My 1st round prediction record stands at 6-2, having also called 3 of the winning series in the correct number of games. I said the Nucks-Stars series would go 7 games, but I picked the Stars to win.
WILD WESTERN CONFERENCE
Round two brings together the Wings and Sharks, and as previously discussed, I am torn as who to cheer for.
The Sharks won the season series 3-1, winning 9-4 (holy @$%#*&^#^@* smokes!) on January 4th in San Jose. Being that the 4 games played between the two teams all happened in the 1st half of the season, its hard to say who has the edge.
Both teams probably still feel pissed that the Oilers beat them last season (still gotta find a way to work the Oilers angle in!) because both teams felt going into the 2006 playoffs that they had the tools necessary to win the West. They both still feel that way, and much to my dismay, one of my West teams has to lose.
I'm going to go with the Sharks on this one, but if the Wings do win, I'll be ok with it.
Clearly I am cheering for the winner of this series against the winner of the other semi-final series in the Canucks and Ducks.
SHARKS IN 6.
Canucks and Ducks. How convenient that the two teams names rhyme. How convenient that their names also rhyme with my favorite playoff word. (Fuck). The Ducks are a more solid team than the Stars were, and the Canucks were lucky to get past the Stars what with they lackadaisical efforts in games 5 and 6. The Canucks can play a solid team game as shown in their game 7 win, but like the Wings and Sharks, the Ducks probably still feel hard-done-by from the 2006 playoffs when the Oilers beat them down in 5 games in the Western Final after the Ducks disposed of the Avalanche in 4 games in the semis. The Ducks are also bigger and meaner than last season, so look out Bobbsy (Sedin) twins. The Ducks also have Pronger on their side this time around. And no Oilers to get thru later.
As keeping with the tradition of posting regular season series, the Ducks won it with a 3-0-1 record, with Vancouver's only win coming in overtime on February 20th.
DUCKS IN 5.
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EASTERN CONFERENCE
Sabres and Rangers. A playoff battle of epic proportions upcoming? The Rangers and Sabres don't have much a playoff history. The Sabres won the season series 4-0 (3 of the 4 wins coming in OT or a SO), but the last game played between these two teams was December 1st. Hardly an accurate gauge of where the two teams are at right now, when they played each other in the 1st half of the season. Both teams won their 1st round match-ups quite easily, but the Sabres were not happy with the way game 5 against the Islanders ended, almost blowing a 3-0 lead. I'm sure the Islanders weren't happy either (being losers of that game and then losing out of the playoffs after all), but no one cares about the Islanders anymore, its all about the Rangers for the Sabres now.
“We expect a lot more out of ourselves, and people expect more out of ourselves. We realize that. We have to be better. We know we have to be better if we want to move on and go far in the playoffs." -- Buffalo co-captain Daniel Briere.
SABRES IN 6.
Devils and Senators. My Marty vs. the only Canadian team left (in the playoffs) that I can cheer for without wanting to kill myself afterwards. Like the Wings-Sharks series, this is a tough decision. The Devils won the season series at 3-1 (one win in a SO), but Brodeur had looked human at times during the 1st round against the Lightning. Until games 5 and 6 that is. The Senators are trying to shake their 'choke' label in the playoffs and having lost in 7 games to the Devils in the 2003 Eastern Final, they have a crack at shedding that label against a team that helped earn them that label.
As much as I love Marty, I gotta go with the Senators this time. I doubted their ability to beat the Penguins, but my Marty said it best; the Senators walked thru the Penguins like it was nothing.
"We know this is one step to move further into the playoffs. The next step will be Ottawa for us and it will be another tough team that walked through Pittsburgh like it was nothing, so it will be quite a challenge." -- New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur.
SENATORS IN 7.
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In other NHL news, Scott Mellanby has retired after a 21 year NHL career. Interesting stat about him: In 2002, Mellanby became the first NHL player to score 300 career goals without ever scoring a hat-trick. In 2003, he got his first hat-trick in his 1,209th career game. Best of luck in your future endeavors Scott.
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