Bruins-Canadiens

Every Boston Montreal series is intense but this time the grudges go beyond tradition. Claude Julien, fired by Montreal in 2006 is the head coach of the conference champions.

Boston finished at the top of the Eastern Conference with but they’ve been in this position before against Montreal, posting more than 100 points in 02 and 04 only to drop their first round series to the underdog Canadiens. They hope that Tim Thomas who led the league in Goals against and save percentage will continue his magical season and carry them past the Habs.

This will mark the 32nd time Montreal and Boston have met in the playoffs with the Habs holding a huge 24-7 advantage in the meetings. And have continued that dominance recently winning the past 3 in 2002, 2004 and again last season.
Like the Western Conference, we could see another conference champ golfing after the first round. When these two teams meet in the playoffs history has shown us, the regular season records don’t matter but this time the Bruins will pull it out with the help of Tim Thomas.

Rory Says, “NHL Betters should take Boston in 5.”

Capitals-Rangers

On paper, this series could be as exciting as any we see in the first round but fortunately, the games are played on the ice. These two teams are complete opposites right now. The Caps are exciting and put up goals in bunches while the Rangers can’t find the net and lean heavily on their defense and goaltending.

The key to the Capitals success will be Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin is the most electrifying player in the game today, not only did he lead the league in goals and finish second in the NHL with 110 points, he lead Washington with 247 hits. You have to love a scorer who isn’t afraid to bump a body.

With Marcus Naslund, Scott Gomez and Chris Drury all under performing the Rangers have had to lean on Henrik Lundqvist but there are few better goalies in the league equipped to carry mediocre offence. The late in the season firing of Tom Renney and hiring of John Tortorella helped keep the team from a complete collapse but a 12-9 record over the final 21 won’t put NY fans at ease.

The Capitals have all the weapons to put away the Rangers in this series but I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Rangers pull this out. I have a hard time believing that so many veterans will continue to disappoint when the games switch to the tighter, grind it out style of the NHL Playoffs.

Rory Gold says, “NHL Bettors should take the Rangers in 7.”

Devils-Hurricanes

The Hurricanes were a feel good story with their cup win in 2006 and this year has the same feel, Paul Morris is back behind the bench and Erik Cole has reunited with Eric Staal and the combination has been magic. The Devils had their own feel good moment this season as Martin Brodeur became the NHL leader in career wins.

New Jersey is many experts’ picks to come out of the east. Brodeur was limited to 31 games this season was spectacular in his return but lost his final 5 games to limp into the playoffs. Should Brodeur bounce back he will have some offensive help in front of him for the 2009 playoffs. Zach Parise scored 45 this season and Patrik Elias, Jamie Langenbrunner, Travis Zajac and Brian Gionta have been big contributors on offence.

Carolina has been a different team since the re-hiring of Paul Maurice. The hurricanes have been an offensive force and Cam Ward has been a workhorse playing in 28 straight before resting the final game of the season. Erik Cole’s return at the deadline has lit a fire under star Eric Staal with the latter putting up 36 points in the past month.

I’m going with the Hurricanes in this one; it seems like the perfect storm of chemistry with Cole returning and the addition of former great Ron Francis to help Maurice behind the bench.

Rory Says “NHL Bettors should take Carolina in 6.”

Penguins-Flyers
Both Teams finished with 99 points, the Flyers over performed while the Penguins didn’t finish as high as they expected. This battle of state rivals will be fast and high scoring but I don’t see it lasting long.

The Flyers finished last in the East two seasons ago and improved to 6th a year ago. GM Paul Holmgren and Coach John Stevens expect a series win or two in 2009 to show their work has been paid off. Holmgren has built a balanced yet relentless offensive attack boasting four 30 goals scorers, Detroit the only other team to have as many.
The Penguins are loaded with offence, phenom Syd the Kid, NHL leading scorer Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal combined for 265 points this season. While they struggled midseason to the point where a playoff birth was in doubt this team will accept nothing less than a Stanley Cup finals victory.

Every game in this series could be decided by whichever team scores the last goal. While the Flyers can come close to matching Pittsburgh’s offensive juggernaut, they will be forced to rely on Martin Biron to keep it close.

Rory Gold says, “NHL Bettors should take Pittsburgh in 5.”