In round one of this year’s playoffs, I predicted all the winners except for 1, giving me a record of 7-1. In round 2, I had the opposite result, only predicting one of the 4 winners! San Jose, Boston, and Tampa all won when I thought they would lose. So my overall record is now 8-4.

For the conference finals, here’s what I think:

Boston vs Tampa
Tampa can be considered a Cinderella team I guess. They are winning with an aging Martin St. Louis, a rejuvenated Vincent Lecavalier (worth the $7.7 million now?) and ageless wonder Dwayne Roloson in net. I thought he was old when he led the Oilers to the Stanley Cup finals in 2006, now he’s doing it again five years later.

I’ve seen a number of the Tampa (vs Pittsburgh) and Boston (vs Montreal) games. I didn’t see the second round games, but I guess Boston found its work ethic. I still think Boston is built for the playoffs and will win.

Vancouver vs San Jose
Here are two teams that HAVE TO win this series. Vancouver is riding a good year with a stacked team. San Jose is also stacked, if you only look at forwards. But San Jose has the stress of having a stacked team for years and losing in the early rounds of the playoffs. If they lose this series, I’d expect some major changes to happen (i.e., firing coach/GM).

Vancouver has the excuse of losing the Stanley Cup finalist and winners in previous years, but this year they are expected to win it all. I think they have the depth to survive Luongo’s unreliable goaltending and should beat San Jose.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey