Another fabulous round of hockey is done. I say that every year...but this year has some fabulous hockey going on. The match-ups have been really good and intriguing. In the East we had two sweeps, but far from easy sweeps. In the West we had crazy "grind it out" series. Loved it. I didn't predict all the winners, but I"m pretty pleased with all the outcomes.
The problem with keeping track of who wins and looses the picks is that there are 8 series in the first round, 4 in the second, 2 and 1....so you can get the last 3 round spot on and still lose....and since are only two teams in the Cup finals, it's a 50/50 chance.....I say that to say that since Matt did really well in the first and I didn't.....I'm a poor loser. And clearly a poor predictor.
So that said, here's how we stand after two rounds.
Matt did well in round 1 going 7-1. In round two Matt went 3-1. His total is a ridiculous
10-2**
Jeff did pretty good for the rookie at 6-2 in round one. In the second he went 2-2. Total is a respectable
8-4Randy tied me for LAST PLACE in round one going 5-3. Randy bounces back from a not great first round going 3-1 in round 2. Total is now
8-4I'm horrible. Only 5-3 in round one. I went 2-2 in this round. Total (and last place) is :
7-5**So to be fair to Matt he did pick San Jose to win the series...however he said if it went to game 7 that Detroit would definitely win. So in a way he was right and wrong both. I left his original pick alone in the tally. If it comes down to one win, then he'll always have an asterisk by his win. HA
So here is the Conference finals round.
EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALSBoston Bruins vs. Tampa Bay Lightning: Get out the brooms both of these teams got sweeps in the last round. If you could've predicted the Lightning sweeping the Caps you could've made some crazy money in Vegas. Winning, maybe. Sweeping....nope. Wow. Tampa has been firing on all cylinders. Rolo has played out of his head. They basically shut down Washington offensively. Really cool to watch. Boston took it to Phily. LOVED IT! Thomas was a beast. Was 51 or 52 shots on goal that one night? Talk about single handedly winning the series. Boston got goals when they needed them. At the beginning of the whole playoffs I said that I wouldn't want to meet Boston. I thought they had the combo of things to win the whole shooting match. I think Tampa has definitely shown some of the same things for sure. This will be interesting to see how it turns out. It could be a flip of the coin. Since I took Boston early....I'm taking them again.
Aaron's Pick: Boston in 5WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALSVancouver Canucks vs. San Jose Sharks: I have a feeling like this will be the better of the two series. In no way am I excited to stay up so late to watch these games, but I think they'll be very exciting. Both teams have a lot of strong forwards who know how to put the puck in the net. Does San Jose have anything left after being pushed to the edge by Detroit? Was Vancouver sitting too long and is now rusty? Will the Sedin's ever get on track and score some goals? Is it possible for Niemi to win back to back Cups with two different teams? Hard questions all. I usually bet against the President's Cup team, but not this year.
Aaron's Pick: Vancouver in 6For the record: Matt and Jeff's picks are already up. Randy messaged us all and said he was super busy and wouldn't get to post his picks for a couple days but he's taking Boston and Vancouver as well. So there you have it. Let's lace em up!
