Preds and Caps Postmortem, Second Round Picks

Well…by now everyone knows the Preds were eliminated in Game 6 Monday night and my Caps fell to Montreal last night in Game 7.  What a first round!  I’m now left without a team, and without birthday plans.  Although I think I’ve decided to settle for a Kindle and that trip to Knoxville for Kirby’s hockey tournament (and fun times with my Cheryl!).  It’s not La Tasca and a Finals game, but there’s always next year.  Or a Winter Classic!

I don’t really have much bad to say about either the Preds or the Caps.  The Preds played hard and kept themselves in the game as well as I could expect, but Rinne seemed a bit shaky and let in uncharacteristic softies.  The Caps sure weren’t lacking in offense, outshooting the Habs by 20-30 shots a game.  That was one epic collapse, though, to fall from being ahead 3-1 in the series to losing it at home in the final game.

So, that leads me to which teams to root for in the next round.  You can go ahead and cross off Chicago and Montreal for obvious reasons.  Next you can strike the Pens.  So, in the East that leaves me with Boston and Philly for the two series, and Philly all the way.  Mainly because they have so many former Preds players.  In the West I’m going to break tradition and go with the Sharks, simply because they didn’t harm us this year (except that one unbelievable game mid-season).  Detroit has gone to the Finals the last two years, winning in one, so I’m going to take a break from the soul-sucking trauma that is rooting for Detroit in the Playoffs.  And as much as I dislike Vancouver, Chicago’s out, so that leaves me with…Vancouver.  Honestly, all the worst possible choices shook out in the West and I could give a crap about who goes for the West now. 

In the end, I really don’t care who wins just as long as it’s not the Penguins again.  With any luck Sidney Crosby will get injured, as well.  That would be the only consolation for what turned out to be a miserable and depressing First Round.