Thursday, April 30, 2009

Round Two of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

I'm already anxious about the conference semifinals beginning tonight for my beloved Blackhawks (this post-season, so far, has been a real, real joy to watch, follow and be a part of ... and that was just the first opponent!), and my opening round picks were just as good as any of the experts over at ESPN or Yahoo!, if not better.

Of course, Barry Melrose was the one guy I saw who had the stones to pick the Ducks to knock off the Sharks while the rest of us played it safe. So he deserves some sort of honorable mention for that, if not a free haircut.

Still, you'll notice a number in parentheses next to the record for the playoff predictions. That denotes the number of what we'll call "exactas" for the number of series that were picked with exactly the right number of games. I'm using that as sort of a tie-breaker, I guess, for the non-existent prize I have prepared for the guy that comes out on top of this at the end.

There's a pretty long list of "experts" here, but I can't really say how many of these folks I'm going to find further picks for (no picks up on ESPN as of this typing and no post from the Puck Daddy contributors yet either), but for now, I'm throwing their names in here just to emphasize how awesome I am. (UPDATE: Same idea and some of the same experts here, but indeed most of the Puck Daddy contributors at the bottom of this list won't be having selections published until the Finals, so enjoy their names just for this round.)

I'll take a minute to enjoy that ...

OK.

Thanks.

Now, on to the next round:


Yeah, that certainly was pretty incredible how the Canes got here. I was pretty sorry that I missed that finish, and I'm tempted to believe that such a dramatic season-saving performance creates some sort of momentum Carolina can use to catch Boston off-guard. In the end, however, the Bruins are going to make the Hurricanes pay for every mistake and being well-rested after thoroughly ousting the Habs, I think Boston takes the first two and wins one in Raleigh before closing the series out back at home.

Pittsburgh Penguins over Washington Capitals in six games

The NHL has to be loving this second-round matchup, and Pittsburgh apparently is loving Dan Bylsma enough to finally drop that damned interim tag. With good reason too: the Pens won 18 of their 25 and once again dispatched their cross-state rivals in the playoffs. Sure, the Caps owned the season series, but Pittsburgh's a different team now with an offense that's clicking on all cylinders and seems poised to make a second straight appearance in the finals.

Chicago Blackhawks over Vancouver Canucks in six games

A much tougher call than I'd hoped, and I'm certainly among the believers in what Roberto Luongo can do. Still, had the Hawks not closed out their first-round series on the road, I would have been more pessimistic about their chances in Vancouver. Instead, I'm fairly confident that they can get a win in that tough environment and steal one of the first two games. If they can defend the home ice and continue to capitalize on their power play opportunities, that should be enough to put them in the conference finals.

Detroit Red Wings over Anaheim Ducks in seven games

Oh, so what compels me to put the heavily-favored Red Wings lastly among my confidence in picks? Is it my natural, biased hope that Detroit suffers another early exit? Or am I still regretting not buying the Ducks upsetting the Sharks? Whetever it is, I just cannot bring myself to pick against the Wings in this round. I saw none of the action from their sweep of Columbus, but the evidence leads me to believe that however half-hearted Detroit's play looked at the end of the regular season, they've indeed flipped the necessary playoff switch to ultimately oust Anaheim.
Written by D. Rock at 12:58:00 AM
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