance Chicago has is if Khabibulin out-duels Kiprusoff, which is possible, but I don’t see a young team like Chicago pulling this off even though most are saying the Flames are the underdogs.

Montreal vs Boston (Bruins in 4)

Sorry Habs fans…the Canadiens don’t stand a chance against this Bruins team.  They have too much talent, goaltending, size and grit for Montreal to have a shot at an upset.  Tim Thomas has had a fantastic year and after toiling away in the minors for most of his career, he has elevated his game over the last few seasons.  The Habs are missing their best defenceman in Markov and don’t have the gumption to handle the physical game the Bruins will throw at them.  If Price gets hot they might steal a couple, but they won’t win the series.  Even though I’m predicting a sweep this will be a fantastic series to watch, lots of emotion and a great rivalry.

Washington vs Rangers (Washington in 5)

Lundqvist (spelling?) is the only hope the Rangers have to not get embarrassed in this series.    Well, that and if Theodore doesn’t fall flat on his face for the Caps.  Nobody can stop Ovechkin and Washington learned a lot from last year’s playoff loss and will be a tough team for the Rangers to handle.  Washington has too much speed but the only problem they might run into is depth on defence.  Outside of Mike Green and maybe Tom Poti, there isn’t much there and it shows as the Caps has the 2nd worst GAA out of all playoff teams.  The Caps have been great on the powerplay, but the Rangers have been equally good on the PK.  Washington will still roll over this one and despite the Avery hype, this won’t be much of an entertaining series.

Penguins vs Flyers (Penguins in 7)

Now this is going to be a beauty.  Sydney Crosby is going to erase his mediocre season (even though he finished 3rd in scoring) with an un-believable playoff.  I really like the he’s been playing all year, much more of an edge to his game and he’ll be bringing it to the Flyers all series long.  I will take Fleury over Biron any day of the week and the pickups the Pens made be getting Guerin and Kunitz will be key in this series.  They both bring a huge physical presence that the Pens need.    Philly doesn’t have a match-up for Malkin and Crosby on defence, but it’ll be great watching Crosby battle against Mike Richards.

Hurricanes vs Devils (Devils in 6)

I said this last year but was dead wrong, so I’ll say it again.  One Word.  Brodeur.  He faltered down the stretch and did have that serious bicep injury, but he came to training camp in the best shape of his life and he wants to prove he’s better than Roy, especially after beating his win record.  Had it not been for that injury he’d have eclipsed the shutout record too.  Brendan Shanahan is a proven playoff performer and even though Carolina has been great during the last couple of months, the Devils will still prevail in this one.  There will be some amazing saves between Ward and Brodeur, but this will largly be a snooze fest to watch.

Who will win the cup? Boston.  Great goaltending and too much talent.  I picked the Flames at the start of the year by the way…

Best Series? Calgary/Chicago.  Lots of speed and hits, great entertainment.

Worst Series? Detroit/Columbus.  Trap, trap and more trap…boooooo

Conn Smyth Winner: Tim Thomas

Scoring Leader: Sydney Crosby.  I think he’s really going to turn it up a notch even though they won’t make it to the finals.

So my trade predictions were a bit off, but my aftermath ‘winners and losers’ predictions were pretty good. It’s going to be a great playoff, let’s get down to it.

Western Conference:

Detroit/Nashville:  Detroit in 4.  The Wings have had quick exits the last few years, but this year will be different.  Sure they have some key injuries, but goaltending will be the biggest difference.   Boring series to watch, but Detroit will steamroll them.

Dallas/Anaheim: Ducks in 6. What a series this going to be.  At least 4 or 5 great looooong overtimes will happen in this series and it’s going to be low scoring and hard hitting.  Sure 2 of the Ducks star players had half the season off and are well rested, but with Zubov out and Richards not playing well going into the playoffs it will take a Marty Turco miracle for the Stars to stick around.

Calgary/Sharks:  Sharks in 7.  Best series of the first round.  Speed, hits, fights, great saves and great goals.  San Jose is due and Brian Campbell will be the difference.   San Jose’s roster is just too deep and they’ll wear down the Flames.  For the record, I hope the Flames win but SJ is just too strong.

Colorado/Minnesota:  Minnesota in 5.  The Wild will pound the snot out of the Avs.  Forsburg will get hurt in the first game and I don’t think Jose Theodore can return to the form he was in a few years back when the Habs ousted the Bruins in the first round.  The Avs don’t have the size to combat the Wild. This will be a boring series to watch.  Thanks Wild.

Eastern Conference

Ottawa/Pittsburg:  Sens in 6.  Sorry, they tanked that last 3 months of the season but a team this great cannot be stopped by the Pens.  Being the underdog in this series is the best thing that could have happened to the Sens.  Alfredsson *might* be back for the latter games of the series but Ottawa’s defense is much stronger than Pittsburg and you can’t ignore the playoff experience difference.

Philadelphia/Washington: Caps in 7.  No one can stop Ovechkin.  If he needs to triple-shift and score every goal in the series, he’ll be the difference maker.  Biron is hot going into the playoffs but Kolzig’s leadership and the pickups at the deadline for the Caps will boost them over the Flyers.

New Jersey/NYR: New Jersey.  Brodeur.  Enough said.

Montreal/Boston:  Montreal in 4.  The Habs swept the season series and that trend will continue.  I know I said Price won’t get them out of the first round before, but my mom and 4 of her friends could beat Boston.  Outside Chara, the B’s have nothing.

Well, I rushed through this since the playoffs start in 6 minutes, but to cap it off, San Jose will win the cup this year and my conference picks will come shortly.

Ok, so my predictions were a bit off.  Not much action today, or at least not as much as the hype leading up to it led me to believe.  I guess I was basing my predictions on pre-cap days when it was actually possible to trade players.

Biggest winners:  Dallas, San Jose, Colorado and Washington

Biggest Losers: Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Buffalo Continue reading

I don’t think there will be too much activity at the deadline this year.   The new CBA and cap make trades pretty tough for teams, but here’s my crack at what I think will happen at the deadline.

Let’s start with my Oilers.

Edmonton:  The goal is to NOT finish in the bottom 5 this year and with Souray, Horcoff and Torres done for the year they should just give up now and preempt the rage I will have for the rest of the season watching them.  Roloson is finished in Edmonton  and other than that, they don’t have much to offer with all the injuries they have. Continue reading

This guy impresses me more every time I see him play.  Ovechkin put up 5 points tonight, including 4 goals (one of them the OT winner) all the while getting his nose broken and getting stitches in his lip from a puck in the face.

He’s scored 30% of the teams 145 goals this year, has almost 20% of the teams total shots this year and the next in line for team goals is a DEFENCEMAN with 14!  He  has 10 more goals than all the other forwards on Washington combined. Continue reading

How fitting is it that Buffalo snaps their 10 game losing streak with 10 goals against the Thrashers last night?  It was definitely a goal scorers night last night with 4 hat tricks scored across the league and it was just about 5 but Todd Bertuzzi could only manage 2 in the Ducks win against Minnesota.

Derek Roy and Drew Stafford netted hat tricks for Buffalo while Eric Staal turned the trick for Carolina as they trounced my beloved Oilers 7 - 2 including a 5-goal 3rd period.  Daymond Langkow rounded out the night of hat tricks with his effort against the Kings.

I don’t think I can remember a night when 4 hat tricks were scored, but considering there were only 7 games in the NHL last night, there must have been a full moon out last night.

It was great to see Mark Recci score the winning shoot-out goal against his former club, the Pittsburg Penguins, last night.   Since joining Atlanta, Recci has 16 points in 17 games and has proven he still has what it takes to compete in the NHL.

I was quite disgusted with Michel Therrien with how he benched Recci and said that the 1300+ point getter didn’t have what it takes to play in the NHL anymore.  A 19 year veteran, Recci is clearly proving his worth to the Thrashers.  A guy like Recci definitely deserved better than to be benched and waived by the Pens.  I would have liked to see the Oilers pick him up, they could use the veteran leadership.