Here is my prophecy as of right now. This is obviously subject to change in the next few days with newer information.
EASTERN CONFERENCE [1] Boston over [8] Montreal in 5 GamesBoth experience and intuition tell me that Boston vs Montreal (the most occurring series ever) never goes predictably. However, the Habs have won the last 3 of these match ups despite being the lower seed twice. Markov out hurts. The deluded faith in Price hurts. Most of all, the Bruins are far more physical than the Habs and guys like Chara, Wideman, Lucic, Krejci (too many to name) will run the Habs into the ground. Habs will win a home game, either Game 3, 3-1 or Game 4, 4-3 in OT.
[7] New York over [2] Washington in 7 GamesWashington is the equivalent of a boring, homely girl who has had professional makeup and designer clothing selections for an outing. They are a team which has 2 of the best players in their respective positions in the world right now... and that's it. I haaaaaaaaate Avery and hope he dies in an on ice incident but I think he will be effective in disarming Ovechkin. The playoffs are when your true colors show, and the Capitals don't have any true colors. The refs and random luck will be on Washington's side pushing this to 7 games in an otherwise lopsided series in favor of New York.
[6] Carolina over [3] New Jersey in 6 gamesNew Jersey is in free fall, and while Brodeur is the greatest goalie of all time I'm worried about his ability in big moments (part of me thinks we should pass him up for the Olympics, but this is obviously a crazy and controversial thing to do. My reasonable part says we shouldn't, but my intuition says yes.) Carolina is hotter than a frying pan on fire and they have more recent cup experience than New Jersey. This is all I have to say.
[4] Pittsburgh over [5] Philadelphia in 6 gamesPittsburgh won last year, the Leafs have always beat the Sens in the battle of Ontario, Crosby and Malkin are the 2nd coming of Lemieux and Jagr. Weak logic, I know, but I'm getting lazy.
WESTERN CONFERENCE [1] San Jose over [8] Anaheim in 6 gamesShowing hints of choking, San Jose will unfortunately take out Anaheim. Any series involving any combination of San Jose/Anaheim/Dallas/Vancouver will be fun because of the way the teams play and their goaltending, but San Jose is too strong, at least they will be in the first round.
[2] Detroit over [7] Columbus in 4 gamesAs much as I hate picking this, it is what I believe will be the true occurrence. Detroit is just too good of a team. They will either win the cup this year, or they won't. They do have the potential to win the cup again quite obviously. It's the same team with Marian Hossa... uh seriously? Columbus is great fun, and Mason might be able to almost steal a game by losing 1-0 in 5 OTs but I don't see Columbus standing a chance. Keep in mind I will be cheering for Columbus all series long!
[3] Vancouver over [6] St. Louis in 7 gameshttp://www.youtube.com/wa...1k3o&feature=relatedEver since then, St. Louis became one of the best teams in the NHL. They were 14th place in the West when that happened. They are a cool team with excellent chemistry. Not to mention that the Sedins and Sundin isn't exactly a super scoring threat. The Canucks do however have Lunogo, and some awesome playoff guys like Bieksa, Burrows, Mitchell, Pyatt, Kesler, Raymond, etc etc. A good Canadian team with good grit will pull this out in a super fun series.
[4] Chicago over [5] Calgary in 6 gamesChicago is this year's Pittburgh. That is all.
