The Results are IN!

1) The 2006-2007 NHL regular season has finally ended with a few surprises. The playoff match ups are set as well. Our next post,(by FAUXRUMORS2) will be our final NHL Power Rankings. We will make our Playoff Predictions following this post. Probably Wednesday morning. Here we will compare our preseason predictions with the actual out comes and see how we did.
2) Overall we are proud of how accurately we predicted the Western Conference.

• We got 7 of the 8 playoff teams correct. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2006/10/preseason-predictions-west.html
• We thought Colorado would get the 8th seed(almost!)
• Our biggest miss were the Dallas Stars. We didn't see them as being a contender this year, but they surprised us with a 50 win season.
• Other milder surprises in the West were the Canucks. We thought they would be a playoff team, but didn't see the Luongo MVP type season propelling them into a divisional title.
• Also Detroit, despite an average age of 50 continued their West dominance(At least in the regular season)

3) The Eastern Conference was another story. We weren't terrible, but some of our biggest misses were here. http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2006/10/preseason-predictions-east.html We only got 5 of the 8 playoff teams picked correctly.

• Embarrassingly we picked Philly to be 2nd overall! Who knew that they would implode early and often and finish DEAD LAST! We don't recall one published prediction that had them that far out of it.
• We also believed that Carolina would return to the playoffs and not suffer a Cup hangover. Wrong! To our credit we DID predict correctly the emergence of the Thrashers as the SE champs
• Our second worst prediction were the Bruins! They were at least in the thick of things until they disappeared down the stretch. In our opinion that should cost Dave Lewis his job as head coach
• We thought that the Penguins would be better didn't see Pittsburgh's amazing improvement coming so soon. The addition of Staal and Malkin, an MVP season in Crosby, and maturing of their role players spurned them to an improbable 47 win season
• We looked at the Devils roster and could NOT see them as a playoff team. However, as is always the case, goaltending is 90% or more responsible for a teams success/failure. Along with Vancouver, no where else is this more evident than Jersey. Marty should be a Hart finalist to help propel this group not only into the playoffs, but another division title

3) The prediction game is never easy these days in the NHL. With so much player turnover, etc. However we are generally proud of our effort this past season, and vow to improve next season. We will start with hoping to improve with our playoff predictions THIS year. Stay tuned for this to be published before the puck drops Wednesday night. Until then, as always, keep it here for all the latest!