I see the East very much as you do.



The West:

Sharks in 5,a good big 'un will allways beat a good little 'un. Avs speed will not overcome their lack of size and experience.



Hawks v Preds should really be a Hawks win in 5 or 6 but the Hawks netminding is not the best and may prevent, IMO, the best team in the West reaching the finals.



Nucks v Kings, Nucks in 6. Against any of the other top seeds I would have fancied the Kings but the line match ups are very much in the Nucks favour.



Yotes v Rat Wings, Yotes in 4. Referees finally recognise that the USA Synchronised Diving team has no place on the ice. Jurgen Klingsman a suprise starter for the Rats.

East is pretty much how I see it going only exception is think The Sens will probably win one but Pens to take it in 5



As for the West



Sharks in 5



Hawks I would love in 4 or 5 but in all honesty it may well go to 6, Niemi & Huet have to be on form but advantage is that the way Hawks dominate puck possession they in theory should only need to make around 8 to 10 big saves, its just the daft ones they let in.



Think this could well go the distance however just think like the Sharks with The Av's that Canucks will wear down the Kings and beat them into submission. Canucks in 6



Coyotes for me in 5.

Hmmmmm some very interesting results in the first round of the play offs.



Wins for the Sens, Yotes, Flyers, Sabres and Canucks and 2 big results with the Av's beating the Sharks & The Habs beating the Caps.



Roll on tonight and the Hawks for a winning start.

There's been a few shocks already so i'm a bit nervous about tonights opening game.We need a solid start from Niemi or the next few days will be all about the netminding .

Well Niemi did what i didn't want and let in a soft 1st goal last night as the Hawks lost 4-1 to Nashville.

Bruins win game 2 and square the series

7 of the 8 series stand at 1-1 going into todays games,the only one not at 1-1 is the Hawks/Preds because they've only played 1 game.

All 8 series have gone 1-1 after the Hawks shut out Nashville 2-0 to even up the series, Niemi playing a strong game, lets hope the Hawks and Niemi can build on it.



Other results where Flyers beat Devils to go 2-1 up, Yotes beat Wings to go 2-1 up, Pens beat Sens to go 2-1 up and the Av's took another big bite out the Sharks shutting them out 1-0 to go 2-1 up!!

What a strange game the Avs v Sharks was. The shots on goal total was 51 for the Sharks, 17 for the Avs. At the end of the first period the shots total was 9 - 8 in favour of the Avs. Needless to say, Anderson the Avs goalie was superb stopping all 51 shots.

The winning goal was the most bizare goal I have seen, look it it up on the NHL site. Usually when you get a game winning goal in your favour you cheer but not this time, it was a case of thinking WTF, then laughing.

Bruins go 2-1 up in the series against The Sabres

The Sharks(Thornton,Marleau,Nabakov)look like they're doing their yearly choking act again.

Apparently Andersons 50 saves in the first 3 periods without letting a goal in is a NHL record.

Got 2 (free) lower bowl tickets for tonight.

What was noticable on Sunday was that most of the game was played in around the Avs goal but the Sharks defencemen never went much in front of the Blue line. It did make me wonder if this was due to the Sharks being very cautious of the Avs speed and not wanting to get into a foot race.

Hawks lost to the Preds 4-1 last night to go 2-1 down in the series.I had a feeling this wouldn't be easy and that's how it's turning out.A bit dissapointing is the fact that the game didn't sell out.It's not good when you can't sell out a 17,000 arena in the playoffs.

Bruins win 3-2 in OT and go 3-1 up in the series against the Sabres

The main strike players for Hawks eventually woke up and realised they were in the playoffs with a solid team performance that has served them well all season with Niemi stopping all 33 of Nashvilles shot for the Hawks to win 3-0 to tie the series at 2-2.



Flyers dump the Devils out the Cup Race with a 3-0 win to take ther series 4-1.



Sens earn a hard fought 3-2 win against the Pens after 3 OT's Pens lead series 3-2.



Sharks drill the Av's for 5-0 taking a 3-2 lead in the series.

The 1st round is completed and there were a few shocks in the eastern conference with Montreal beating Washington the biggest but the west was as expected.I went 4 for 8 in my predictions so here my thoughts on the 2nd round.



Eastern conference



Pittsburgh v Montreal

Halak was top class against the Caps but I think the Pens sneak through this one.

Pens win in 6



Boston v Philadelphia

Both teams beat a higher seed in the 1st round.I think if Boston can get Savard back they will win.



Boston win in 7



Western conference



San Jose v Detroit

With Thornton once again missing so far in the playoffs and Nabakov not playing at his best I can only see one winner in this series.



Detroit in 5



Chicago v Vancouver

I may be a bit biased but this is the best matchup in the 2nd round.After last seasons playoffs and this seasons games these 2 teams don't like each other and a big rivalry is building between them.I can see this going all the way to game 7.



Chicago win in 7

Pens in 5, Sid to shine.

Boston in 7, hard one to predict for me so I've gone for home ice.

Sharks in 6, I write this knowing the Sharks have just won game 1. Thornton did more in 1 period than the whole series against the Avs. Sharks still getting some iffy power plays.

Nuks in 6, as much as I would like to see a hawks v Pens final I think this may be a series where Luongo wins/steals it for the nuks.

Bruins beat the Flyers 5-4 in OT with Marc Savard getting the winner

Cracking game.

Hawks finally wake up after 4 periods of the series with the Nucks taking it 4-2 after yet again being 2 goals down after the 1st period. Hawks maybe now realised that the work ethic they had all season is still needed in the play-offs.



Looks like we have a series on our hands with this one as the verbals were getting cranked up a little in game 2.

Great finish to the Hawks game last night.They started getting in Luongo's face more and it paid off as he started his flapping routine trying to get penalties but it only ended up giving Versteeg an open net for the winning goal.

Bruins go 2-0 up in the series by winning 3-2

It took until the 3rd game but the hatred finally came out between the Hawks and the Canucks last night as Chicago won 5-2 to go 2-1 up in the series.

It looks like the Bruins are going to account for Philly.....if someone could sort that Carcillo out while they're doing it, that would be great

It was bubbling up in Game 2 with the verbals. Good win for the Hawks and another tonight in Game 4 should hopefully mean lights out for Vancouver after Game 5.



As long as the Hawks use their brains and speed and take the game to Vancouver again they should get the win, plus Luongo showed signs of being rattled by constant pressure and started to flap.