edit: just in case Hades doesn’t realize it, the Canes didn’t make the playoffs, proving that their unlikely run in the playoffs was a total fluke last year.
East
(1) Caps over Canadiens, Montreal has played well lately, but the Caps are a much, much better team
(2) Devils over Flyers, Carter is out, NJ is going to make a nice run this year with Kovalchuck
(6) Boston over Buffalo, Boston owns the Sabres in the playoffs. Rask has better numbers than Miller, and this Sabres team is a bunch of pretenders riding the coat tails of Ryan Miller, who can’t stop a shot in a big OT game.
(4) Pens over Sens, sweep.
West
(8) Avs over Sharks, Nabokov’s season ends when he stops getting paid.
(2) Chicago over Preds, Niemi is ready to go.
(3) Canucks over LA, this Vancouver team is strong.
(5) Wings over Coyotes, Detroit has been playing out of their minds, and Howard has been solid. Their vacation is over and everyone is healthy.
Round 2:
East
(1) Caps over Boston. The Bruins just can’t keep up, this will be a short series.
(4) Penguins over Devils. This will be an interesting matchup as Pittsburgh isn’t as good as they were last year defensively. It’s also doubtful that Talbot and Fedetenko will put up numbers like they did in the playoffs last year. Poni should help Geno out, though. Pens in 7.
West
(2) Chicago over Colorado, short series
(3) Vancouver over Detroit. Luongo will outplay the rookie.
Conference Finals:
(4) Pens over Caps. Fleury will finally shut down Ovechkin, and Theodore (Threeormore) will play poorly under pressure, as usual.
(3) Chicago over Vancouver. Chicago’s D will shut down the Sedins and win in a long series.
Cup Finals:
Pens over BlackHawks - Hossa loses his third in a row, Geno wins his second straight Conn Smythe
edit: just in case Hades doesn’t realize it, the Canes didn’t make the playoffs, proving that their unlikely run in the playoffs was a total fluke last year
This isn’t logical.
And this isn’t a Hades Shinigami™ thread. I can’t condone something where the Hawks or Pens make it past the first round. I want an INTERESTING playoffs.
You seem to think I’m way more interested in the Hurricanes than I am, and no, why would I boycott anything because Pittsburgh or Chicago has good teams when they don’t? I’m predicting they both go out in round 1 or 2, and a Washington/Van or SJ final, but anything can happen. The only thing in hockey that would make me happy is for Crosby to not fluke his way into another excuse for Canadian hockey fans to suck his obscenely overrated cock. A cup in Vancouver would be aight too I guess. A cup in Pittsburgh would probably make me stop watching the sport, in spite of how much I usually like underdogs.
OK, so Caps vs Canucks or San Jose. You’d think one of these years the Sharks are finally going to show up in the playoffs. Marleau’s last stand. I was pissed with all the attention Crosby got last year, he played 5 minutes in the first period of game 7 before he got hurt, and the first thing the announcer says when time expires: “Sidney Crosby wins his first Stanley Cup!” No - the Penguins won the cup as a team in Game 7, Sid wasn’t even out there. Give it a rest.
Could see Caps / Pens in the 2nd round if there’s no upsets in the East. That would be some great hockey. Should be a great playoffs this year.
Jeez, I bet if Hades had followed football, he would have been upset a few years ago that the Giants beat the undefeated Patriots. Apparently teams that are undeserving, according to Hades, should just lie down and die and not provide an exciting match.
Or maybe not all teams are equal, and sometimes fighting your hardest isn’t enough to win. If Montreal plays half as well against Pittsburgh as they did against the Caps, Pitts will not be in the conference finals, and if they do get there, they’ll be squashed by either Philly or Boston if everyone plays to the extent they’re known to be able to. In popular opinion, Pittsburgh is the favourite. Skill-wise, they’re the long-shot, and saying they’re already in the Cup finals because they beat Ottawa is pretty weak. They have almost two entire series to win yet. Against VERY good teams, like a healthy Boston team that got 116 points last year. And then they’ll have to compete against probably SJ or Vancovuer, two teams they can only pray they aren’t blown out by in a West-heavy league.
I thought the Patriots losing was hilarious. It’s the only football game I’ve ever watched that I actually enjoyed. I only watch the Superbowl though, and even then I’ve seen like… three. Maybe. Football is aggressively boring, even compared to baseball.
If Boston beats the flyers, the Canadiens will lose the next round. They always lose against Boston when it counts. I can’t believe they beat the Penguins.
I can. The Penguins were way overdue for a thrashing. Crosby is the most overrated player I’ve ever seen in any sport, often called the best in the NHL even though I don’t even consider him top 3 on his team (on account of the fact that he struggles to maintain a break-even plus/minus in spite of dominating the point leaderboard every year), and almost ALL of the Pens’ success so far has been the result of OUTRAGEOUS fluking and critical non-calls and ghost-calls. And shit, you know if there’s one thing I hate, it’s undue praise. It seems like the whole country is riding Crosby’s mediocre cock sometimes, and it’s just such a breath of fresh air to see him totally shut down and his team trounced by an 8th seed. There’s just something SO sweet about seeing this motherfucker exposed.