Playoffs - Round One, Night One, Fight!

I'm battling a bit of a cold as write this up and have had very little sleep. That is your warning for what you are about to read.

Today I'll talk about tonight's first round match-ups and I will not even bother to hide my personal feelings. Yes it's true, my dislike of teams, players and cities has been known to rear it head this time of year. But it's the playoffs and if you want to win sometimes you got to get nasty. So without further adieu....

Senators vs. Penguins 7pm EST

Wow! I'm not sure you could put two teams together for a playoff series that would make me want to claw my eyes out more. The over exposed, over hyped Sydney Crosby vs a bunch of a-holes from Ottawa that almost choked their way right out of the playoffs last week.
Granted, even if Crosby wasn't on the Pens I would still hate them, I have 15 years of playoff frustration that just won't go away. When you add the most media saturated NHL player in years to the mix I just want to vomit blood when I see them on TV. Ottawa is almost as bad. Years back I dug the style of hockey they played - it was pretty. Then it dawned on me that it was also hockey for little girls. Oh and Alfredsson is a puck hog.

Who should win - Who cares?
Who will win - Penguins in 4
Who I'm rooting for - Spontaneous combustion of several players.

Rangers vs. Devils 7pm EST

The Rangers. My God. Look, I'm just going to put this out their if you used to play in the Patrick Division and you aren't named the Washington Capitals I don't like you very much and NEVER will. And if you have Jaromir Jagr on your team I hate you twice as much.
I tolerate the Devils for my brother so I'm going to say they show the moxy they didn't have the week of the season and they man-up to make a series of this. Brodeur is one the best goalies to ever play the game and he can keep his team in this. They just need to score some goals to do it. What I'm looking for is if Jags can try to punch Scott Gomez in the back of the head again this season and dislocate his shoulder again. This would be super great since they are both on the same team.

Who should win- Devils
Who will win- Rangers - unless Jersey can find it's offense. 6 games
Who I'm rooting for - John Madden to check the hell out of Jagr all series.

Avalanche vs Wild

I like a lot of the young players the Avs have been developing the past few seasons. I don't like Forsberg very much anymore. His phantom dive against Vancouver a few weeks ago was funny and yet oh so sad.
And what do the Wild have? Jaques Lemaire. The man can flat out coach hockey. I'm sure some folks hate him for bringing the trap into existence but if he didn't someone else would have thought of it eventually.

Who should win- The Wild could pull the upset.
Who will win- Avs have the talent to move to the next round but not easily. 7 games
Who am I rooting for- I like the netminder Backstrom, if he holds up so do the Wild

Flames vs Sharks

Oh San Jose. You break my heart every year. I'm starting to think you're not playing hard to get, you are just cock tease who knows how to pull my strings. And yet I'm too stupid to realize and I keep coming back for more.
That is a gross, but accurate analogy.
I love the Sharks, I really really do. They have the make-up of a Cup winner but they pick the wort time to have collapses and breakdowns.
Calgary has a fantastic goalie, and staunch defense and nice collection of power forwards, but all rights they are evenly matched against SJ. Don't be surprised when this series gets physical and that may turn out to be something in Calgary's favor. Still...I'm a whore for Ron Wilson and his Sharks.

Who should win - It's close but I'm thinking San Jose
Who will win - See above
Who I'm rooting for - Ron Wilson is my guy and I can't abandon him now!

So throw away the Root Beer and start puttin' on the foil! Tonight we start the greatest post-season in all of sports!