Second round matchups are set - who you taking?

tough matchups to call this round… I think Carolina has the series over Boston, Detroit over Ducks, although would love to see Ducks take this one, Vancouver over Chicago mostly due to the fact that Chicago didn’t really have to play in the first round against Flames to move on, they will be half asleep, although with such a long break for Luongo, he will be half asleep first few games as well… and of course the Pens will take Caps…

I’m going Boston, but just because my gut says Carolina. It also said the Jackets would take the Wings and New Jersey would make the semi’s.

As to Pittsburgh Washington I have two questions:

1. Is Washington a better team this year?

2. Is Pittsburgh?

We are not the Rangers we have Goaltending, intensity, and talent. Pens in 5.

Good luck to you and the Pens in this series. It should be a great show.

On balance, I give the Pens the overall edge, but not by a lot. They have the edge in experience, they are better constructed to score dirty goals. The Caps have more depth in high end scoring talent. Defense I would say is a push.

Regarding Goalies, Varlamov looked real good against the Rangers…but that was the Rangers, who just don’t score much. We’ll have to see how he does against a team with a genuinely potent offense. Fleury can be a game-changer, and he’s been there before.

So, overall, I think you have to give the edge to the Pens.

As a Caps fan, I am hopeful that the fact that it’s the Penguins will get the Caps to come out playing hard every night. If they do, it will be a frigging battle.

Anyway, good luck to you again.

First off this is a match-up that I was waiting for. But i’ll give the series to the Pens in 6, the same as the flyers. The Caps had a hard time with the Rangers a team with no offensive upset whatsoever. So this will be a great series to say the least.

Canes over Boston in 6. I said back in march that it will be the Canes Vs the Pens the the ECF and i’ll stick wit that. even though Boston swept the Habnots in the first round they were hardly a challenge. There will be to much rust on the Bruins to deal with a pumped Canes team.

As for the west its a little harder to call.
Ducks over the Wings in 6. Reason being I though the Ducks were the major wild card in the west and I’m betting on another major upset by them. Mark my words them and Vancouver are the teams to beat in the West.

Vancouver over the Black Hawks in 5. I just don’t think the young team has what it takes to deal with in what I think is the Best team in the west entering the payoffs. They are to young to deal with a experienced Vancouver team, even if them don’t have Sundin in the line-up for the first couple of games

First of all, I’d just like to thank all the people that made it possible for me to go 8 for 8 in my first-round predictions: Jussi Jokinen, Eric Staal, and Sergei Fedorov. Or, as I like to call them, “Clutch”, “Money”, and “Wait, That Guy’s Still in the NHL?”.

My second-round picks:

1. Pittsburgh in 6. A question to all the Pens fans who have been around a while: do you remember the Pens teams in the mid-1990s that trotted out forward lines full of Hall of Fame scorers, yet always got pushed around, and eliminated, in the playoffs? Well, the Capitals are a lot like that. On one hand, they do have some impressive offensive weapons; then again, so did the Flyers, and the Penguins defense largely neutralized them. Like the Bruins (and much like last year’s Pens in the Finals), I think the Capitals are about to realize that the regular season is over. Success in the playoffs is more about grind and less about glamour. Round 1 showed me that the Penguins are capable of playing nasty hockey and manhandling a very physical opponent. Round 1 also showed me (particularly in game 7) that even a mediocre team like New York can push Washington around and dictate the play to them; if you didn’t catch that game, the Rangers almost certainly would have won if they weren’t the Rangers; i.e., if they weren’t completely incapable of scoring. It should be a spirited matchup, but in a rugged game I take the Pens.

2. Carolina in 6. OK, everyone knows that the Bruins have solid goaltending, can roll out a couple of strong defensive pairings and three scoring lines, and had the best record in their conference. Then again, so did the San Jose Sharks. The only real difference between the two teams (other than the Sharks’ greater playoff experience) is that San Jose had to play a tough, nasty Anaheim team first, while the Bruins got a soft, heartless Montreal team whose only interest was in ending their awful soap opera season as quickly as possible. The lesson here is that teams that play lifeless hockey for the last few months of the season tend to end up on the golf course in short order once they run into a determined opponent. And, as we saw in games 6 and 7 against the Devils, Carolina is nothing if not a determined opponent. They’re also red-hot, led by a Conn Smythe goaltender, and have the core of their 2006 Cup team still basically intact. The Hurricanes are going to come at Boston like a, well, hurricane, and the Bruins are not going to be mentally ready for it. I predict in a couple weeks all the Bruin “fans” will be stuffing those brand-new Milan Lucic jerseys in a dresser drawer and running out to buy $300 worth of Celtics and Red Sox gear.

3. Red Wings in 7. I went back and forth on this pick a few times. On one hand, Anaheim is still the same team, essentially, that won the 2007 Stanley Cup, they’ve been on fire finishing the season, and they just dropped the President’s Trophy winner in a series where they absolutely controlled and dictated the play. Moreover, if we think back to recent years, whether it was the Ducks in 2007, the Oilers in 2006, or the Flames in 2004, Detroit has had a pattern of struggling against nasty, fast, physical opponents, and this year’s Ducks fit that mold perfectly. On the other hand, the Red Wings are not as soft as they used to be: guys like Nik Kronwall can take as good as they give. I think this will be a fascinating series, and I think home ice will be meaningless, but ultimately I think Detroit’s depth carries them through.

4. Canucks in 6. Unfortunately, through the vagaries of Versus, I didn’t catch much of these teams in round 1. And since Vancouver is, well, really, really boring to watch and their games start so late, I didn’t see much of them during the regular season either. But it’s hard to bet against a team that’s been winning as consistently as Vancouver has, and that handled a red-hot St. Louis team so convincingly. I have questions about their depth beyond Luongo, an 87-year-old Mats Sundin, and the Sedin Sisters. But I’ll suspend those questions for now. Chicago looks like a team of the future, but I think the fairy tale ends here.

By the way Frank, love that picture of distraught Devils fans. Great work there.

Im a bit worried, but I think we’re a more complete team and Bylsma’s got them rolling

I would rather face MAF than Garon – Garon is an unknown, and who knows what might happen? MAF is a mediocre goalie who can shine when his defense keeps the other team’s offense to a minimum. I see the Caps lighting his ass up.

I’m so sick and tired of the refs explaining the calls like this is the NFL.
by Whiter Mage on Apr 29, 2009 10:49 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I know this is like pulling straws, but some people over there are unrealistic….

I know the Caps had a good season mark against the Pens, but that was a really small sample size. These Caps fans remind alot of the Florida Panthers fans from the 90s…they know nothing and get loud because of their stupidity…

7 only because it feels like Bylsma’s still learning how to win playoff games. Otherwise I’d take Pitt in 6. Because despite how much hype the Caps and Ovie get, they showed just how good they were against an average NY team. The Rangers have about 8 players who on their team play the 1st line, on the Caps/Pens are 2nd/3rd line at best. If the Caps continue to struggle on offense like they did against the Rangers, and I expect they will, they’re not going to do so well.

For the same reasons why everyone is taking the Canes over the Briuns, I’ll take the Bruins. It’s true they don’t have the playoff chops, but Carolina just spent 10 days in a beatdown with Jersey, and IMO got lucky late to advance. NJ wasn’t a great opponent. They were beatable – the pens would’ve beat ’em in 6. Meanwhile Boston has had plenty of time to halup and get ready for the next round. I expect them to split the first 2 before Bostons fresh legs take off and take the series.

I watched a lot of the Western games, and UNFORTUNATELY, it looks like the Wings will win the west again. At least they should. No one matches up with them. I’ll take Chicago and Detroit for WCF, with Detroit winning again.