Only Two More Months

We are now on the edge of our couches and chairs waiting for the playoffs to begin. We have known who is playing who since Sunday evening. The up-to date match-ups including who's currently in the lead can be seen here. Most of the matchups are not exciting story lines to some, but guess what people, it's HISTORY TIME! This is the time of the year where hockey fans across the world put down their razors for 2 months, pick up a beer, sit on their couches, or recliners and watch any playoff hockey game that is currently showing. It doesn't matter to which team you would get into a brawl over, all that matters is that there are two teams right now that are laying it all out on the ice so that in what seems like a very short time, they will be able to take their victory lap around the rink with the Cup held high over their head. Then maybe afterwards when all the fans are out in the street rioting, the players will be able to just chill on the ice with their brothers and enjoy a cigar and a drink. I know I would.


So far, in the few days since the end of the regular season I have heard all kinds of playoff predictions. Except a few, such as the Colorado Av's or the Montreal Canadians making it to the Stanley Cup. But otherwise, there have been talks about the Penguins being back to back champs, Ovi redeeming himself by leading the Capitals to the History Books, and the Red Wings continuing their amazing post-Olympic streak to erase memories from last year. EA Sports' NHL 10 predicts that Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane will bring back the silver cup to Chicago to where they will hold on to it for a long time. Only God knows how often Sports Illustrated is correct, but I am praying that they are correct this time around as they side with the video game's thoughts and predict that the Blackhawks will beat the Washington Capitals in 6 to end their season.

My thoughts are probably slanted, but who's thoughts are not? In the first round, I'm thinking that the winners in the West will be Sharks, Blackhawks, Kings, and Redwings. For the East I'm selecting Capitals, Penguins, Bruins, and the Devils.

In the Conference Semi's, it will be the Blackhawks taking revenge over the Redwings, and the Sharks will decide to choke to allow the Kings to the Conference Finals. The Capitals will breeze by the Bruins and the Devils will shutdown Crosby and Co.

We will see the Blackhawks take the ice against the Capitals. The Capitals will only be there because the NJ Devils will have been to beat up from playing against the physical Flyers and Penguins to last this marathon. The reason why the Chicago Blackhawks will persevere against the Monster that is the Washington Capitals is that even though the Caps have amazing players, the Blackhawks have serious depth to their team, so much so, that there are healthy players scratched from games just because we have too many great players. Depth will be the key in this stretch of games that can vary between 16 and 28 total games, but will most likely lie above 24 games.

Then after it is all said and done, the winners will be able to take a very long limo ride and just enjoy themselves without cameras being present. After all the players have done, they do not need pictures of their amazing adventures being shared with the world.