T1B

I like every single matchup in these playoffs. The western conference is the hardest to handicap. I haven't a clue who is going to come out of these wars. I like Detroit..but then I've seen them tank in these 1st round series of late. I can't pick Vancouver because I have no idea how Luongo will do in an actual playoff game. Will Naslund disappear again?

Anaheim & Minnesota is a complete toss up. Same with Nashville & San Jose.

I had the Sens winning the cup at the start of the season. I'm now looking
long and hard at them playing the Pens and wondering if Ottawa will be able to handle
the pressure. Pittsburgh has zero pressure.. The media is going to ravage Ottawa..
It's hard to believe it but the Canadian media will portray the Canadian team in this match up as the bad guy.

Sidney Crosby versus the team that isn't Montreal or Toronto. It should be an interesting series..but I could see either team winning four straight games.

Islanders can beat Buffalo. Sometimes finesse teams like Buffalo gets completely run out of the playoffs by potential Cinderella's like the NYI. Props to Ted Nolan.. I'm sure he's now a candidate for the Jack Adams. It's hard to believe the doom & gloom that hung over this team when DiPietro went out. They took care of their business when other teams didn't. Plain & simple...It's Ryan Smyth's team now. Smyth was the 3rd shooter for the shootout. Not Ya$hin. Smyth was the first interview after the game...not Ya$hin.

Buffalo vs New York should be a war.

My Predictions:


Well I see the Canucks lucked out. They finished 6th in their confrence but get the 3rd seed because they won their division. They get to play the 6th seed Dallas who finished with 2 more points than the Canucks.

Vancouver Canucks VS Dallas Stars - Canucks in 7

Anaheim Ducks VS Minnisota - Ducks in 7

Nashville Predators VS San Jose Sharks - Sharks in 5

Detroit Red Wings VS Calgary Flames - Detroit in 6

Buffalo Sabres VS New York Islanders - Buffalo in 5

New Jersey Devils VS Tampa Bay Lightning - Devils in 6

Atlanta Thrashers VS New York Rangers - Atlanta in 7

Ottawa Senators VS Pittsburgh Penguins - Pittsburgh in 6

Being a huge NFL fan that I am I can see alot of simularities between the Colts and this years Sens.And I think it is thier year too.

I'm glad the Rangers got the 6th seed. They match up better against Atlanta then they do againt New Jersey. I see them beating the Thrashers in 6 games.

Other series:

Vancouver in 5
Anaheim in 5
Nashville in 6
Detroit in 5
Buffalo in 5
New Jersey in 6
Ottawa in 6

Vancouver vs Dallas Stars:
Luongo. Enough said. Canucks in 5

Anaheim vs Minnesota:
I'm not a big Lemaire fan but I like underdogs and I have a feeling we will witness a shocker with this matchup. Wild in 6

Nashville vs San Jose:
Thornton is a known playoffs choker but Forsberg's arrival with the Preds seems to have damaged that team's chemistry. Sharks in 6

Detroit vs Calgary:
Detroit is a dominant regular season team but I'm not convinced they are playoffs material. There might be alot of question marks with the Flames but I still favor them over the Wings. Flames in 7

Buffalo vs New York:
It will be up to Buffalo to decide weither they want the cup or not. Then again, Miller hasn't perform very well towards the end of the season. Islanders, thank you for participating now you may go to where you belong, irrelevancy. Sabres in 5

New Jersey vs Tampa Bay:
Tampa has no goalie therefore NHL's most exciting team should win this series. Devils in 6

Atlanta vs New York:
The Rangers are another very exciting team to watch... I would show them the door quickly but they have two new key players that can really make a difference in the playoffs: Shanahan and Avery. Nevertheless, I'll go ahead with wishful thinking: Thrashers in 7

Ottawa vs Pittsburgh:
I'm expecting this to be the most exciting of all matchups. Theorically I would pick Ottawa to win the series but since they still have Alfredsson among their ranks and are known chokers, then I have to go with Crosby's bunch. Pittsburgh in 6

Great first night...two multiple OT games and a one goal game decided in the third period. Who would've thought the Sens-Pens Game 1 was going to be the least entertaining game of the night. I fell asleep during the first OT with Stars-Canucks and I woke up around 3 or 3:30 and had to do a double take when I saw OT4 on the screen. I thought maybe they were replaying the game on Versus overnight but no, it was still going. I saw the Sedin GWG and went back to sleep.

I predict that the Islanders will shock the Sabres, knocking them out of the playoffs.

Why?

'Cuz I'm a myopic Islanders fan living in "Sabres country."

That's pretty much it.

Best game of the first round so far has got to be today's Game 2 between Ottawa and Pittsburgh. For one, the Pens respond to the Game 1 loss and they're also matching the Sens physicality and intensity. Sid the Kid pots the first of what I'm sure is many GWG in the playoffs. That was a brilliant period of hockey by the Pens in the third to come away with this key win and Fleury made 11 of 12 saves to make their 3 goals stand up. Staal and Crosby both have two goals in the series...Malkin with none so far but has 3 assists, he's not entirely been a ghost.

Tremendous day overall with all 4 teams winning on the road, three series at 1-1 and all four games today were one goal games with the GWG scored in the third period.

SHANNY!!!!!

Props to the Blue Shirts...the first ones to the conference semifinals. Atlanta still has as many playoff wins as Blue Jackets have in their history. Making the playoffs for the first year and getting swept is pretty much like not going to the playoffs at all but at least they get the cayshe from those two home games in the series.

Man--good job, Waddell and Hartley. Hope you're proud of yourselves there, boys.

And I hope Thrashers ownership does the right thing and shit-cans the both of you.

Waddell definitely deserves heat now with what he gave up to get Tkachuk and Hartley has had a small feud going with Kovalchuk and he botched his goaltending situation. Hedberg should've started Game 3...the only two games the Thrashers had a chance in this series were the two that he started. Lehtonen will be great eventually but he had a bad series against a hot team.

AcidQueen wrote:Man--good job, Waddell and Hartley. Hope you're proud of yourselves there, boys.

And I hope Thrashers ownership does the right thing and shit-cans the both of you.

I thought you didn't root for the team that the Unibrow plays on?

Mike the Lab Rat wrote:I predict that the Islanders will shock the Sabres, knocking them out of the playoffs.

SON...

OF...

A...

BITCH!!!!

OK....I'll admit it. Buffalo is a better team. Props to them.

SON...

OF...

A...

BITCH!!!!

Anaheim vs Vancouver - Vancouver in 6

Detroit vs San Jose - San Jose in 7

Buffalo vs N.Y. Rangers - Buffalo in 6

New Jersey vs Ottawa - NJ in 6


Luongo will carry Vancouver to glory this spring. :)

MuchoBulls wrote:

AcidQueen wrote:Man--good job, Waddell and Hartley. Hope you're proud of yourselves there, boys.

And I hope Thrashers ownership does the right thing and shit-cans the both of you.

I thought you didn't root for the team that the Unibrow plays on?

Oh, I was all about the Rangers--but I was hoping that the Thrashers would 1) not goon it up and 2) actually put up a fight.

Instead, all they did was show that they were an even weaker SE Champ than the '99 Hurricanes and '03 Capitals put together--and that's saying something, right there.