I was thinking more of the Flyers. I have a friend from PA who is still high on the Phillies World Series win.
But, man, the Flyers really gave it up like a prom date, eh?
And now they’re out.
Overtime!!!
I have come to the conclusion that the Flyers will NEVER win the Stanley Cup until 2 things happen:
- They get new ownership. I know Comcast owns the team, but its still run by Ed “Mr. Baldwin” Snider.
Ed Snider, Bobby Clarke still around as President, Paul Holmgren as GM (who has done an excellent job) BUT the problem is:
They all hate Russians. I am not joking. For some reason, none of this old guard can get past 1976, and will not draft or sign Russian players. The bottom line is, with notable exceptions, you simply cannot win the Cup without a Russian or 2 in your lineup. I call it the Curse of Valery Kharmalov. Enough of Kate Smith singing on video with Loren Hart. That was 35 years ago. This is an Old Regime that has to go.
2)They get a true, superstar goaltender. Yeah, yeah yeah I keep hearing about Martin Biron having a good game there, and a good game here, the difference is you have to go into a game KNOWING your netminder is going to be a killer every night. You know that if your goaltender is Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, or Fleury of Pittsburgh.
The Flyers have Mickey Moused with their goaltenders since the early 1990s, bringing in an aging Ron Hextall, overpaying for a washed up John Vanbiesbrouck or Mike Richter, and none of that has worked.
They need a SUPERSTAR, and a bunch of Russians, and then they will win the Cup.
All of which will take place under new leadership.
Sharks hanging in there. Penguins advance.
Keep hanging sharks. Hang on for as long as you can. No matter how many days of overtime you need to play, just keep on truckin’.
Canes get a shutout tonight to take it to game 7. 
So do the CAPS! Game 7 coming back to the phone booth!
West 2nd Round
(2) Wings vs. (8) Ducks
5 minutes left in third period and Anaheim leads 3-1. Barring a miracle comeback by the Sharks, I’ll take Wings over Ducks in six.
(3) Canucks vs. (4) Blackhawks
Canucks in seven.
Sharks are eliminated. 4th time President’s trophy winners knocked out in first round.
…and the Gorilla just picked up another 100 pounds…
I wish I could taunt sharks fans about this, but the last time it happened it was the Wings, so I’ll leave them be.
Should be a great series between the last two Stanley Cup Champs. This one SHOULD go to 7. Just not sure who will prevail just yet, but I am pulling for the Ducks just as much as Harborwolf is pulling for the Wings.
Indeed. Been there. Done that. Would like to avoid the repeat.
Course to do that, the wings have to take the pressure to Hiller the same way they took it to Mason. Distract. Deflect. Make life impossible for the youngster. That will likely draw penalties against the Ducks and put the wings on the PP. I like Detroits offensive depth vs. the Ducks. The Red Wings really do have four lines that can score. I also don’t expect the Wings to be intimidated by the Ducks physical play. IIRC they outhit Columbus in that series, and Pavel Datsyuk has turned into a right bastard to play against.
The biggest question for Detroit is Chris Osgood. Is he healthy enough to play? I expect the Ducks to take the game right to him and crash the net early and often. It’ll be up to the defense to clear pucks and players as well as they did in round 1.
The key for the Ducks is defense. As I said above, the Ducks just aren’t as deep offensively as the Wings are. Thusly, they’ll have to keep Detroit to the outside. Detroit can hurt themselves by getting into the habit of hurling pucks towards the net from way out with noone in front for rebounds or screens. Anaheim has to encourage that by taking away passing lanes in front of the net and stopping the forwards from skating in as they did against Columbus. Other than that, forecheck hard to force the Wings D into turnovers. Columbus had some luck with this, but lacked finish.
The biggest question for the Ducks is physical play. Controlled physical play is great, wearing down players and disrupting offense. Uncontrolled physical play gives you (hopefully) two minutes of quiet time to think about what you’ve done and puts pressure on your best defensive players who have to play long minutes on the pk. Detroit will score if you give them enough power plays. Best to avoid doing that Mr. Pronger.
As usual, no prediction due to bias. I want the Wings to win, but the Ducks can upset their way to the finals if Detroit gets sloppy. I’d have liked this matchup a lot more if San Jose had stayed in the full seven rounds.
For my shorter pick, I like Chicago vs. Vancouver. Luongo is great, but I just don’t like the four lines in front of him. Chicago is young and hungry. I’ll take the Hawks in six
Bwahahaha! There’s a bunch of Capital fans behind the Rangers’ bench wearing raincoats!
Caps score!
C-A-P-S!!! CAPS CAPS CAPS!!!
They’re going to round two!!!
:):)
Canes go to Round 2! Wooooo Hoooooooo!
East round two
(1) Bruins vs. (6) Canes
Bruins in five.
(2) Caps vs. (4) Penguins
Penguins in six.
I’ll start tallying up our scores now.
Correct me if I’m wrong but we now have 1)Bruins vs. 6)Hurricanes and 2)Capitals vs. 4)Penguins. I’m thinking that second series might be an interesting one. Ah well. Time for the picks.
1)Bruins vs. 6)Hurricanes. The Bruins have been on vacation since before round 1 started (and so was Montreal apparently) while Carolina has been grinding out the Devils one goal at a time. I’m just going to shoot from the hip on this guess. Boston has been one of the hottest teams in the NHL since seasons start. I wasn’t convinced that Carolina would make it out of round 1. I’ll take the Bruins in 5.
2)Capitals vs. 4)Penguins. That noise you just heard? It was Gary Bettman and Vs. experiencing a very pleasurable moment. Wouldn’t surprise me if the NHL just cancelled the rest of the playoffs and ended with this series. I shouldn’t make a pick here due to deep personal bias (I’m not a fan of Crosby and I’m sick of the hype surrounding him. Bloody Versus commercials would have you believe that Crosby won the cup by himself last year:mad:), but I’m going to anyways. Capitals in six. I think the Pens are deeper, but Washington is on a tear having come back from down 3-1 in the series and they’ve the home ice.
Bring on round 2.
I gave two points for a correct prediction, one additional point for calling in the exact amount of games. Since I’m threadstarter, I get to unilaterally make this a competition. Remember, in the next round double points! Lets hear those second round predictions.
By my count drm is in the lead. He has 15 points. He called 6 of 8 series correct and was exactly right on 3. Harborwolf and Hockey Monkey are tied for second at 13 points. Harborwolf would be tied for first or even in first if he would predict a Wings series, but I guess he has superstitions. Leaffan is third with 12 points. Hap Shaughnessy and I are in fourth with 10. Rysto, I’m sorry, but your in last with nine points.