First Round Post-Mortem

1) With the conclusion of both games last night we now have our first day without hockey in two weeks. It was an exciting, if not exhausting fortnight, but now we move on to the Conference Semi-finals. Before we do our predictions we figured we'd look back to see how we fared in the 8 first round series.

2) First in the East, click to see our complete post:

• Canadiens (1) vs. Bruins(8): We predicted Canadiens in 5. The Habs hold on to win in a closer than expected 7 game series. Resulting in of course the torching of the city? Silly. Anyway, kudos to the B's for getting back into the series when many, including us, felt they were out of.



• Penguins (2) vs. Senators (7): We predicted Penguins in 5. The Senators were even more hapless/heartless than we first thought. Bryan Murray should be fired. However the heartlessness seems to be institutionalized and infects whoever is involved with/plays for/runs the team



• Capitals (3) vs. Flyers (6): We predicted Capitals in 7. Well at least we got the number of games correct and it took OT to decide the Flyers fate. The cardiac-kids as we called them have a bright future IF they can get their RFA's AND Huet signed this offseason.



• Devils (4) vs. Rangers (5): Rangers in 6. The Rangers dispatch the offensively starved Devils even easier than we predicted. Our belief that Sean Avery/Brodeur would be the big difference proved to be correct as the super-pest caused so much angst for the Devil goalie that they had to create a new (silly) rule.

3) Next a look at the west.

• Red Wings (1) vs. Predators (8): We predicted Detroit in 4. We give TONS of credit to Barry Trotz and his team to extend this series to 6. They also helped expose some possible weaknesses in the Wings defense but maybe helped them by cementing Osgood as the clear #1 goalie. The Dominator is no longer, dominating



• Sharks (2) vs. Flames (7): We predicted Sharks in 6. We didn't think the Flames would be a pushover, but Iron Mike's squad gave the Sharks all they could handle until finally JR turned back the clock last night and propelled the Bay area squad into the next round. Probably saving his coach's job. (For now)



• Wild (3) vs. Avalanche (6): We predicted Avalanche in 6. We pretty much pegged this one dead on. We figured that the Wild with their Slovakian scorers would disappear, (as they did) and the now healthier Avalanche would win the series. It wasn't easy, but the better team won.



• Ducks (4) vs. Stars (5): We predicted Ducks in 5. This was probably the only one of the 8 playoff series where we completely blew it. We can live with the Caps-Flyers as that was as close as possible, but this prediction was 180 degrees out of phase. We explain possibly why in our post dead-ducks. At least we take solace that we were probably the only ones who have been saying that what Niedermayer did last summer/fall was completely out of line.http://newfaux.blogspot.com/2007/12/stand-up-andboo.html#links

4) Look for our next round of predictions out before the puck drops tomorrow night! As always, keep it here for all the latest!