Well it is that time again folks so here are my predictions for the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Enjoy the playoffs and feel free to chirp at me if any of these turn out wrong in round 1. Boston - Montreal The Bruins have given us no reason to think the Habs can knock them out in round 1 this season. Tim Thomas has played great all year while the Habs have stuggled between the pipes. Marc Savard, Phil Kessel, and Zdeno Chara will help make quick work of the Habs. Bruins in 5 Washington - New York The end of the New York Rangers and Sean Avery's brutal 2009 season will come to a quick end. Ovie, Backstrom, Semin, Green, and company will score enough to keep the Rangers down. Lundqvist will do his best in net but at the end of the day the Rangers just can't put the puck in the net enough to win this series. Look for Wade Redden to make a soft play or three to hand the series to the Caps. Caps in 5 New Jersey - Carolina I think this series will go deep but I see no way Marty lets in enough goals to let Carolina past. Paiul Maurice has done a great job with this Hurricanes team since taking over but Jersey plays a great system and with guys like Parise and Langenbrunner I look for the Devils to win this one. Devils in 6 Pittsburgh - Philly No doubt in my mind that everyone want to pick Sid the kid and Malkin in this series but I see the Flyers playing good old hockey and taking care of things in this series. I look for Mike Richards to drive Crosby crazy and for Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, and Danny Briere to lead the way to Flyers victory. Flyers in 7 San Jose - Anaheim This is the year of Thorton/Marleau. San Jose will finally make the jump and start to play good in the playoffs as well as the regular season. Sure the Ducks have firepower in Getzlaf, Perry and the new Bobby Ryan plus have Pronger and Niedermayer back on the blueline but the Sharks adding Boyle and Blake will come in handy in this tough first round matchup. Sharks in 7 Detroit - Columbus No question Detroit. I consider this my 1 lock and won't get into details on why I like the Wings so much until next round. Wings in 4 Vancouver - St Louis Wouldn't it be nice to see the Blues win this series. I have no feelings for Sundin and will be cheering for the Blues in this one. That said I think the Canucks should win this one. The Blues are lacking the veteran leadership and I think the Blues are just happy to be playing still. The Blues are well coached and playing well but that can be said about the Canucks as well. End of the day the Canucks have Roberto and the Blues don't. Canucks in 6 Chicago - Calgary This is the series I look forward to watching the most. The Hawks owned the Flames in the regular season but playoff hockey as we all know is much different. I think this series comes down to Iggy, Cammalerri, and Jokinen again Toews, Kane and Havlat...who would you gamble on? all those names and only Iggy has proven himself really at this time of the year. Sure Havlat played some solid hockey for Ottawa in the playoffs but that is a distant memory. I think the kids will win this one but it really could go either way. Kipper and Khabby will be rock solid. Hawks in 6 (and if it goes to 7 I got the Flames because I think the kids will collapse) Enjoy round 1 and I will see you at the start of the next round!
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