It’s my Parting Shot for the second and final part of The Fearless Predictor’s Stanley Cup playoffs opening round picks and forecast for who will be the champion…..
On to the Eastern Conference quarter-final predictions, now that we have all the match-ups officially.
First up is Washington against Montreal. The Habs had to battle hard all the way through their 82nd and final regular-season game to qualify for the post-season. The Capitals have been cruising in top spot of the Conference for most of the season and had the distraction of Alexander Ovechkin’s Great Chase of Wayne Gretzky’s career N-H-L goal-scoring record to deal with. If you listen to my chat with former Saskatoon Blades’ head coach, now Caps’ assistant Mitch Love, you’ll hear some concern with how they’ve been playing as a team down the stretch and some injuries that they have been dealing with. Hence, this won’t be a four-game Washington sweep as I want, but a six-game Capitals’ triumph over the Habs!!
Next up is the Battle of Ontario – the series that shows Ottawa has won all three head-to-head regular-season match-ups over Toronto. The Senators’ “X” factor is the health and effectiveness of captain Brady Tkachuk. The Maple Leafs have shored up their defence and goaltending this time around as compared to recent seasons when both were abysmal. This is going to be a slobber-knocker that goes seven games with the Sens pulling off the big upset!!
There’s also a Battle of Florida in the first round with two very polished teams meeting in Tampa Bay and the Panthers. Florida is the defending Stanley Cup champion and the Lightning still have several key pieces from recent title-winning teams! I like the Bolts in six games!
That leaves Carolina against New Jersey – two teams that have been inconsistent and hounded by injuries to key personnel. This might be the best series of them all, yet draws the least attention of Canadian eyes! So, this is purely a guess on my part – not that all of my predictions don’t have a fair amount of guess work attached to them – but I’m going with the Hurricanes in seven games!!
A quick reminder of my Western Conference picks from yesterday – Winnipeg over St. Louis in six games, Vegas ousts Minnesota in five, Colorado eliminates Dallas in seven and Edmonton over the L-A Kings in six games! As for who survives three tough rounds in both Conferences and meets up in the Stanley Cup final – my heart says Winnipeg and Washington! But, my head says Tampa Bay beats Vegas in a seven-game classic!!
That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…and it turned out nice again!
