The OFFICIAL 2008-09 NHL Playoffs Thread
 

I figured I'd get it started here. And just in case Maple Leafs forgot...the playoffs are what happens after the regular season and before the draft and free agency.

Oh shit.

So the Wednesday slate of game is ..

Flyers vs Pens
Rangers vs Caps
Hurricanes vs Devils
Blues vs Canucks

I haven't looked but I assume Pens/Flyers is on Versus at 7 and then obviously Blues/Canucks after.

All the Pens/Flyers games are either on Versus or NBC. Thanks God!

This means we all have to endure more of Doc Emrick's voice than we ever thought humanly possible. He's not a bad broadcaster but that voice....

I doubt it because he'll be calling the Devils games. Unless they are on opposite nights.

And I'll take Doc over Dumb and Dumberer that the Pens have for a home announcing crew any night.

Doc Emrick is the best play-by-play guy the U.S. networks have. Well, I am also always partial to Dave Strader, since he was the "voice" of the Wings when I first started watching.

Other than those two, I don't really like too many of the Vs./NBC play-by-play guys. I don't like Joe Beneninati. He uses too many unnecessary "cutesy" phrases that annoy. There's some other guy, whose name I don't recall, whose voice just gets very loud and deep all of a sudden whenever something "exciting" happens. It's strange and off putting.

I struggle between the HD glory of Vs. against the non-HD, but great sound and announcing of CBC. Typically, HD wins (unless the announcers are really offensive) and I switch to CBC for the between periods stuff.

I still miss the ESPN days of Thorne/Clement along with Pang/most anyone :(

SI

I couldn't agree more SI.

Right now I really like Edzo as a color man.

Glad to see the Blackhawks matched up against a team they owned during the season, although it may not mean much given the Hawks' youth and the Flames experience. Vancouver would have been a bad draw for Chicago. Are the Flames banged up at the moment? I know the Hawks may be missing Sharp for a while...

My prediction: Vancouver over Washington in 6

:+1:

Wings recall Darren Helm from Grand Rapids and he'll play game 1 on Thursday. Not sure who will be out (Hossa, maybe?) but I like it. He was great for us during last years run, and we need that infusion of energy in our lineup.

I'll post my playoff predictions soon. I'll use spoiler tags, since I've correctly picked the Cup winner and runner-up before the playoffs in each of the last two seasons.

Lets go Rangers!

No.

Seriously, no.

Don't worry, he started rooting for us last year and we promptly got smoked :).

I hope the Canucks can take the momentum they have deep into the playoffs. I like the St. Louis matchup, and I LOVE that it's on Versus all series.

I just wish we got to see more of Boston-Montreal.

I posted this in the season thread

Any interest in a pool of some sort-- either predictions or player pool?

http://http://www.operationsports.co...postcount=1922

Yep, its important to remember that my original allegiance was to the woeful Winnipeg Jets. I do not have a history of willing my favorite squad to playoff victory.

I've got you on a short leash man. From what I remember, you officially became a fan when you came in for one of the Devil games. There wasn't much success after that.

Like I said, short leash.

I was also a fan of the Jets, so if I cheer for the Rangers too does that mean there's no chance of them advancing?

LET'S GO BLUES!

Haven't said that in years. But this group of players is really fun to watch.

Strangely enough, I like that the Ducks dodged the Wings. Although I still profess the Ducks would be a tough test for any team in a series (including the Wings), fact is the Wings had a lot of good success against Anaheim this year and last year. But they have played the Sharks extremely tight in the last three games we played them in the past month, losing a 1-0 game at HP where Nabakov was literally on his head, a controversial 3-2 loss last week where the refs swallowed their whistles at the wrong time, and then a 5-2 pounding of the Sharks at HP. The Ducks largely outplayed them in all three games.

But that was then, this is now. Playoffs a whole different matter.

Does anybody know of a site that lets you run a playoff pool draft? Sort of like what Yahoo offers for the regular season.

Yes. We refer to it as "The Curse of Thomas Steen". You Winnipeg fans never appreciated Thomas Steen.

You have a good memory!

Don't make me go Pumpy on your ass...

Sounds like a euphemism if ever I've heard one ;)

SI

Not to override SR's own playoff pool, but allow me to solicit for a minute.

Friend of mine is running an NHL playoff survivor pool. Cost is $100/entry, winner takes all. He accepts paypal or will take checks to his residence (but given time constraints, probably better to use paypal). I'll gladly vouch for him, and he just paid out $10K to two people for winning his NCAA tourney survivor contests. He also doesn't participate in the pools, so he's just an admin.

Premise is simple: 1st round you must pick 3 teams to move on (at least 1 from each conference), next round you pick 2 (one from each conference), then one team to advance to the Cup finals, and finally, pick the Cup winner. You may not pick a team twice, so strategy comes into play. It's a survivor pool, so if you're the only one left prior to the end, you win.

For more info or for payment instructions, send me a PM. Everything (including round 1 picks) must be in by Wednesday, 3PM eastern.

BTW I fully expect ML to partake considering all the Burke/Twitter ad revenue he's swimming in.

Interesting, what kind of strategy do you use in the first round? Go all favorites knowing that one upset will knock out most of the pool, or save the big teams for later rounds?

I'm assuming that even one wrong picks knocks you out.

Islanders get the #1 pick...Tampa gets #2.

And Brian Burke uses the time tested strategy of saying he'll get one of the top two picks to start trade talks.

This must be twittered.

yeah, that was a whole bunch of stuff to end up exactly where everyone started from.

TB has to be thanking their lucky stars to pick #2 since it's obvious they cannot take Tavares at #1.

Yes, one pick knocks you out. Ideally you want some kind of combination of the two so you can save some of the best teams but obviously you don't want to take too much risk so you get knocked out. Best to kind of map out a full bracket so you don't end up knocking out all your winners.

I'll share my strategy once I know no one on here wants in :).

It's killing me.

I'm doing some of the Burke-like lines on the DGB account, but it's just not the same.

anyone have the center ice channel assignment for wed's games?

Where are we doing just a straight up playoff pick 'em for each series (as there's been in past years)? Or has that not been started up yet?

Quick thoughts about the Wings/Columbus series.

I think the Wings should win, but there are (as always) some concerns.

1. Goaltending is the obvious one. Either Osgood comes into form (despite all evidence to the contrary all year) and the Wings have a good run, or he doesn't and it's short and sad.

2. Injuries have started to crop up at a bad time. Draper is out for at least the first two games. That's a huge hit to the Wings' face-off prowess. Cleary tweaked his knee in practice the other day (though will play) and Hossa hurt his groin and missed the last two games of the season (but will play). Groins are tricky things. Not great.

3. The Jackets have a number of forwards who can create problems for Detroit in their own zone. The Detroit defense isn't particularly strong or big, which can lead to problems in the corners and, especially, around and behind the net. Big, strong forwards like Torres, Umberger, Nash, and Modin can really cause problems in those areas. Young Eircsson who has been filling in for the still injured Lilja has been particularly suspectible to coughing up the puck behind his own net.

It will be interesting to see how Mason holds up. I think he should be fine, but maybe (hopefully) he's getting tired. Let's hope he's more "Jim Carrey" than "Patrick Roy."

I think I can see the Wings winning in 6.

As for the other series:

Boston - Montreal
Boston in 4.

Washington - NYR
Rangers in 6

Devils - Hurricanes
Hurricanes in 5.

Pens - Flyers
Penguins in 7.

San Jose - Anaheim
San Jose in 7.

Vancouver - St. Louis
St. Louis in 6.

Chicago - Calgary
Chicago in 5.

To bring my predictions to this thread:

Boston in 7
Carolina in 5
Pittsburgh in 6
Rangers in 6

Detroit in 6
San Jose in 7
Chicago in 5
Vancouver in 6

My winners are the same as the other thread, just fixed how many games on a few.

I will preface these picks by saying I'm totally out of touch with hockey this season:

Boston in 6
Devils in 7
Philly in 6
Rangers in 7

Columbus in 5
Anaheim in 6
Chicago in 7
St Louis in 6

boston in 5
wash in 7
new jersey in 6
pitt in 5


sj in 6
det in 7
calgary in 6
stl in 5

Montreal in 7
Washington in 5
Carolina in 6
Penguins in 7

San Jose in 5
Detroit in 5
Vancouver in 6
Chicago in 4

More than any other sport, hockey is the reason I finally made the move to HD last year. I LOVE me some HD playoff hockey. :popcorn:


As far as how my Wings will do (yes, I know, my sports loyalties are...diverse), it really boils down to if the goaltending shows up or not. Maybe they have enough talent to get past Columbus with mediocre net-minding, but they won't go any further unless either Ozzie or Conklin pulls their head out of their ass.

Living in Chicago, I do have to say that it is nice to see the Hawks back in the playoffs, even if I'm not a fan. There's definitely some buzz around town about it (now that Cutler-mania has died down a little bit).

Predictions:

Boston over Montreal in 5 -- shouldn't even be close, unless Thomas falls apart or Price plays totally out of his skull

Washington over NY Rangers in 6 - Lundqvist good enough to steal a game or 2, but that's it

Carolina over New Jersey in 6 - Just about everyone is taking this "upset"

Pittsburgh over Philadelphia in 6 - Not top end guys, but Pittsburgh a deeper team than last year

San Jose over Anaheim in 6 - I would like to pick the Ducks to be even closer, but Hiller's been faltering, and I don't think Giggy makes the difference either

Detroit over Columbus in 7 - I want to badly pick the Jackets...but common sense tells me no

Vancouver over St Louis in 5 - For some odd reason, I really like Vancouver in the West. Blues have to crash sooner or later, no?

Flames over Chicago in 7 - Everything points to the Hawks in this one, but my guy says otherwise. They reminded alot of the Pens from 06-07, young team happy to get in.

Boston in 5
Washington in 6
Carolina in 6
Pittsburgh in 6

San Jose in 7
Detroit in 5
St. Louis in 7
Chicago in 5

Boston in 4
Rangers in 6
Carolina in 6
Pittsburgh in 5

San Jose in 5
Detroit in 5
Vancouver in 7
Chicago in 5

Boston in 7
Capitals in 5
Devils in 6
Penguins in 6

Sharks in 5
Wings in 4
Canucks in 6
Flames in 6

Finals + Cup winner spoiler (remember, I've nailed this two years in a row. Don't click if you want to be surpised!):


By the way, for the Canadians out there I'll be part of The Score's bloggers vs. experts challenge. Watch me kick Al Strachan's ass!

Ok, what the fuck is with that horn that precedes the "Lets Go Caps"?