Playoff Predictions! East

1) Welcome to the NHL's second(real) season. We would argue that there is NO better all around tournament in all of pro sports. Let the games begin! We will go through each series; dissect what the most important factors are, and come up with who will win in how many games. We hope to do even better than our regular season predictions. First we will do the unpredictable East. Followed by the power house West. Enjoy.

• (1) Buffalo(53-22-7, 113 pts)-Vs- (8) NY Islanders (40-30-12, 92 pts) REGULAR SEASON SERIES:Sabres won 3-1. On first glance this appears to be slaughter sides. On second/deeper look they are TOTALLY slaughter sides! If Buffalo lets the Isles win one game Ruff should be concerned. Main goal for Sabres will be to stay healthy through this playoff warm up. Best case scenario for Isles is to steal one game in Nassau before losing to Sabres in Buffalo. Sabres in 4
• (2) New Jersey(49-24-9, 107 pts)-VS- (7) Tampa Bay (44-33-5, 93 pts). REGULAR SEASON SERIES: Lightning win 3-1. NJ appears to be confident going into the playoffs and they should be. A healthy Marty Brodeur is money in the bank. While TB has to rely on less reliable goaltending. However, this is NOT the best match up for NJ. TB seems to adapt to their style and can exploit their defense with their many offensive weapons. So they could make the Devils work for this series. That said, TB does NOT win low scoring games. That's NOT a good stat in the playoffs. Devils in 6
• (3) Atlanta(43-28-11, 97 pts) -VS-(6) NY Rangers (42-30-10, 94 pts) REGULAR SEASON SERIES: Thrashers win 3-1. The bottom teams battled hard to try to get the SE division winner, believing it was a better alternative to playing the top 2 teams. While we agree, the Thrashers will NOT be a push over here. However this is their franchise's first trip to the post season, and their goaltending is NOT consistent. Many might view this as an upset, but it is not! Rangers in 5
• (4) Ottawa(48-25-9, 105 pts) -VS-(5) Pittsburgh (47-24-11, 105 pts) REGULAR SEASON SERIES: Penguins win 3-1. This is the marquis match up in the East. The one that will get the most attention with all the All stars, etc. However like all games it will come down to the better goalie. Despite his problems last spring, we believe that Emory is far better than Fluery, and is ready to step up and carry the Sens. Also, Ottawa is rolling. Pitt will give them a hell of a fight, but we don't see the teenagers advancing this year. Senators in 6

2) On to Round 2. Here we predict the match ups/out comes to be:

• Buffalo-vs-Rangers. Regular season series: Sabres win 4-0. The speed and depth of the Buffalo forwards will be MORE than the porous Ranger defense can handle. Even a valiant effort from Lundqvist will not be enough to slow the Sabre juggernaut. Buffalo in 5
• New Jersey-vs-Ottawa. Regular season series: NJ wins 3-1. Despite the apparent Devil dominance in the regular season, we feel that Ottawa is NOT the same team it was in the fall when jersey won 2 of those games. We still give the goaltending/coaching edge to jersey, but feel the overall team depth of the Senators will squeak them by NJ. Senators in 7

3) Eastern Conference Final matchup: Buffalo-vs-Ottawa. Season series: Sens win 5-3. Despite the Sens having the edge in the regular season we feel the Sabres, now at full strength, are the team to beat in the East. It should be quite an entertaining and rugged series. We look forward to peters and McGratten getting acquainted a few times. In the end we feel the sabres home ice advantage, as well as their relative ease in getting this far and Ottawa's tiring 2 long series will be the difference in a hard fought, long series. Sabres in 7