Second Round Predictions-West

1) Firstly we want to congratulate all the first round winners. As we mentioned in our first round West Predictions post, it would be unfortunate that a good team or two would be eliminated in the tightly contested/superior Western Conference. FAUXRUMORS got 3 of the 4 series dead on! Only on the SJ/Nashville series did we err.(Credit to our blog contributor, Antzmarching for getting ALL the series correct) We didn't anticipate the no show of Forsberg/Kariya. Like the Wadell watch in Atlanta, the 'Trotz watch' is on! Its time to go Barry. Going 4-12 in the playoffs isn't gonna cut it!

2) Now on to the Final 4 West team match ups:

• DETROIT vs SAN JOSE- The Sharks ate the Red Wings' for breakfast during the regular season, but that means nothing now. Their nasty series with the Preds aside, they did win early giving them a decent, earned rest. SJ really impressed us at FAUXRUMORS. Marleau has become a clutch playoff performer. Though that can't be said yet of Thornton, he did have a decent first round. The Sharks will need Big Joe to step it up even more to beat the Wings. As for the Red Wings who had to go 6 hard fought(literally at times) games before dousing the Flames, they were the team that could have used the extended rest between rounds. Our original prediction had the Wings going to the conference Finals. However, that was predicated on playing Nashville in the second round. We don't like this match up for Detroit. The Sharks can and will skate with the Wings, and probably have more overall offensive depth than Team-Geriatric. Nabokov seemed up to the task in the first round. Though we're still not big fans or sold on him as a clutch playoff goalie. Hasek played well but was NOT the difference in the Flames series. Should be an exciting/entertaining good skating series. Sharks in 6

• ANAHEIM vs VANCOUVER- Battle of the Brian Burke assembled teams! His prints are all over both squads as he was the GM for the Canucks before taking the same position with the Ducks. He is largely responsible for quite a few of the players on the Canucks, especially his draft day coup of obtaining BOTH Sedin twins. His impact on the Ducks was almost immediate. Turning around a floundering cartoon-like franchise and transforming them into a tough as nails Cup contender. Building depth with energetic young players and complimenting them well with additions like Pronger and Niedermeyer. As predicted here the Ducks easily dispatched the Wild and are well rested/relatively healthy You have to think the Canucks will be worn to the bone after being pushed to a Game 7 before finally winning. Luongo finally got his chance to shine, and shine he did for the Canucks. Making Nonis look good/Keenan look bad for trading Roberto. Anaheim surpisingly is using a goalie rotaion so far. We feel ultimately they want to go with Giguere who has more experience in the playoffs. Both he and Bryzgalov are quite capable, but not in Luongo's class. Despite having a slight edge in goal with Luongo we see this series as being a bit of a mismatch. Ducks in 5