Conference Finals of the Stanley Cup Playoffs

A pretty damn fine NHL post-season so far, I'd have to say, and there's not much reason to believe these two remaining series and the Stanley Cup Finals won't be a fittingly exciting finish to the season. The fact that the Blackhawks are in the final four teams just solidifies my belief that this is going to be one hell of a summer.

Again, even considering the longer list of experts used over at 5-hole.com, look who's on top after two rounds of my picks compared to the boys from ESPN and Yahoo!:

YOURS TRULY: 10-2 (6)
Scott Burnside, ESPN: 10-2 (4)
Barry Melrose, ESPN: 10-2 (1)
Matthew Barnaby, ESPN: 9-3 (3)
Sean Leahy, Puck Daddy: 9-3 (2)
E.J. Hradek, ESPN: 9-3 (1)
Pierre LeBrun, ESPN: 8-4 (2)
Matt Romig, Yahoo!: 8-4 (2)
Greg Wyshynski, Puck Daddy: 8-4 (2)
John Buccigross, ESPN: 8-4 (1)
Ross McKeon, Yahoo!: 7-5 (2)
Jim Fox, Yahoo!: 7-5 (0)

Now, I know what you're thinking and, yes, I don't know why Yahoo! uses Jim Fox for their main scorecard on the playoff pages either. My resume will be sent to the website sometime next week, perhaps.

I wanted to put off making these picks a little longer, mostly because I could see any one of these remaining teams drinking from Lord Stanley's Cup. Alas, the time is here and hopefully this explains how torn I was for each series:

Detroit Red Wings over Chicago Blackhawks in seven games

WHY I THINK CHICAGO COULD WIN: Besides my obvious fandom, there's reason to believe that the Hawks continue to thrive in their role as the young, overachieving underdogs. I still don't know whether the team's seven goals in the clinching victory over Vancouver was more indicative of their firepower or if perhaps I and many others were guilty of hyping Roberto Luongo to be a little bit better than he truly is. But I guess I'm leaning more towards the former than the latter, and if the Hawks can play clean and get Detroit to spend more time in the penalty box, then Chicago's got a fighting chance. Their Power Play performance in the first two rounds should frighten fans in "Hockeytown," and you do have to begin to wonder about basic stamina when the league's youngest team is playing the oldest.

WHY I THINK DETROIT WILL WIN: Even though they're the No. 2 seed in the West, the Wings are still the defending champs and were expected by many to repeat this year. While Anaheim certainly pushed Detroit to the max, the Red Wings still responded like they always do and got the job done. And that's even more remarkable from my perspective, seeing as I had thought the controversial ending to Game Three (ESPN's Michael Wilbon said on PTI that he considered the non-goal to perhaps be one of the five all-time biggest "screw jobs") could very well be the sort of thing that a team doesn't get over. But here are the Red Wings for the third year in a row in the conference finals. And if their age hurts how they hold up, their experience is going to allow them to capitalize on those Chicago mistakes that have made me wince all season: Hawks forwards trying to make moves to escape tight situations and ultimately turning the puck over, usually leading to a two-on-one that goes the other way. And while Khabibulin is still preferrable to Osgood, it's a fairly safe assumption that either goalie is going to give up about three goals a game. But I, like many others, have questioned Osgood for quite some time now and the guy seemingly always has a way of finding a way to win.

Carolina Hurricanes over Pittsburgh Penguins in seven games

WHY I THINK PITTSBURGH COULD WIN: This was the team I saw getting back to the Finals at the beginning of the season, and while they certainly took their time regaining their form, well ... boy, they sure found it. Offensively, they're every bit as intimidating—if not more—as last season's bunch.

WHY I THINK CAROLINA WILL WIN: Bottom line here, I guess, is I believe Cam Ward is the best goalie remaining in the playoffs. When the Canes sent their Game Seven against Boston into overtime, I just knew the Bruins were toast. Indeed, this has been a sort of storybook post-season for a sixth-seeded Carolina squad that has played very well at both ends of the ice. It has long been said that it's better to be lucky than good, and right now I believe that Lady Luck has been spending an awful lot of time with the team from Raleigh. I suppose their time together could be due to expire at any moment, but considering that this should be a pretty open, fast-moving series with both teams on the attack, the result will likely come down to goaltending. Ward has the most minutes, the highest save percentage and the most saves of any of the four remaining starting goaltenders. And his two shutouts in the playoffs are more than what Fleury, Osgood and Khabibulin have combined.