I got 3 in the East (and at least called the NYR-WAS series to go to 7), 2 in the West (Including the Red Wings! That Canucks pick made me look silly, though...).
East:
Penguins in 5 - Love the Isles being relevant, but the Pens are the class of the east, AINEC.
Sens in 6 - Andy being Andy + EK return vs. Price not on his A-game + Habs D suffering without Emelin.
Capitals in 7 - This Caps team is coming into the playoffs crazy-hot, Ovie has a chip on his shoulder. Lundqvist the only reason it even goes 7.
Bruins in 6 - Faith in Boston to gel at the right time, Toronto fades under the bright lights of the playoffs (aka: "you gotta lose before you know how to win")
West:
Hawks in 5 - Minny puts up a good fight, but Hawks are too good to lose in the 1st round.
Wings in 7 - Those old bones in Detroit will "experience" their way into the 2nd round, Ducks have been fading a bit over the past few weeks.
Canucks in 6 - Dislike both of these team's playoff chances, but in a dog-vs-dog matchup, I'll take the 'Nucks.
Blues in 6 - Blues will be dangerous for as long as Brian "Bi-Polar" Elliott is riding a "high" (which is probably around 6 games or so) before hitting his eventual "low". Blues defence is playing sssssscary good right now.
...So, round 2 predictions:
EAST
Penguins in 7 - Love my Sens to death, but we're the underdog, and I think Pittsburgh just has too much firepower up front for us to move on. My heart says Sens in 6, but my brain just can't shake the idea that it's not our year, and that the Pens are the class in the East. If Pittsburgh had left Fleury in nets, I'd be predicting a Sens series win, but Vokoun is a good enough goalie to provide a team full of HOFers enough support in their own end to win a 7-gamer. It'll go down to the wire, our boys in Red will play their hearts out, and we'll be proud of 'em... but the Pens will move on.
Rangers in 6 - If you'd have asked me this before Round 1 started, I'd have picked the Bruins, easy. But Lundqvist is playing out of his mind right now, and IMO the Rangers offence showed signs of life in Game 7. The Rangers are riding a hign intoo Round 2, and the Bruins are doing the exact opposite: they almost threw the series due to unmotivated play, needed last minute heroics to get past the leafs, and IMO are worse for wear coming out of that 1st round series vs the Leafs. Rangers look like they're just getting warmed up, and the Bruins look exhausted. Bruins are the better team, but the Rangers look like they're getting hot at just the right time.
WEST
Black Hawks in 6 - A lot of people think the Hawks are going to steamroll the Red Wings, but this is going to be a much closer series than people Hawks will prob willing to admit. Detroit are as scary a team as Datsyuk and Zetterberg wants them to be, and those two are unreal so far in these playoffs. Howard is maintaining a level head for the most part, and the Wings have a ton of experience in big matchups like this. Unfortunately, the Hawks will probably be able to exploit Detroit's major weakness: defense. Especially without Dekeyser, Chicago should be able to make the most of the opportunities the Wings will give them. I could see this series going to 7, or even Detroit outright winning it, but I have Chicago going the distance this year, so it'll take all that the Red Wings have to make it to the conference finals this year.
Los Angeles in 5 - I still don't think the Sharks are for real. Sure, they swept the Canucks, but Vancouver laid a playoff turd of monumental proportions this year... the Canucks played so poorly in Round 1 that half of the non-playoff teams probably could have beat them in a 7-game series. L.A. is just too strong. They're better in nets, they have the edge on the blueline, and their forwards are far superior to the Sharks. The only way this goes past 5 is if the Kings start to run out of gas, or the Sharks
finally complete construction on their weather-controlling machine and threaten to destroy Gary Bettman's house with a tornado unless he declares them the series winner.
