Round Two NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs Predictions: Division Finals? Conference Semifinals?

It's late at night and all three final Game 7 contests of the first round concluded with me being wrong about every single winner. That was pretty indicative my opening round picks, but the saving grace would of course be that my beloved Blackhawks are still very much alive, very much kicking, and very likely to keep defending their title perhaps well into May. Then again, considering my performance last round, perhaps I should pick against them just to improve their chances.

The NHL postseason is without a doubt my favorite time of year, and each one of these four series in the next round has the potential to be riveting stuff. If the last round taught us nothing else, no upset can be ruled out and no lead is safe. So needless to say, I won't be getting too far ahead of myself and talking about possible Stanley Cup Final picks. Hoping, of course, is another matter.

Seeing as the first round just ended, there's no picks yet up at Puck Daddy, the Mother Ship, or CBS Sports. I'll try to add those screencaps at the bottom of this post as the picks get posted, but for now, here's the standings among the experts after the first round.

1. Paul Grant, ESPN: 7-1 (4)

2. Sarah Goldstein, ESPN: 7-1 (3)

3. Barry Melrose, ESPN: 7-1 (2)

4. Sam McCaig, Yahoo: 6-2 (4)

5. Ryan Lambert, Puck Daddy: 6-2 (3)

6. Linda Cohn, ESPN: 6-2 (2)

6. Tim Kavanagh, ESPN: 6-2 (2)

6. Brian Stubits, CBS Sports: 6-2 (2)

9. Nicholas Cotsonika, Yahoo: 6-2 (1)

10. Pierre LeBrun, ESPN: 6-2 (1)

11. Steve Levy, ESPN: 6-2 (1)

12. Scott Powers, ESPN: 6-2 (1)

13. Chris Peters, CBS Sports: 5-3 (3)

14. Dennis Dodd, CBS Sports: 5-3 (2)

14. Jen Neale, Puck Daddy: 5-3 (2)

16. Katie Strang, ESPN: 5-3 (1)

17. Daryl Dobbs, Puck Daddy: 5-3 (0)

18. John Buccigross, ESPN: 4-4 (3)

18. Scott Burnside, ESPN: 4-4 (3)

20. Sean Leahy, Puck Daddy: 4-4 (2)

20. Harrison Mooney, Puck Daddy: 4-4 (2)

20. Greg Wyshynski, Yahoo: 4-4 (2)

23. Craig Custance, ESPN: 4-4 (1)

23. Joe McDonald, ESPN: 4-4 (1)
25. YOURS TRULY: 3-5 (2)

Yeah, that's fucking pathetic. I can't remember the last time I dogged picks that bad, and I can't be bothered to look it up right now. Instead, here's what I'm considering my safe picks for the next round:

Chicago Blackhawks over Minnesota Wild in five games

Getting by the Blues might have been the toughest test that the defending champs were going to face in the first two rounds. It might be the biggest challenge of the entire conference. But there I go again, getting ahead of myself. Concentrating strictly on this series, Corey Crawford showed in the first series why he should have won the Conn Smythe last year. We are also not wondering where star players like Toews or Kane are, as both made significant contributions. Patrick Sharp finally scored after a number of close calls throughout the series, and one gets the impression that Marian Hossa is on the brink of doing the same. The Wild stunned the Avalanche and held Colorado to astonishingly low shot totals during games in Minnesota. Still, there's concerns about the Wild's man in between the pipes, and I simply don't see how Chicago doesn't handle Minnesota rather quickly. I debated making this a six-game series under the assumption that maybe two close games don't end up going the Blackhawks' way, but forget it. The champs are the superior team and they've got bigger fish to fry.

Pittsburgh Penguins over New York Rangers in six games

A tougher call than I want to admit, and I'm tempted to pick the Rangers to pull off the upset. New York could very well end up having the edge in goal, with Henrik Lundqvist quite capable of stonewalling the Pens as Tuukka Rask did last year in the conference finals. The fact that Pittsburgh also allowed Columbus to continually get back into games after blowing late leads is reason for concern. However, New York didn't exactly wow me on either end of the ice against Philadelphia. Admittedly, the Rangers did look great in the number of shots they blocked in Game 7, but the Penguins also had moments where their defense effectively clogged the zone in their series finale to limit pucks even getting close to the always suspect Marc Andre Fleury. In the end, I simply think that the home ice advantage as well as the combination of Crosby, Malkin and some key role players helps Pittsburgh advance.

Boston Bruins over Montréal Canadiens in six games

For as much as I'm concocting reasons to continue believing the Blackhawks can repeat, I search for reasons to pick against the Boston squad returning to the Final. However, the Bruins didn't win the Presidents' Trophy because the rest of the league sucked. Boston's passing is remarkably crisp on many occasions, Rask is already the leading Conn Smythe contender, and the defense is, quite simply, a motherfucker. That said, I was quite guilty of underestimating the Canadiens in the last round (thanks for nothing, Ben Bishop), and if one goalie could suddenly shut the Bruins down, Carey Price seems like a pretty safe bet. This should be a highly spirited series, and again, while I'm tempted to believe that the upset happens here, I just can't deny that Boston had very few chinks in the formidable armor the team entered the playoffs wearing.

Los Angeles Kings over Anaheim Ducks in four games

Bruce Boudreau finally got over that first round hump, but how much of that success can be blamed on a Dallas meltdown? As has been the case with so many of the series in this round, the goaltending dictates my vote here. Jonathan Quick seemingly recovered from his struggles early on against San Jose to help the Kings advance, but the Ducks survived despite a shaky situation in which the team waffled between Frederik Andersen and Jonas Hiller. Anaheim's a lot better than I have given them credit for, but the fact that Los Angeles is coming off of being only the fourth team to ever complete a comeback from a 3-0 series deficit makes them fairly unstoppable here, in my mind. So much so that I'm changing my original seven-game prediction to a flat-out sweep. I know I said I wouldn't be making any predictions about what to expect after this round, but I'll just conclude these picks by saying that right now there's very good reason to suspect that it is the Kings have made themselves as legitimate a contender as any of the eight remaining. And yes, I'm well aware that I'm forecasting the exact same conference finals matchups we got last year, so that's almost certainly a sign this is going to be incorrect. Oh well.

UPDATE: Here's the picks from ESPN and CBS Sports. The Puck Daddy/Yahoo picks can be found here, although it appears we've lost a couple of the experts there.