Well, the “vastly stronger” is mitigated by the fact they lost.
Thats a poor attempt at calling me out considering everyone trying to predict series in this thread had the Caps winning, and that you gave no predictions of you own.
I wasn’t attempting to call you out, just kidding you.
ETA If I gave that impression, I apologize.
Wow. I went 5 for 8 in the first round, but the one surefire absolute lock I had just went wrong. I wonder what the Vegas odds were on the Habs winning that series? I would love to be in Montreal right now, that is a town that knows how to celebrate!
Ok round two, once again wih one sure-fire absolute lock:
Penguins in 5
Bruins in 6
Vancouver in 7
San Jose in 7
coin flip on the last three as far as I’m concerned. I would be shocked if the Pens don’t make the final with the way the east has turned out. Any of the teams left in the West could take them in a 7 game series in round two, but if the Pens coast to the final and the western teams beat hell out of each other, could be another Pittsburgh cup.
I hate Pittsburgh, and for one reason only- how fair is it that one team gets Lemieux and Jagr, then a mittful of years later Crosby and Malkin. I call bullshit.
Pigs are flying here.
Incroyable, or should I say, Incroy-HAB-le
Second round, I’ll go the Pens in 6, Flyers in 7, Chicago in 7 and Detroit in 6.
Not to mention the Caps’ power play couldn’t find the back of the net with a road map and a brace of bloodhounds.
I’m gonna keep score like I did last year. 2 points for calling correct winner of series, 1 point for calling correct number of games regardless of winner(unlike last year). Thats for the first round with points doubling each consecutive round. I’ll be back tomorrow with results.
Ok, its tomorrow. 
I called both the flyer and devils in 6 for some reason so I waived my call on that series.
drm is in the lead with 15
quint 13
leaffan, kenner and me 12
garygnu 11
rysto, uncle brother walker and rickjay 8
harborwolf 5
flightlessbird 4
If you notice that I made a mistake, let me know.
Hmm, Round two:
Pittsburg in 6
Boston in 6
San Jose in 5
Blackhawks in 6
Habs in 7
Boston in 6
Wings in 6
Blackhawks in 6
Oh, we’re doing points again?
Okay.
Montreal in 7
Boston in 6
Sharks in 5
Canucks in 7
Five points. Ouch. Oh well. That’s still enough to get me into the playoffs in the eastern conference.
Quick picks.
Pittsburgh vs. Montreal: Still not a believer. Pens in five.
Philadelphia vs. Boston: Flyers in six if the refs keep not making calls.
Chicago vs. Vancouver: I’ll stick with the Hawks as my western finals pick. Chicago in seven.
San Jose vs. Detroit: Detroit’s inconsistency vs. San Jose’s pathological need to choke. This will either be stunningly quick or long. I bet long. San Jose in seven.
Pitt - 6
Mont
Bos - 6
Phi
Chi
Van - 7
SJ
Det - 6
Pittsburgh over Montreal in five
Boston over Philadelphia in six
Vancouver over Chicago in six
Detroit over San Jose in seven
I don’t really believe in calling the number of games, but I have to to get points.
I am sticking by my prediction that Vancouver will win it all. Which I guess would make this the greatest sporting year a Canadian city has ever had.
Habs won in 76, the year Montreal had the Olympics. Of course, no Canadians won gold during those Olympics and the games bankrupted the city, so that sort of reduces how great a sporting year 1976 was for Montreal - but they did win the Stanley cup!
Well, of course. But the fact is that the 18 Washington skaters outplayed the 18 Montreal skaters, and that was negated by Montreal’s goalie having the week of his life.
There’s nothing wrong with that - it’s hockey. But people, especially in Washington, are really overthinking this. On Toronto’s sports station, the Fan 590, this morning’s discussion was so bizarre and illogical I could hardly believe these men had ever watched a hockey game before:
ONE GUY: Halak really stood on his head.
OTHER GUY: Amazing, just an amazing thing. What do you think, Guest?
GUEST: Halak stole the series. He was incredible.
ONE GUY: So what did the Caps do wrong?
GUEST: They did (insert an incredibly long list of reasons Washington deserved to lose, effectively implying the Capitals were no better than a Grade 5 ringette team)
ONE GUY: Yup, yup.
Literally from one minute to the next they would say Halak stoke the series, and then moments later say the Capitals threw it away. Well, if Halak stole it,doesn’t that mean he stole it from a team that played better otherwise? And if the Caps deserved to lose why would you say Halak stole it?
Say what you will about Mike Green’s stupid penalty (every team takes at least one stupid penalty in every game, and usually more than one) or Alex Semin’s lack of playoff goals (thanks, Jaroslav) or even Montreal’s shot blocking; the fact is the Capitals carried the play, they got two thirds of the shots, they got most of the scoring chances, they forechecked well and cycled well and played good transitions and took some scary shots. They just got beaten by a hot goalie.
It would be a mistake by Washington to interpret this admittedly disheartening loss as anything other than what it is; they got beaten by the goalie. It’s part of the sport. If they mess around with the way they’re building their team based on this, it’d be an awful mistake.
Similarly, it would be false to say Montreal did not deserve to win. Their skaters were not as good as Washington’s, but their goalie was. That’s part of the sport.
They haven’t. They’re watching the Maple Leafs, which is an entirely different thing altogether.
I thought I remembered that Calgary had won the Stanley Cup in 1988, but turns out it was 1989. Oh well, close enough.
Wings/sharks
Detroit went 3-0-1 against San Jose this season, has oodles of playoff success and has been playing the best lately. Sj has the superior goalie and talent. Long series, Detroit in 7.
Canucks/hawks
season split. Luongo seems good and van has scoring. Can’t bring myself to pick the wings despite speed and a wealth of young talent. Van in 6.
Pens/canadiens
pens 3-1 in the season series. The only factor is halak and for me the road ends here. It seems pens are different now than the regular season which is trouble for Montreal. Halak only steals 1. Pens in 5.
Bruins/Flyers
series split with more points to the flyers. Savard is back and rask looks solid. Pronger seems like he will be a factor. Toss up but I have to go with Boston. 6 games but close, all of them.
Wings in six. Joe Thornton disappeared once again but their young players really stepped up for them. Thornton is going to have to be significantly better for the Sharks to get past the Wings, and I won’t believe that until I see it.
Blackhawks in seven. I see the Hawks as a better, more experienced version of the Kings, and the Kings gave the Canucks all they could handle.
Canadiens in seven. Maybe this is just bitterness talking, but I was not impressed at all by the Penguins in the first round. Fleury looks vulnerable, Malkin is not in top form and their offence, other than Crosby, struggled when Ottawa was playing good structured defence. You can expect a steady diet of structured defence from a Jacques Martin-coached team, and Halak is light years better than either Elliott or Leclaire right now.
Flyers in five. Boston really doesn’t impress me. The Flyers handled the Devils pretty easily, and Boston plays a similar game with worse players(other than Chara, who is much better than anybody on the Bruins).