Wow this year’s playoff is shaping to be very interesting. In the West, we have the expected first vs second seed matchup between SJ and the Blackhawks. but in the East, we have the two worst teams playing for the conference final! It is amazing how Montreal and Philadelphia got to this position. Montreal’s story has been the most talked about since they are a Canadian team. The knocked off the President Trophy winners in round 1, and then the defending Stanley Cup champions in round 2. Who else is left?

Philadelphia’s story is also very (and even more) intriguing. In the pre-season, they were a team that would content for the Cup. On paper. Then the season started and they did horribly. They got rid of their coach, and then couldn’t find any consistency in the season. The went through something like 10 goaltenders in the season and clawed their way into the playoffs in their last game by beating the 9th place team. They fell behind 0-3 against the Bruins but then proceeded to win 4 games in a row and win the series (becoming only the 3^rd team in NHL history to do this). Oh and they also lost two of their leading scorers to injury prior to starting the second round.

So the East final will be a matchup of two unlikely stories. I think Philadelphia will prevail over Montreal because of their balanced offense and toughness. In the West, I like Chicago over SJ. Both teams are balanced, and probably SJ has the advantage on paper since Nabakov seemed to have forgotten his Olympic and first round performance now. But I’m rooting for Chicago now that Pittsburgh is gone.

After getting 2/4 out of my predictions right in the second round which is even worse than round one. My record stands at 7/12 now which is a big failure as the best that I can get is 10/15 – 66%!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey