So, the match-ups are all decided for the playoffs. I can't wait!

Eastern Conference

Capitals (1) vs Flyers (8) - Philly got lucky getting into the playoffs this year. Right down to the wire with that one. Still, the difference in skill up and down the line-up against Washington and they don't stand a chance. I see this one going to Washington 4-1.

Panthers (2) vs Islanders (7) - I think this is going to be a pretty good match-up. Both are young, talented teams that have been due for a solid run in the playoffs. Too bad they had to go up against each other in the first round. Still, I see the Panthers winning 4-2.

Penguins (3) vs Rangers (4) - this is the metropolitan divisional match-up and I believe a rematch from last year or the year before. This one is going to be good. I think both teams are heading in with some injuries but I think Pittsburgh is going in as the healthier team. I think goal-tending is going to be the deciding factor though. Fleury is usually only slightly above average in the playoffs and Lundqvist can be absolutely dominant. I'm more of a Penguins fan than a Rangers fan but I see the Rangers winning 4-2.

Lightning (5) vs Red Wings (6) - If this match-up was going in with Stamkos and Stralman healthy I would give the Lightning the win pretty easily. However, without those 2 being in the line-up I could see Detroit pulling off the win. This one is really tough to call. I'm not really sure who to pick on this one. I'll go with the Lightning 4-3 but I think it'll be close either way.

Western Conference

Stars (1) vs Wild (8) - The Wild are limping into the playoffs on a 5 game losing streak. I can't see them pulling off a win against a Dallas team that has been strong this year. If Seguin doesn't return it would give the Wild a small chance to win but not much of one. With Seguin in the line-up the Stars will roll over the Wild. I'm guessing Dallas will win 4-1.

Blues (2) vs Blackhawks (3) - This is tough first round match-up. Each team is strong going into the playoffs and if Kane stays on the streak he has been on could really make a difference. However, the Blackhawks don't have home-ice advantage this year which could be all the advantage that St. Louis needs. I don't see this one going either way very easily. I think Chicago has the experience advantage that will help them win though. I see Chicago winning 4-3.

Anaheim (4) vs Nashville (7) - This is another first round match-up that I find tough to call. Anaheim has been on a roll in the 2nd half of the season winning the Pacific division. Nashville has a strong, gritty team though. They've got solid goal-tending and defense and some good young talented forwards as well. However, I think Anaheim has been too good recently to let this one get away. I pick Anaheim winning 4-2.

Kings (5) vs Sharks (6) - a rematch between these 2 teams. I imagine the Sharks would absolutely love to beat the Kings. After losing 4 straight and being knocked out of the playoffs again must have been tough for the Sharks. I honestly hope the Sharks beat the King and I'm guessing they'll win 4-2.


No idea what the actual schedule is like yet since I think 4 match-ups had yet to be decided until today. In 8 short weeks the season will be over but it's going to be an interesting 8 weeks.

I have pretty much lost all hope in New York teams. The Islanders were doing SO GOOD before, and then they crashed. Granted last I checked both the Rangers and Islanders were in the top 10 of all the NHL teams, but at one point the Islanders were one of the top 3. As for the playifs, I don't see either of them making it past the first round so this will be a pretty boring one for me compared to all the hype around NY teams in recent years.

zanderlex : don't give up on the Rangers. They beat Pittsburgh last year pretty soundly and could very well beat them again this year. The Islanders I'm not so sure can get out of the first round though. I wouldn't give up hope yet. The playoffs are different than the regular season. Teams that were average in the regular season can come out in the playoffs and dominate, or get lucky. It happens basically every year with at least 1 team playing above expectation.

geeogree : I guess, and if they don't work out in the end, I could always root for the Kings or the Lightning.

Pretty good first night for my guesses for the playoffs. Pittsburgh wins pretty soundly 5-2 over the Rangers. Top line getting it done for them. And no Fleury and they still managed it. Also, Lundqvist goes down with an injury. Not sure if he'll be playing next game or not.

Lightning beat Detroit 3-2. Pretty good game there. Heard good things about Drouin so that is a positive.

And St. Louis beat Chicago in overtime. Not sure what it is with Chicago and overtime in the playoffs but they go there a LOT. I still see Chicago winning this series though. Keith comes back for Game 2 and he will add a LOT to Chicago's defense.

Looking forward to tomorrow night with 4 games happening!

geeogree : I liked the lightning game, I have a few friends on steam from down there who are huge fans so we were talking about it for a bit. I wasn't expecting Detroit to lose honestly.

I'm going to report on the early 2 games of the night and get the later 2 with another post.

Washington beating Philly 2-0 wasn't a surprise at all. Washington is a well rounded team. I don't think anyone is surprised that this series is already in favor of Washington.

The surprise of the night so far is the 5-4 win by the Islanders. 1 late 2nd period goal to tie the goal and 2 early 3rd period goals that Florida couldn't catch up from. That really changes the dynamic of this series. Florida isn't out of it by any means but the Islanders can really put up points when they want to. They aren't going to win this series by depending on their goalie and defense to win it.

So, the other 2 games finished while I was at a movie so here are the results.

As expected, Dallas beat Minnesota soundly 4-0. I honestly don't think Minnesota stands a chance. Even if Parise and Vanek return I still think they are done. Good job making the playoffs but you aren't going any further.

The other game between the Sharks and Kings looked like it was awesome. Back and forth the whole game until the Sharks pulled ahead and never looked back.

Both of these games go in favor of the predictions I made so I'm happy about that.

April 15th results!

Tampa Bay 5 Detroit 2 - this series is going in Tampa Bays favor a bit more than I expected. a 5-2 win is nice for them for sure. Now they need to get one in Detroit and then finish them off at home in game 5. Definitely not as close as I was expecting it to be at first. Tampa Bay is showing more depth than I thought they had.

Florida 3 Islanders 1 - this was more what I was expecting from this series. The Islanders got a break winning 1 of 2 games in Flordia and now heading back to New York have a good chance if they can put 2 wins together to really take over this series. If they don't win both at home I think Florida will finish them off.

Chicago 3 St. Louis 2 - this series remains close. Chicago wins this one partiall on the back of Duncan Keith returning to the line-up. St. Louis really didn't want to lose one at home though. Now they need to win 1 in Chicago in order to advance to the next round.

Nashville 3 Anaheim 2 - what a surprise ending to this one. I didn't think Nashville would take game 1. I'm happy about it because I'd love to see Nashville go deep this year. They've got the team to do it if they really get going and stay healthy.

I watched the Tampa bay game again today for a bit and I liked this one a lot more than the first one. My original plan was to root for a new York team first before the lightning but now I'm leaning more towards cheering for them for the whole thing because they have really surprised me these last two games.

April 16th Results

So, Pittsburgh and the Rangers finally played again. Lundqvist played in this game in spite of the eye injury he got in game 1 and I think it made all the difference. Raanta let in most of the goals in game 1 so not having him play was good.

Zatkoff played again for Pittsburgh and if Fleury is healthy I think it's time to switch back. He had his chance after how he played in game 1 to get the start for game 2 but after that performance I would make the switch. Malkin also returned to this game and was involved in the 2nd goal of the game for Pittsburgh. He was a non-factor otherwise during this game though. Hopefully he can shake the rust off for the next game. Pittsburgh has lost home-ice advantage and will need a win in New York in order to win the series.

[edit]

Washington 4 Philly 1 - another dominant win for the Capitals. Hopefully going home back revitalize the Flyers because otherwise they are going to get swept. Philly at home in the playoffs is crazy though.... that building gets rockin.

Dallas 2 Minnesota 1 - another win for the Stars against Minnesota. No surprise in this series either. I doubt many people, except Wild fans, have them pegged to win this series. Even the fans might know better than to expect their team to win this series.

[edit 2] Sharks 2 King 1 - I'm impressed that San Jose went into LA and won 2 straight games. They weren't dominating games or anything but winning 2 on the road is awesome. If they can keep this going and win 2 at home they could sweep the Kings and redeem themsevles from last years falling apart.

April 17th Results

St. Louis 3 Chicago 2 - St. Louis pulls out a win in Chicago. I'm actualy a bit surprised at this. I didn't think they would be able to beat Chicago on home ice but they needed to if they were going to have a chance at winning the series. Better to do it now than to try and do it in game 6. I see Chicago taking the next game though. They won't be defeated by this set back.

Detroit 2 Tampa Bay 0 - Detroit switched to Mrazek and got a shut out. Seems like Howard wasn't cutting it. This might be the turnaround that Detroit needs in order make the series interesting. Although, considering he only had to make 16 saves for the win it's pretty clear that Tampa Bay did not have a very good game. I didn't get to see the game so I don't know if it was Detroit out playing Tampa Bay or if it was Tampa Bay that didn't really show up for game 3 but either way 16 shots is not enough in the playoffs.

Islanders 4 Panthers 3 - Took this one until overtime before it was decided. Islanders managed to come out on top and even the series though. Didn't think they would win a game until they had gone home to New York. Another series that has ended up tied after going through the first 2 games. More than I expected to see honestly.

Nashville 3 Anaheim 2 - another surprising result in this series. Not that I thought Anaheim would stroll right over Nashville without any trouble but I didn't see them being down 0-2 going into Nashville. Maybe 1-1 but not 0-2. I don't know if they can dig themselves out of this hole either.

April 18th Results

Washington 6 Flyers 1 - wowza was this game ever a mess. It's like Philly got the first goal and then tossed in the towel. 9 power plays for Washington is unreal. The number of bad penalties that Philly took really ruined any chance they had to win this game. I didn't expect Philly to win but I expected more out of them for this game. Looks like Washington is going to sweep easily and will move on to the next round soon. I don't see Philly coming back from this.

Minnesota 5 Dallas 3 - kind of glad to see this one go down this way. Minnesota came limping into the playoffs so even if they don't last much longer I'm glad they got at least 1 win at home. Without Parise and Vanek I don't see them lasting much longer but at least the fans got one good game.

I'm so happy for the islanders, I might try to go to a game of I can if there's another one over here if they make it to the next round, which I have a lot more hopes about them doing.

I was actually at their arena today, checking some things out.

Good luck getting tickets for a game. Tickets for playoff games are way harder to get than for regular games. I personally wouldn't bother.

I missed the results for the San Jose and Kings game. Kings won 2-1 in OT. I'm actually kind of happy about this because then San Jose doesn't go up 3-0 like last year and then possibly lose 4 in a row. That would be pretty unreal to have happen again.

Still, San Jose needs to start being able to win at home or the Kings will end up beating them. The Kings have the potential to be really good are very strong in the playoffs. I wouldn't waste any time finishing them off.

April 19th Results

Pittsburgh 3 New York 1 - this game made me happy. Even with back-up goalies in the line-up Pittsburgh is beating New York. They are only up 2-1 so far but still the goalie did his job. Only 17 shots on net so it wasn't a lot of work but letting a couple easy ones in and the games direction could have been very different. Thankfully Malkin seemed to show up a bit for this game. He got an assist on the Crosby goal though the goal happened more because of Kessel than Malkin. Either way I'm happy Pittsburgh won and hopefully they can keep things going.

Tampa Bay 3 Detroit 2 - even with the depleted roster people keep talking about Tampa Bay is still doing well against Detroit. And who came up big tonight? Drouin of all people. He was involved in all 3 goals and his direct pass resulted in 2 of them. He's definitely making a case for his worth in the NHL. You step up like this when your best scorer and captain go down and whether or not you stay in the same city you'll definitely be playing in the NHL next year.

Today was depressing for NY, they,might only be down by 1 game, but nothing good can come from being down.

tickets are usually much cheaper here than most cities, it wouldn't be the first time I've been to a playoff game before, last season I went to an MLB championship game and the amount that I paid wasn't much more than a regular season game.

April 19th Results - times 2

Anaheim 3 Nashville 0 - what is with teams winning on the road only so far? I don't have time to figure out the stat but there have been more road wins than home wins so far I think.

Seems like a solid game for Anaheim though. This is more what I expected out of them. This series is likely going to get interesting now. I couldn't have predicted a Nashville 2-0 start to this series.

St. Louis 4 Chicago 3 - I'm happy about this but I am surprised. I'd rather see St. Louis win the series even though I picked Chicago as the winner. I like to see new champs every year over seeing any 1 team win over and over. That gets boring to me. (I'm posting this early and hoping nothing changes for this game).

https://www.nhl.com/news/c-280395876?tid=280202816

Andrew Shaw got suspended for his antics at the end of the game. He got a late penalty while Chicago was trying to tie the game and when that happened he flipped off the ref and then made anti-gay remarks towards the ref. These were caught on camera and were very obvious as to what he was saying. He has since admitted to what he said and has been suspended for game 5 as a result.

This isn't the end of the world for Chicago since they seem to play best when their players get suspended but it could also mean he doesn't play for the last game of Chicago's season. Not too smart on Shaw's part.

April 20th Results

Philly 2 Washington 1 - I'm glad at least Philly got 1 win. Wouldn't want Washington to have a week off before their next series. I have a hard time believing that they stand a chance at winning the series but stranger things have happened. Still, the most I'm hoping for is that Washington doesn't get out of this series unscathed so they don't waltz through the next series as well.

Florida 2 Islanders 1 - Florida ties the series up on the road. I think this series traded home and road wins. I now think that Florida is going to be able to go home to take the lead and then finish it off in game 6.

Dallas 3 Minnesota 2 - this series is going as expected. Minnesota has only managed 1 win so far and are now down 3-1 in the series heading back to Dallas. I don't see this lasting past this next game. Dallas is too good.

Sharks 3 King 2 - unless something happens in the next 3 minutes then San Jose is going to go up 3-1 against the Kings which should hopefully secure them a trip to the 2nd round. I honestly hope so because I'm tired of seeing the kings go deep in the playoffs.