Peace, Love and Hockey

I must admit, a few days ago I was feeling pretty confident about my first round playoff picks. Montreal looked like a team destined for the second round, Pittsburgh took a 3-1 series lead on Tampa Bay, and Chicago stormed back to force a game 7 that I predicted they would end up moving. As it turned out, all of those picks fell apart and I'm left with a 4-4 record and with my Eastern Conference champion pick heading for the golf course. So lets try again!! Eastern Conference Semi Finals: (2) Philadelphia Vs. (3) Boston: Talk about ghosts, the Bruins, who just managed to squeak by their forever rival Habs in the first round must now face the very team that came back from 3 games down to beat them in the second round last post season. Expect a fantastic series as both teams have a tremendous amount of depth and skill. Does Tim Thomas win the day for the Bruins? Not the way I see it, Philly has the edge in scoring and I think that will be the deciding factor. Prediction: Flyers

82 games later and the real season begins. It's exciting for fans of hockey in general and frankly it makes me so nervous I feel sick days before games (I admit that is taking fandom way too far). But seeing as it's a stressful time of the year for me (at least for another week or 2) I'll do a quick rundown of what I think we are going to see starting Wednesday and post an update each round. Keep in mind these picks are using my head, if I used my heart they would be planning a parade passed the Bell Centre come June. Anyways, here we go! Eastern Conference: (1)Washington Vs. (8) New York Rangers: It's not even a contest, all due respect to the Rangers, but this is a Washington team that is vastly superior to the mirage they were when Montreal took them down a year ago. It could get interesting....but not for long   Prediction: Washington in 5 (2) Philadelphia Vs. (7) Buffalo: This one could be interesting. The Flyers were the team to beat all year, they roll out thre