I like the East and My Picks

I will have to say that I really enjoyed the 1st round of the playoffs. The teams in the east, to me, were the most entertaining. They were all great games. For the west - the Detroit series I did not watch much of. It looks like I did not miss much. In another sweep, the Boston-Montreal series was really fun to watch and was closer than the sweep indicated. I was in Toronto for a few of the games and there are a lot of Montreal fans in Toronto. The sports pubs were packed and people are freaks about hockey out east. It was really fun to watch hockey in an atmosphere where people like hockey as much as me. I find Oilers fans can be kind of snobs when it comes to hockey in general. It is all about them and they cannot appreciate a good team when they see one – like Boston. In the end, Boston was just too good for Montreal, and is my new choice to win the cup.

Like many people in the hockey world, I am really excited to watch the Penguins-Capitals series. The two teams showcase a lot of talent and it will be interesting to see what team can shut down each other the best. Even though there are lots of goals to be had in this series, I believe it will be goaltending and strong defense that will determine the winner of this series, I can’t see the coaches giving their skilled players the go-ahead to play run-and-gun. The Capitals won the season series 3 -1.

I don’t really have a favorite game that I want to see in the west. Whatever. Chicago, Vancouver, Detroit, or Anaheim all do not really excite me. It may be neat to see the battle between the Anaheim defense and the Detroit forwards. I hope Pronger takes a bunch of cross-checking penalties again and Detroit’s powerful man advantage makes him pay. That would be a good time.

Here are my picks for the second round:

Chicago vs. Vancouver – Chicago in 5
Detroit vs. Anaheim – Detroit in 6

Carolina vs. Boston – Boston in 4
Pittsburg vs. Washington – Washington in 7