Thread just got super gay with the mention of the Habs...just kidding, I saw the headline this morning about Pierre getting fired, figured it would happen sooner or later. I hope this and the ensuing events put a fire under your team's ass, as the B's/Habs games this year were a bit disappointing. Our rising heat with Buffalo helped a little bit, but it's just not the same.

Fucking Sixers give up first place by losing to the Celtics. I wouldn't mind playing the Bulls in the first round though, but not the Heat.

Kobe shooting 3-21 lmao. I was hoping for a Lakers-Thunder matchup in the second round so I could see my Thunder kick their asses, but at this rate the Lakers aren't even gonna get past Memphis.

It's that time of the year again. Where do you stand?

I'm rooting for the Bruins since I have a love/hate relationship with them and I like Bergeron. I know Dragunov will be happy!

I'm pulling for Rangers but any contest in the east is irrelevant when compared to Pittsburgh/Philly as far as I'm concerned.

Early draft of article I just wrote for the blog my friends and I all lost interest in:

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Vancouver Canucks VS (8) Los Angeles Kings
A few years ago, nobody would have predicted that Jonathon Quick would be the premier goaltender in this matchup, yet here he stands as a Vezina probable (next to Henrik Lundqvist and nobody else) with Roberto Luongo no doubt enduring the jeers and gagging noises that come with every postseason appearance of his. With that said, goaltending won’t be the deciding factor in this matchup. Quick is the ONLY reason LA even snuck in to the playoffs, whereas Vancouver is the whole package. The Canucks rank near the top of the league in nearly every notable category, and still carry stud offensive players like the Sedin twins, Kesler, Burrows, and others, whereas the Kings have players being outsmarted by water bottles and out-muscled by pancakes. Quick’s Jedi powers won’t be enough to stop the special teams onslaught of Vancouver’s top lines, so I’m giving the Canuckleheads this one fairly handily.
VANCOUVER IN 5

(2) St. Louis Blues VS (7) San Jose Sharks
This here is an interesting one, as the Blues shocked basically everybody by becoming one of the top teams in the league this year, taking the highly competitive Central Division and producing a goaltending tandem that rivals almost anything in recent memory. The Sharks also shocked a lot of people by underperforming in the regular season for a change as opposed to the postseason. With Dany Heatley a distant memory, the Sharks powered into the offseason winning seven of their last ten games, while the Blues puttered in by losing six of their last ten. St. Louis also lacks any huge offensive stars on their team, working more as one unit like eventual Cup winner Boston did last year, while the Sharks are stacked once again, plus they have momentum on their sides. The fact that St. Louis resembles Boston so much this year is making it hard for me to call this, since their monolithic goaltending team could probably shut down any team at this point, but I have a sneaking hunch that things just aren’t going to go their way this year. That said, St. Louis swept the regular season series. If it were any other team I’d call for an upset, but instead I’ll settle for a tough series win.
ST. LOUIS IN 7

(3) Phoenix Coyotes VS (6) Chicago Blackhawks
The number three seed in both conferences this year is kind of a joke, with both Phoenix and Florida really coming in around seventh seed pointwise but thanks to playing in a close and mediocre division, they get home ice advantage. Really though, this adds an interesting element, giving a worse team home ice advantage could ignite a spark that normally wouldn’t have been there. No doubt Phoenix has been a defensive force this year, with Mike Smith stepping up his game to a level he has never reached previously, but the fact remains that offensively they’re pretty tame. They’re a tough team, and Chicago will probably be without star captain, Jonathon Toews, but the fact remains that Chicago is just an all around better team and will most likely bounce Phoenix. The ‘Yotes have a weird habit of giving the Hawks a lot of trouble, but with them having no offense and Chicago having a weak goaltender, I predict the games will be full of the Blackhawks bombarding Smith with dozens of shots every period and Smith standing on his head and saving most of them, while the Coyotes will not be taking shots that Crawford still somehow manages to let in.
CHICAGO IN 7

(4) Nashville Predators VS (5) Detroit Red Wings
Two bitter Central division rivals, both teams are pretty used to playing at this time of year, while only one is used to actually making a deep run. This is yet again another classic offense VS defense matchup, but what sets Nashville apart this year from the other years is that Pekka Rinne is basically the new Luongo here. He’s the only goaltender to have played over 70 games this season, and he’s been slumping in the final stretch, likely a sign of fatigue. He’s a fantastic player, but he’s also only human, he can only do so much before he starts to break down. The ever formidable blue line monstrosities in Shea Weber and Ryan Suter will pose an obstacle, but with Rinne worn out, the Preds are going to need a miracle to stave off all of Detroit’s weapons. The Wings may not be rolling as hot as they had been earlier in the year, setting the home win streak record, but Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Franzen will light the lamp while Bertuzzi and Kronwall will steamroll the opposition. And Lidstrom will be great simply by existing. I’d like to see Nashville make a run, because they’ve certainly earned it, but the old guard is still just too good.
DETROIT IN 6

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) New York Rangers VS (8) Ottawa Senators
Nobody expected Ottawa to make the playoffs at all this year, everybody expected New York to be something special, so on paper this seems like a clean sweep for the mighty almost-President’s Trophy winners, right? Well I’d be inclined to agree except for one interesting stat: Ottawa took the season series three games to one. This shows me that Ottawa could be the team that shocks us all and makes the Rangers look silly, there’s no doubt that Karlsson has been studlier than any stud on the blue line this year and Alfredsson and Spezza can still score with the best of them. But the fact remains that with King Henrik between the pipes and the monstrously high scoring offense led by Brad Richards and the amazingly not injured Marion Gaborik, Ottawa’s nonexistent defense and goaltending ability is going to crumble.
NEW YORK IN 5

(2) Boston Bruins VS (7) Washington Capitals
Well the B’s are defending champions and the Caps are the team that was SUPPOSED to glide its way to the finals after the acquisition of Tomas Vokoun as a backstop, but something happened in Washington that I can’t quite explain. Everything went wrong for them, from Ovechkin falling off his formerly unstoppable play to the long losing streaks and the ousting of coach Bruce Boudreau, Washington faced all kinds of adversity and obstacles that nobody suspected they would have to deal with. Regardless, they did manage to squeak into the playoffs within the last few games, and their reward is a tough, tough matchup against the stalwart champions. Boston’s defense is as stingy as ever and the team up front is nearly the same as the previous, Cup winning year. Once again, the underdog has the season series three games to one, but once again I think it’s all going to change in the playoffs.
BOSTON IN 6

(3) Florida Panthers VS (6) New Jersey Devils
I’m not even going to entertain the notion of Florida winning this matchup. The Panthers are a joke, nobody expects them to win, not even Panther fans, not even Panther players. They’re a mediocre team who had a surprisingly okay season in the worst division in hockey (yeah, even below the Northwest) who bumbled their way into a high seed thanks to their division being so terrible this year. The Devils are backstopped by arguably the best goaltender ever to play the game, with the added push of it being Brodeur’s last year. If there’s any team that’s going to push extra hard to get that coveted title purely out of respect for one of the greatest to play the game, it’s New Jersey.
NEW JERSEY IN 5

(4) Pittsburgh Penguins VS (5) Philadelphia Flyers
THIS is the matchup to watch in the first round. I honestly believe that the Pens have what it takes to just fly their way to the Cup finals without breaking a sweat, they’re on absolute fire as of late, Fleury is as good as ever, Malkin is a lock in my book to win the Hart trophy (if he doesn’t I’ll riot (HA I got one more in there!)), they’re scoring more goals as a team than practically entire divisions, and the mighty Sidney Crosby is back and healthy and just as dangerous as he was the day he was taken out. But with that said, if there’s any team that could hurl a monkey wrench into their plans, it’s Philly. The Broad Street Bullies are going to pound on the Pens, they are going to make this matchup absolutely unbearable. Look at the last few games between these teams, we almost had the coaches taking swings at each other. This rivals Chicago V Detroit in terms of pure hate between the two teams. The scariest part is that Philadelphia is also a talented team, offensively and defensively. The only worrying chink in their armor is goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, who, consistent with Philadelphia tradition, is as streaky as they come. Philly’s chances depend entirely on which Bryz shows up, and even if the good Bryz laces up, Pittsburgh is still just too good offensively, their main flaw is that they play stupid against the Flyers, their discipline flies right out the window and that could easily backfire on them. Either way, I say the Penguins take the series, but it’s going to be very tough and it’ll wear them out, possibly preventing them from rolling to the Championship at full strength, if at all (spoilier alert, they’re my pick for the Cup this year, and this first round matchup is the only reason I’m not officially calling it already).
PITTSBURGH IN 7

Pretty on the head, I'd say. I'd make some sort of "Remember 94" statement but I don't hold too much hope for it this year.

Oh man, the baseball season has started off better than I expected it would, and considering I had high expectations to begin with... just oh man. Plus my team is 3-0, which is always nice!
Anyone been watching so far? Seeing Boston lose last night to the Avila walk-off was too sweet!

I pretty much agree with your picks/reasoning, BastardHead. Of course I hope my B's can go deep into the postseason, but I'm also kinda pulling for Nashville to do some damage as well.

I have this really strong feeling that St. Louis is going to disappoint everybody and go out early, and my pick actually was San Josey in 7 initially before I remembered they only scored 3 goals against them in the regular season (there could also be some subconscious bias in this because honestly I hate the Blues more than the Wings, one of the few Hawks fans with this mentality). If any of those matchups could end up going against my picks, it's either Phoenix V Chicago due to Phoenix just always giving us trouble for some reason (plus home ice and Smith is just worlds better than Crawford), Nashville V Detroit again due mainly to home ice, and Boston V Washington because the Caps are still a scarily talented team and who knows what could happen if they wake up.

My current pick for the finals is Pittsburgh over Vancouver, but as a fan I'd prefer it to be Chicago over either Ottawa (because watching Canadians aaaaaalmost make it is hilarious and there's an inside joke with this matchup) or New Jersey (because I love New Jersey).

Detroit might actually have a decent season. NY Mets and Baltimore on the other hand...

If Detroit had a better pitching staff, which just got worse, then I would be truely horrified when my team had to play them (tonight actually). But as I've seen in seasons past, pitching tames even the hottest hitters. We'll see if this Detroit team is something special. Although I think they will win the AL central regardless. Weak division. Poor Twins :'(

TIGERS! I didn't get any on my fantasy team but I will enjoy watching then go to the World Series this year. Weak pitching staff? Puh-lease.

Yup, Mariners fan here. It promises to be another long, slow, rebuilding season, like we've been having for almost ten years now. It looks like we'll score more runs than last year, but with the way the bullpen looks and the question marks in the starting rotation, we'll probably give up a lot more too.

There simply is nothing better in all of sports than NHL playoffs.

Agreed, +1, x2, 123, a-fucking-men.

Cleveland Indians fan here, although the front office has been making that a chore for me these past few seasons. Resigning Sizemore, which I was against, came back to bite them in the ass, signing Kotchman after acquiring AAA MVP Russ Canzler whom was blocked in Tampa Bay doesn't help the offense, and now bringing in Johnny Damon as a bandage. With Brantley floundering, that means more at-bats for Damon and Duncan. Yuck. Masterson's been shaky so far, but perhaps Tomlin and Gomez will step it up a notch. I honestly have no expectations for them this year and won't be surprised if they finished with a worse record than 2011. My approach is the same with the rest of Cleveland sports: win, lose, or asteroids, just give me something enjoyable. Perhaps there's an internal, subconscious sado-masochism that needs exploring.

Minnesota losing Baker for the season has gotta hurt. I like him but he's had a rough battle staying healthy. A lot of question marks in that rotation, but maybe Swarzak will kick the opportunity door open and Hendriks won't have a lot of pressure at the back end of the rotation. It would be refreshing for Mauer to finally become the perennial MVP he could be if he can stay healthy too, but that's a "we'll see" situation as well. Still, they've got some interesting players like Span, Morneau getting back to form, and Willingham hitting like he should. The back end of the bullpen's solid with Perkins and Capps. The Twins could likely be the spoiler Detroit will be mindful of as the season plays out when KC bottoms out and Chicago putting itself on Konerko's and A.J.'s backs and bats to sustain them for a whole season.

Detroit should run away with the division fairly handily. Verlander's picking up where he left off, two touted lefties in the rotation no one's familiar with, and Scherzer and Porcello just needing to be par for the course. Great lineup, deep bench, and Victor Martinez might be back in time for the playoffs. That's all there is to it. Potential for 100-plus wins.

It's worth it going up at 6am on a Saturday just to see Vancouver getting their asses handed to them ... again.

Damnit, just watched the Bruins and Caps game Great tight serie so far, love it! Go Bs!

Sens vs Rangers is starting soon. I think New York will win that in 5, Ottawa just can't compete.

Oh yeah, I hope this series continues to be played the way it has. Though, Joe Corvo needs to stop playing like an idiot! And yeah, I think New York has this one in the bag.

So in a spate of depression I quit watching the Hawks V Yotes game. Unable to sleep I log on to Facebook at 3 in the damn morning to see all of my friends hooting and hollering about us tying it up with five seconds left and winning in overtime. WAY TO GO, BASTARDHEAD.

Seriously, it's a long running curse that if any Chicago team pulls a great comeback, it's because I was watching the game and then stopped. Every. Fucking. Time. Shit every game the Bears won across the last four years, I was only watching three of them. Not even kidding. The only exception was when the Hawks won the Cup, early in the season they played Calgary, Huet allowed three goals on five shots, we pull him for Niemi who then lets in two on five. So we're down 5-0 after maybe twelve minutes. We wound up winning 6-5 in overtime, yeah I was at that game. That was a magical year.

The Shanghai Grand Prix was an absolute corker, with Nico Rosberg on pole, and eventually winning the race with a clear 20+ second lead. Go Mercedes! Michael Schumacher was the only car to not finish the race as well, who is also Rosberg's team mate. Interesting race to watch, as there was plenty of wheel to wheel action. And Weber got one place up on Vettel, ha! I always like to see that...

Really hoping that the Sens can beat the NY Rangers and get to the next round.

Like my girlfriend said yesterday; there's an epidemic of broken legs in Vancouver now, with people jumping off the bandwagon.

All they're doing is emulating their idol, Ryan Kesler. Good lord is he a great diver, it's tough to pull off his acrobatic dives without acquiring a few broken bones.

This first round honestly could not be going any better. If anyone told me Vancouver and Pittsburgh were going to be down 0-3, I'd say they were crazy.

That's why I love NHL playoffs, though. There are always a ton of upsets and surprises compared to the NBA playoffs which usually plays out almost exactly as fans and critics imagine it, which makes for a boring first few rounds. I picked Vancouver and Pittsburgh to win their respective series in less than 6 games each. Shows how fucking wrong I am (shows how wrong everyone else is as well). I don't think I'll be making a bracket next year because the NHL playoffs just make us all look like we have no idea what's going on. I mean, these two teams were favorites for winning the Stanley Cup, and they're both on the verge of being swept in the first round. Fuck NHL analysts and fan predictions. They don't amount to anything.

It's one of the best first round in years, indeed. Too bad the Habs are not there. I'm really surprised/amazed by the PIT/PHI serie, damn offensive. Fleury is playing his worse hockey of his career and Pronger is injured for the Flyers haha, can't imagine the serie if he was there. The serie will end wednesday, PIT has no chance to win it anymore, if I'm wrong, I would eat my Flyers tshirt ( I had some strange looks at the univ today while wearing it, we kind of despise the team).

I'm sad for Vancouver, they were my pick for the west finalist But hey, LA is a cool team and Brown is a good leader.

Vancouver's overrated. I knew they wouldn't live up to what they did last year. Plus with the absence of both Sedin's now, they're done. Jonathon Quick is playing with a lot of confidence now and has both Luongo and Schneider outmatched.

Pittsburgh and Philly is by far the most entertaining at this point. That and the OTT/NYR series are ticking time bombs that are dominated by the fights. You can blame that Gadaffi look alike, Brian Boyle for starting it in game 1, the damn goof. I really wanna see Boston and Philly next round. That is going to be a good, high octane series. Win win situation too in that I won't have to deal with Jack Edwards the annoying NESN feeds.

Hahaha, as much as I love Jack, he can be a bit...silly at times.

Also, Nick Backstrom can munch cock. Or he can munch on his match penalty ZIIIIIINNGGEERRR

If you would have told me last week that both Vancouver and Pittsburgh (my two relatively easy picks to make the finals) were gonna be on the verge of being swept, I would have bet you that I would shit on a plate and eat it if that happened. I'm cool with being wrong though because A) I'm not being paid so big whoop and B) I love seeing Canadians squirm and cry because their precious trophy hasn't been won by a Canadian team in (what will be) 19 years. I don't love the rioting and whatnot that Vancouver opted for last year or that backwards-ass Quebec does when the Habs win, but squelching all the BRING THE CUP BACK HOME shit makes me grin.

24 vs 4, just sayin' and yes, it's our cup!

Watch the insults, young man, it's our sport, you baseball bat muncher.

24 cheating bastard Cups. If Chicago owned the AHL we'd win everything for twenty years too.

And I don't care what anybody says, football is our sport now.

EDIT: Also, what the hell happened to The Shanahammer? He was fantastic all year until the playoffs happened. Weber is cool with trying to British Bulldog people into the boards but contact on a skate-by behind the net warrants a three game Shanaban? I realize a bit of subconscious bias behing a Hawks fan and whatnot, but it really contradicts what happened with Lucic V Miller earlier in the season. He was consistent all year, and then suddenly Campbell exposed himself as a body snatcher.

"I don't always drink beer, but when I do, I'm working as the NHL's head disciplinarian." - Brendan Shanahan

Meh, I wouldn't say fantastic... Not even good, to be honest. If I remember, Lucic got away scott-free for decking Miller. However, his regular season decisions don;t come close to how atrocious he has been in the playoffs. I suppose the NHL GM's love their money so much that they lobbied hard enough to let Zetterberg to come within an inch of having his neck broken by a superstar like Weber to make sure that the sweet cash keeps rolling in.

Anyways! My Sens just pulled even with the Rangers. If the Sens keep pressing the Rangers and outshooting them by a 2 to 1 margin (shots on goal + blocked shots), there's no way that NYR can beat them. Sens in 7, as I think Lundqvist steals another for them.

WHO THE FUCK IS BRADEN HOLTBY

Looks like LeBron just secured the MVP award, unless Kevin Durant really goes off in the Thunder's last few games.

U mad bro?

Yeah, he's unstoppable, B's got to step up their game a bit, I don't want an offensive and crazy serie like PHI/PIT but they need to put the puck in the net.

What's the best serie so far for you guys? I'm quite surprised that the east (except the aforementioned 80s Oilers wannabee I mentionned ahead) is so even. Ottawa is better than predicted, I think it's the best serie so far. The west is the opposite though, luckily the Canucks are not out yet

If the caps can win without Backstrom, them can certainly win the series. Holtby has to keep up the solid play and it'll be close, no matter what happens. I don't think he'll be able to be as brilliant as he was this last game, but with Backstrom back the Caps will be able to keep the puck on the other side of the ice a bit more and take some of the pressure off of him.

Yeah, but not at Holtby, I'm more pissed at Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand for making some piss poor decisions with the puck so far in this series. If they can start putting points on the board, I think we can win this series. But we need to start getting more traffic in front of Holtby and not letting him make the easy save.

My favorite series thus far (other than B's/Caps) is also Ottawa/New York. Can't wait to see who's gonna come out on top.