Playoff Boogaloo - Quick Look

Seeing as how the playoffs start in about, oh, 4 hours from now I'm pretty much out of time to make any kind of a legitimate, fully-written and professional prediction about the playoffs; that is why I'm doing this: a little blurb about who will win without any of the meat to it... When I have some time (Tonight? Tomorrow?) I'll get down to some hard writing and get something good up - but for now, here's the quick hits...

Eastern Conference:
Ottawa vs Tampa Bay
My Pick: Ottawa

Even with the loss of Dominic "Over the Hill" Hasek, the Senators just keep getting better; Ray Emory once looked very spotty as a #2, let alone a #1 but he's proved himself as a solid goaltender and may even be the starter next season in Ottawa - while Tampa Bay has no such luck in net this year with Grahame. Look for the Ottawa offence to explode against him.

New York Rangers vs New Jersey Devils
My Pick: Rangers

As good as Marty Brodeur has been this year, he hasn't been as good as Lundqvist has been - and he doesn't have the same powerful offense in front of him. And while I expect this to be a low-scoring series, I don't expect that the Devils will be much of a threat to the Rangers

Carolina vs Montreal
My Pick: Montreal

Huet has been the best goaltender - okay, maybe not the best, but he is right up there anyway - in the last few weeks of NHL play and he should be able to keep players like Staal at bay - plus you can never really count out Koivu these days, anyway. It'll be close - expect at least one multiple Overtime game.

Philadelphia vs Buffalo
My Pick: Buffalo

Robert Esche has had a season that was not quite up to par; but it was still good enough to get him this far. But no longer - the Sabres are a team that in another division would have ended up winning something like 12 more points and are really quite efficient at scoring. They'll take this one, but not without a fight.

Western Conference:

Detroit vs Edmonton
My pick: Detroit

I'm going to call Detroit's season a lot like the San Diego Padres in 2005 - play in a weak division and you'll end up in the post season even if you're not that good: and while Detroit is a good club - Hell, they have been for something like 15 years in a row now - playing against teams in Columbus, Chicago and St. Louis all year really inflated their ranking much higher then it should have been; look for this series to bring them down to Earth as they have to really work to beat Edmonton.

Dallas vs Colorado
My Pick: Dallas

Put it simply - Everything evens out over time. The Canadiens got ripped off when they traded away Patrick Roy (even if he did pull a T.O.) but they got it back by giving away Theodore in the steal of the year. And Dallas, who has excellent goaltending and a great offence, will make quick work of the former Nordiques.

Calgary vs Anaheim
My Pick: Calgary

Have you ever seen one player carry a team so much? It's like the Flames are winning these days in spite of a lackluster offence, all thanks to Mikka Kiprusoff's fantastic goaltending. And with the Ducks having a pretty solid goaltender in Giguere this may turn out to be the new Penguin/Flyer rivalry: a series that has games that go well past midnight, Western Time. But the Flames have experience and a pretty solid defense corps, giving them the edge.

Nashville vs San Jose
My Pick: San Jose

I'm going to keep this short, since the series will be too: Without Vokoun the Preds have no chance against a team that has both the Art Ross winner (Thornton) and the Rocket Richard winner (Cheechoo).