2009 Playoff Predictions!

Ok folks, here you go. The only time of the year when I make predictions.
West is the best, so I'll start with them.

Western Conference
Round 1
San Jose vs. Anaheim
Sharks in 5
The only reason I'm giving Anaheim a game at all is because of Mr. Scott Niedermayer. He may be kind of a douche, but he's good. Pronger has faltered, the goaltending sucks, but Nieds has been good for them. The Sharks are surging. This finally may be their year, and maybe it will be the year Thornton steps up his playoff game (AKA shows up) and becomes a true superstar in the game.

Detroit vs. Columbus
Wings in 4
After all that whining about not making the playoffs forever, they make it and face Detroit. Bummer, the Wings are going to destroy them, and I'm going to enjoy it, not gonna lie. I'm mostly indifferent towards Columbus, but I do get a little tired of getting lumped in a group with them. Lidstrom, Trianglehead, Zetterdouche, and co won't even have to break a sweat.

Vancouver vs. St Louis
Canucks in 6
I'm looking forward to this series, I kind of have developed a mini hockey crush on the Blues, and I think it's really cool that they pulled out a playoff spot. No, it does not have anything to do with specific players on the team. As much as I'd like to see the Canucks lose (sorry Alix), I don't think they are going to. They'd have to choke more than Thornton in playoffs past to manage that one. The Blues will not go down without a fight, though. I think fighting for a playoff spot can really help the mentality of the team.

Chicago vs. Calgary
Blackhawks in 7
I'm so going to watch as much of this series as I can. It's going to be a good one, though Calgary has lost a lot of momentum lately. The Blackhawks had a mini slump, but several of their players are on FIRE. They are young and hungry, so we'll see how far that carries them. I know Elise will be cheering for the Blackhawks... Maybe I'll be joining her, so sue me.

Round 2
Boston vs. Montreal
Bruins in 7
Le sigh. This prediction breaks my heart to make, but the Habs just don't have it together this season. I'm hoping Luc's lucky hat will help them on to greatness. Stupid Boston. I think I have ingrained, MN hatred of them. I just don't want to talk about this series.

Washington vs. NYR
Washington in 5
The Rangers have no chemistry. End of story. I didn't even think that they would make the playoffs at all, but they did. I'll give them a pity game, but I think for the most part they are going to get destroyed. Lundqvist isn't that good.

New Jersey vs. Carolina
Devils in 6
I don't even know why I'm giving them 2 games, but the karma inspired me to make this prediction, so there you have it. I don't really care about this series at all. Brodeur is awesome, Parise had more than 40 goals, um, Carolina should have lost in the 2006 playoffs. No, I'm not bitter...

Pittsburgh vs. Philly
Pens in 7
This series is going to be bloody, for the Pens. They are mostly a jailbait team while the Broadstreet Bullies are back for the most part. This series really could go either way. The only reason I picked the Pens is because I don't like Briere. At all.

Round 2
Boston vs. Pittsburgh
Boston in 6
The Bruins can totally take on the extremely non physical Pens. The Pens struggled quite a bit this season, and I'm a little surprised they made the #4 seed. This series will hold my attention for less than 5 seconds.

Washington vs. New Jersey
Devils in 7
This series will be a little more worth watching. The Devils aren't the most exciting team ever, but they have a lot of fight to them. The Caps aren't that deep, so they'll rely heavily on Ovechkin.

Round 3
Boston vs. Devils
Bruins in 6
The Devils have good, young talent, but I don't think they will be able to slow Boston's roll this season. Sorry, Brodeur, I know you think you're that good, but I don't think you are.

Stanley Cup Final
Detroit vs. Boston
Wings in 6
It's hard to repeat in this day and age, but I think the Wings can do it if anyone can. It kills me to say nice things about them, but in this case, I kind of have to if I'm trying to keep this objective. They are good, and who knows how much longer they will have this group of players. Should be a good series, though. I look forward to the finals this year. Sometimes it's no bueno, but the playoffs will be fun this year. Very fun indeed.

Who do you think is going to win? Do you think I'm crazy for making these rankings?

Twins update and third round predictions

A friend of mine emailed this picture to me, and it makes me giggle.

The Twins just lost to the White Sox, allowing them to take 2 out of 3 in the first series I've been able to watch. Slowey had 4 1/2 great innings in his first outing since April 3rd. Joe Mauer did not trip over the base and eat it, but he did have a pretty good series, since every time I turned around he was on base.

Justin Morneau did not do as well as Mauer, but he advanced the runners quite a bit and made their outfield look stupid at least twice.

Redmond played yesterday and it was awesome. I love Red. Cuddy did well for himself and made several great plays in the field.

New dudes: I got to see some of the new players play, and beyond CGo hitting for the cycle yesterday, I was not really impressed. Young didn't impress me either, but I really liked Tolbert, and Harris, Everett, and Lamb seem fairly competent.

Nick Punto (is not a new dude) managed to save his own skin yesterday after making a glaring mistake at the play, he turned in a career high 5 RBIs.

Don't forget to vote for the MLB All-Star game! I always vote like mad and never watch the game, but you should still go and vote for your favorite players, or if you don't have any, my favorite players.

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080428&content_id=2603915&vkey=allstar2008&fext=.jsp

Third Round:

Stars vs. Red Wings:

Red Wings in 6. I don't really see how the Wings will not win this series, sorry Stars fans/Matt Niskanen.

Flyers vs. Pens:

Everyone knows how much I like both of these teams, but sadly one of them has to win. The Flyers might just take the Pens apart with their imitation of the Broad Street Bullies, so I say Flyers in 7 games.

Before the weekend starts...

So I am helping to run a huge music festival on campus that will take place on Saturday. I probably won't emerge from the craziness until Monday or so, but there are a few things I wanted to make sure get addressed.

My second round picks:

Montreal vs. Philly

Montreal in 6.

I don't know if the city of Montreal can handle another game 7 right now, and this series will be tougher than I previously thought.

Pittsburgh vs. NYR

Rangers in 7

I hope to God the Rangers win. Not that I like the Blueshirts by any means, but I'm SO sick of the Penguins.

Detroit vs. Colorado

Detroit in 7

Colorado is playing pretty well right now, but I don't know if they are playing well enough to knock off Detroit. The thing Detroit should be worried about is that they are not completely steamrolling along, hence the non-sweep of the last series.

San Jose vs. Dallas

San Jose in 6

This series will be hard fought, too. Dallas seems to have recovered a bit from their pre-playoff slide, but then again they played Anaheim, who had all of two players really playing hard for them. San Jose barely won their last series, so we'll see.

Twins: Let's not lie here, I have watched most of a regular season game (the opener), and about half of a preseason game so far this season. I really don't have a clue as to what's going on, but in 11 days I will, and I promise I'll talk a bit more about them then. Anyone who would care to fill me in on what I have missed should feel free to shoot me an email, I'd be happy to read your thoughts on the season thus far.

Habs won in overtime tonight, and Detroit almost blew a 4-1 lead, but still managed to hang on for the win. Those were the only two games tonight, so I'm sure there will be a ton of games tomorrow and Saturday nights. As always, if there is a specific team you are dying to know about (or even mildly curious about), check out my blogroll. I think I have all the blogs labeled by team...

I don't really want to speculate about what will happen in the offseason, but perhaps I might ask Baby Hockey Jesus to help DR make good decisions this offseason, and to go and find his balls from wherever he left them after the Doug Gilmour trade.

PLAYOFF PREDICTIONS!

The teams have been finalized. I filled in my chart that I made here at school, and now I will post what I think will happen.
We'll start with the west since I'm partial to it.
Western Conference
Conference Quarter Finals:
#1 Detroit vs. #8 Nashville
Detroit in 5 games

#2 San Jose vs. #7 Calgary
San Jose in 7 games

#3 Minnesota vs. #6 Colorado
Minnesota in 6 games

#4 Anaheim vs. #5 Dallas
Dallas in 7 games

Conference Semi Finals
#1 Detroit vs. #2 San Jose
San Jose in 7 games

#3 Minnesota vs. #5 Dallas
Minnesota in 6 games

Conference Finals:
#2 San Jose vs. #3 Minnesota
San Jose in 6 games

Eastern Conference
Conference Quarter Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #8 Boston
Montreal in 4 games

#2 Pittsburgh vs. #7 Ottawa
Pittsburgh in 6 games

#3 Washington vs. #6 Philadelphia
Philadelphia in 5 games

#4 New Jersey vs. #5 NYR
NYR in 5 games

Conference Semi Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #2 Pittsburgh
Montreal in 6 games

#5 NYR vs. #6 Philadelphia
NYR in 6 games

Conference Finals:
#1 Montreal vs. #5 NYR
Montreal in 5 games

Stanley Cup:
#1 Montreal vs. #2 San Jose
MONTREAL in 7 games!

Baseball note, Justin Morneau hit his first homerun of the regular season today. Let the countdown begin.