I started watching hockey religiously on CBC when round 1 started, even though there was no team for me to root for. I wanted to catch a variety of the matchups, but unfortunately CBC seem intent on showing Sidney Crosby, Vincent Lecavalier, and Martin St. Louis. So I didn’t get to see Buffalo, NYR, SJ, or Anaheim play at all.

In terms of my round 1 predictions, I had a record of 7-1 and incorrectly picked Atlanta to beat the Rangers. Now for round 2, I think that Ottawa will beat NJ. The Senators’ first line is just dominating and they ran circles around Pittsburgh, although to be fair the Penguins were young and not as experienced as the Devils. The other series in the East, between Buffalo and NYR is harder to call because I wasn’t able to watch either of them. I want to say that the Rangers will win because they are on a hot streak, but in the end I think Buffalo will prevail because they are more desperate (Briere and Drury are both free agents this year).

I’m fresh off watching the Vancouver/Dallas game last night, and I have to say that Vancouver looks horrible. Even at their most desperate, they look like they’re the Leafs — running around with messy play and relying on their goaltender to bail them out. They barely squeaked into round 2, and I think they are going to run into a road block against Anaheim, with or without Luongo.

I forgot to pick a dark horse in the first round, but if I did, that would have been San Jose. It is sad that I see them playing Detroit next. Detroit, like Ottawa, seems to have a well-oiled team and are destined to reach the finals. My only fear for them is that their backend seems likely to move into a senior citizens home any day now. So what’s my pick? I’m going to say San Jose, because they seem capable of knocking Detroit off, if not likely.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: hockey