Round 2: DING!!!

Over the last four days in Edmonton, a lot of snow has fallen. Estimates range from the conservative (16 cm) to the accurate (16 billion jillion cm). In Prince George, previous home of Sporticourse (before it existed, but whose destiny lay forward...), there was a lot more snow. Annually, Prince George would receive between 1 and 100 billion jillion katillion cm of snow. The difference is that in Prince George, as a result of being a smaller, more boring town stocked sky-high with individuals whose sole skill is to operate heavy machinery, actually will plow a street now and then. The City of Edmonton's road map is unlike the one you'll find on Google or Mapquest; it only shows freeways, bus routes, and rich neighbourhoods. Those get plowed, but anything upper-middle class or less gets you a big one of these. As a result, Prince George may get more snowfall but Edmonton receives a far higher volume of Actual Snow and Slush (the A.S.S. volume). In other words, one week after wearing shorts and promenading (like walking, only with Lululemons) the river valley, baseball interest=shot and playoff hockey interest resumes!

A very nice first round, though had Washington coverted any of their 16 third period shots in last night's game seven, my hockey pool would have a real smooth veneer to compliment a single rough edge (picking the Rangers in seven; thought Brodeur could push it at least that far). The second round looks fantastic, despite that interest begins to wane by now with warmer weather and only American teams remaining. With only one of those still true this year, the second round will be far more watchable, especially considering these reasons:

Detroit vs. Colorado
Hockey's best non-traditional rivalry is renewed and with much of the original cast from the late 1990's, at least for Colorado. The Avs bring back Adam Foote and Peter Forsberg to compliment Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk, while Ryan Smyth, Jose Theodore, Andrew Brunette, John-Michael Liles and Scott Hannan will enjoy their first taste of the famed rivalry. For Detroit Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom, Niklas Lindstrom and the surprising Johan Franzen and Jiri Hudler will look to pick up where they left off against Nashville.
That's my best impression of the bland, uninsightful series summaries you have to read this time of year. It's that or worse: the overbaring, unnecessarily loud opinionated shrieking from TSN's panel. THIS TEAM IS SOFT THEY CAN'T WIN. YES THEY CAN THEY ARE SOOOOO GREAT. YOU WERE ONCE A MEDIOCRE BACKUP. HAHAHAHA. (repeat for each team analysis).
Detroit's goaltending looked shaky last round but they had the puck the whole series so they made it through. Colorado was outshot in every game against the Wild and thus looks comfortable playing a containment-style defense against Detroit, who will stick with their puck-control style. Colorado has the better goalie and more playoff-proven offensive depth, so I go with them in 7.

San Jose vs. Dallas
Both teams came out of grueling first-round series playing two very physical teams. This series should be a little more skillful and thus would appear to favor San Jose, though Dallas won the season series. Well, sort of, going 4-2-2. Sharks looked great at times against Calgary, a very tough team to ever look good against, have the better goalie (Nabokov, just nominated for the Vezina), the best forward (Joe Thornton) and the best defenseman (Brian Campbell). I didn't get to watch much of the Dallas-Anaheim series but of beating the defending champion Ducks you'd have to say, in the words of the record executive in Guitar-Queer-O, "That's pretty goddamn impressive." Still, Sharks in 6.

Montreal vs. Philadelphia
Montreal has a rookie goalie with an A+ ceiling while Philly has a proven goalie with a B+ ceiling. Biron held pretty steady though seven games against Washington, while Carey Price had a meltdown in game 5 and let in another 5 goals in game 6. In the other five games he only let in five goals though, so he can match up with anybody when he's playing well. Montreal has more scoring while Philly is more physical. Both teams are coming off seven-game series but while Montreal looks like a team who'll be stronger after overcoming the underdog Bruins, the Flyers could be worn out after a really tough series fighting off Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom and Green. Montreal in 6.

Pittsburgh vs. NY Rangers
This is a toss-up. Stingy defense, great goaltending and enough scoring against WAY more than enough scoring, an underrated defense and a young goalie who was excellent against the Senators. It's really only because of Montreal's youth and inexperience, but I say both the Rangers and Penguins are the Eastern Conference frontrunners for the Cup. At this point I'd say that the winner here goes to the Finals, though I might retract in a few weeks. This series to me is like the Carey Price-Martin Biron matchup. You know what you'll get from the Rangers but Pittsburgh has the better top-end talent and thus the higher ceiling. I'll go with the ceiling; Penguins in 6.


These are the same picks as I made in my hockey pool, of which I am one point back of the top spot. I've won the last two years (or three, can't remember, that will probably be corrected in the comments section soon enough) so the pressure's on since I'm due to fall off this year. There really isn't a series that you try to avoid, no Minnesota, Boston or Calgary anymore. All these teams are legit and feature real superstars. There's even some old rivalries renewed, not just Detroit-Colorado but Montreal-Philly and Pittsburgh-New York. Should be fun.