PLAYOFFS ARE COMING!!!!
Any predictions?? I should really stop making them after my awful Calgary pick at the start of the season...so I will!
The real issue is if I pick my Sens to win the Cup, will I jinx them? They have a good dark horse feel to them, streaky as all hell they are. Could Phoenix come out of the West less than a year after they should've moved to Hamilton? Can I conceal my excitement over the Leafs not making the playoffs...AGAIN? (The answer to that one, is "no"...)
Ah, the Leafs....my condolences to their unfortunate faithful, I'm sorry your blind loyalty has been rewarded with such a repeatedly horrible organization.
As for playoff predictions, we mostly know who will be in the play-offs, but a lot of the seeding is still up for grabs, so it is hard to say much specific yet.
- I will say that it looks like Pheonix and Detroit will face off in the first round out west, and that should be a doozy of a series--I'd like both of them to go deep, but one is going to have to go home.
- I'm unfortunately not convinced of Vancouver's potential, I'd love them to do well but I doubt I'd pick them to go too far in a play off pool.
- Ottawa is almost surely going to finish the season with a negative goals differential, which is crazy for a fifth place team! I also think that they'll need to finally get some regular aid from their power play to have much hope of advancing, and missing Kuba will hurt--not that he is so great, just that he's a lot more consistent than the alternatives.
- Jersey has not had much playoff success recently. This year I think will be either/or.....they go out in the first round or else make it to the conference finals.
- Buffalo looks like they might have injury problems, again, but if they can stay reasonably healthy I think they might make a lot of noise. Just an all around good team that really plays together, combined with very good coaching.