Round 3 Predictions

We’re a little late to the party for round three due to my vacation to the bustling community of Louis Head, Nova Scotia. Okay, I’ve only spent the last 10 hours there.* But Louis Head showed me enough in those 600 minutes to give me serious retirement plans. A private beach with a home cooked meal of lobster and seafood chowder will do that to a guy. As gay as this sounds, I felt like I was living in a home you see in one of those chick flicks like the Notebook or Dear John.

*The other 86 hours have been spent in Halifax.

The first game of the Eastern Final has already occurred. As unbelievable as this may sound to some people, I was picking Tampa Bay all along despite their game one win. They remind me of the 2006 Oilers actually – a great even strength possession team who got boned by not having NHL-calibre goaltending for three quarters of the year until Zeus Roloson showed up. Only thing more awesome about T-bay than Edmonton in ‘06 is my boy Eric Brewer being a part of it all. What a stud.

Before I get into the round three picks I have to issue a small disclaimer. My paper that had each team’s even strength fenwick number written down is in Regina. Thus, I am making my picks from memory. I know Tampa is my pick for the Eastern Final because I remember being shocked to discover them having the second best fenwick number in the east behind Pittsburgh. But I can’t remember who had the better number out of the two western teams left. I think it was Van city but I’m not certain. Thus, I’m invoking a one-time only freedom pick because my hate for the Canucks transcends anything since the Flamers run before the lockout.

Watching Vancouver this playoffs makes me think how worked up I would get if the Leafs made a run one of these years since I had a mostly limited hate for Vancouver prior to a few years ago. Luckily, it’s the Leafs which means this is a moot point because they suck.*

*Here’s something that warms my heart. Since the expansion era in 1972, the Leafs are 1 of only seven teams to never win or make a cup final. The other seven – Atlanta, C-Bus, Minny, Nashville, Phoenix, and San Jose – weren’t around until the 1990’s. Bravo Toronto. You have a hell of a franchise.

The following are round two results from our prediction thread. Cumulative score from the first and second round are in brackets.

Matthew Barnaby: 2-2 (9-3)
Damien Cox: 3-1 (9-3)
MD: 3-1 (8-4)
Durf: 3-1 (7-5)
LeBrun: 1-3 (7-5)
Brophy/Spector: 1-3 (6-6)

Here are the round 3 picks:

Barnaby: Canucks, Lightning
Cox: Canucks, Lightning*
MD: Canucks, Lightning
Durf: Sharks, Lightning
LeBrun: Sharks, Lightning
Brophy/Spector: Canucks, Lightning

*I couldn’t find Damien Cox’s actual prediction in the west final but he did write an article about the Sharks being underdogs. Thus, I took the liberty of choosing the Canucks for him. And yes I’m aware that doing this is the only way I can gain any ground on him this round.