NHL Playoffs: Playoff Picks (Part 2)

Eric's Picks:
In all of my infinite, I mean minuscule, wisdom I present to you my NHL Playoff picks for 2009. I suggest you buy some pro line tickets and take all of my advice as gospel, or don't.. you can do whatever you want.

Eastern Conference

Boston/Montreal - Montreal in 7
I’m taking the Habs, because as a fan I have to. Also, with Schneider in the lineup still, the power play can’t fail, unless Gainey throws Laroque out there again on a 5-3. Lucic better watch his back, Laroque will be looming.

Washington/New York - Washington in 5
I’m taking the Caps. The firepower of Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom and Green are way too much to handle for New York’s rock solid D which includes the likes Wade Redden (-5) and Michal Roszival (-7).

New Jersey/Carolina - Carolina in 6
Brodeur will probably play well now that he can no longer ruin my fantasy team’s chances. He took care of that over the last 2 weeks. I HELD ON TO YOU WHILE YOU WERE HURT! Carolina is hot right now however, and should still win.

Pittsburgh/Philadelphia – Pittsburgh in 6
Pittsburgh is one of the hottest teams in the league right now. Also, it would be a shame if Sid the Kid had to shave off his magnificent facial hair after only one round. The world deserves to see that thing get long and dirty.

Western Conference

San Jose/Anaheim – San Jose in 5
San Jose will steamroll the Ducks and it comes down to this; San Jose’s old men are better than Anaheim’s old men. Claude Lemieux is a playoff legend and Rob Blake is better than Pronger. In a desperate attempt to cement his legacy as a big slow overrated piece of crap Pronger put up a stellar 0 +/- rating this season after being around -7 most of the year. The only thing San Jose needs to worry about is getting caught by a Pronger elbow about 35 seconds after a play.

Detroit/Columbus – Detroit in 6
The only thing that will keep this series close is the goaltending. Osgood is bad and Mason is good. Detroit’s players collectively will be enough to overcome this however. Detroit simply has better players on their team than Columbus. That’s what it would sound like if John Madden was a hockey analyst.

Vancouver/St. Louis – St. Louis in 6
Mats Sundin has always been golfing at this point in the year, so he’ll be really eager to get this season over with so he can go back to the Sweden and work on lowering his handicap. He’s gotten really good the last few years because he’s had so much time to practice around April. The key to a great golf game is an early start to the season says Mats.

Chicago/Calgary – Calgary in 7
I think Calgary will pull themselves together and squeak out a victory over the Hawks. I think Iron Mike’s brilliant strategy of pulling Kipper from nearly every game down the stretch has done a lot to improve his confidence and could be the key to the series.

Cup Final: San Jose/Washington - San Jose in 6
The old men have been there before and been through the war it takes to win a Cup. Also, most of these dinosaurs will probably retire after this season and will want to go out with a bang. Thornton and Marleau have been great all year, and Nabokov will step up and play well enough to beat Chris Osgood in the Conference finals.