Round 1 Playoff Predictions

After seeing Dan's predictions he posted on Facebook (what, is your blog no longer good enough?), it reminded me to post my own.  Because apparently I still care enough.  So there's that.

In the East, New York over Ottawa in 5 - For a team that was predicted by many to finish dead last, Ottawa has done surprising well for themselves. I'd like to see them surprise more and move onto the second round, but these predictions aren't who I want to win, it's who I think will win.  The Rangers are just too good this year.

Boston over Washington in 4 - Because Washington is just terrible this year.

New Jersey over Florida in 6 - Just because you're the 3rd seed doesn't mean you only got there by winning the southeast division. You're the smartest kid on the short bus.

Philadelphia over Pittsburgh in 7 - This series is going to be all kinds of awesome.

In the West, Los Angeles over Vancouver in 7 - Because of a hot goaltender. Although I kind of want to see Vancouver make it to the second round just to be beat by the Blackhawks.

St. Louis over San Jose in 5 - Because where did the Blues come from this season?

Chicago over Phoenix in 7 - Followed by the Coyotes booking plane tickets to Quebec City for next season.

Detroit over Nashville in 6 - Because, flip a coin?  I have no insight into this series, but... it's Nashville, come on.

NHL Realignment: I Called It!

According to this article, it'll be 4 conferences, with teams playing teams outside their conference twice (home and away). The top 4 teams from each conference would make the playoffs. The only difference between my suggestion and this is that inter-conference playoffs only happen after round 2, so there's only 1 team per conference left. Also, the teams composing the conferences is different (but I was never stuck on them anyway).

I draw your attention to my post from July 14 of this year.

The best idea the NHL has ever had, and it came from me.

NHL Realignment Idea For 2012

With Winnipeg replacing Atlanta in the NHL next year and playing this season in the Southeast division, realignment for the 2012-13 season is a necessity. I think that the NHL should take this opportunity to not just realign the divisions and conferences, but to really restructure the league in a way that will encourage local rivalries and ensure that the 2 best teams are playing each other for the Stanley Cup.I had a brainstorm today of what that could look like and was kind of impressed with myself and how it worked, I had to share it.

First of all, forget 3 divisions in 2 conferences. That's gone. In fact, conferences are gone altogether. In this structure, there will be 4 independent divisions (2 with 7 teams and 2 with 8 teams). To keep the current 82 game schedule, each team will play the teams in the other divisions twice (1 home and 1 away) and play teams within their own division either 5 or 6 times, depending on if they're in a 7 or 8 team division. For teams within the 7 team division, it's simple: play each team in your division 6 times. For teams within the 8 team division, it's a bit more complicated: you have to have to imaginarily split the division in half (play teams within your half 6 times and the other 4 teams 5 times). That will work out to 82 games in total, half home and half away. Go ahead and do the math... I'll wait.

The top 4 teams in each division will make the playoffs. The first round will be played intradivision (1 vs 4, 2 vs 3). After the first round, the remaining 8 teams will be ranked according to their regular season points and then 1 plays 8, 2 plays 7, and so on, reseeding after each round, as the playoffs do now. Finally, 2 teams are left that are from any division... even the same.

Pros for this concept:

• More games vs local rivals during the regular season
• Guaranteed first round matchup vs divisional rival
• The best 2 teams in the league can meet up in the Stanley Cup Final, even if they are in the same division.  This will enable possible finals like: Montreal vs Toronto, Detroit vs Chicago, Edmonton vs Calgary, New York vs Boston, LA vs Anaheim or even the epic Tampa vs Florida.
• Games against out-of-division teams are perfectly balanced for all teams in the league

Cons for this concept:

• What do you do with the conference championship trophies? Since the ridiculously superstitious players never seems to want to touch it anyway, you could just stop awarding it and keep it in the Hall of Fame.  Or my idea is that you just designate one semifinal to be the Campbell series and the other the Prince of Wales series... doesn't have to be east or west.

Here's a possible new divisional alignment:

West Division	South Division
Vancouver	Florida
Calgary	Tampa Bay
Edmonton	Nashville
San Jose	Dallas
Los Angeles	Carolina
Anaheim	Colorado
Phoenix	St. Louis

East Division	North Division
Boston	Montreal
New York Rangers	Ottawa
New York Islanders	Toronto
Buffalo	Detroit
New Jersey	Chicago
Pittsburgh	Columbus
Philadelphia	Minnesota
Washington	Winnipeg

Anyway, that's my bright idea. I can dream, can't I?

Round 2 Pick-a-roo

I went 5 for 8 last round. Let's do better this time.

Washington over Tampa in 6
Boston over Philadelphia in 7
Nashville over Vancouver in 6
Detroit over San Jose in 5

Round One Picks 2011

Just getting my picks down on virtual paper before the playoffs start.

Washington over New York in 6
Philadelphia over Buffalo in 5
Boston over Montreal in 5
Tampa Bay over Pittsburgh in 6

Chicago over Vancouver in 6
Los Angeles over San Jose in 7
Detroit over Phoenix in 6
Anaheim over Nashville in 6

Round 2 Picks For You

I only picked 3 first round series correct, which means I did worse than most monkeys. But I got one exactly correct (Sharks in 6), so... consolation? Anyway, round 2 goes like this:

Pittsburgh 4-0 Montreal
Boston 4-2 Philadelphia
San Jose 4-2 Detroit
Chicago 4-1 Vancouver

Better Late Than Never Playoff Predictions

Yeah, I made predictions for the NHL playoffs before they started. Honestly. So, I'm just posting it late. I'm totally not letting the knowledge of the last 5 night affect my predictions at all. Some of them are already wrong... but I'm still gonna post them.

Washington 4-1 Montreal
New Jersey 4-3 Philadelphia
Buffalo 4-2 Boston
Ottawa 4-2 Pittsburgh

San Jose 4-2 Colorado
Chicago 4-1 Nashville
Los Angeles 4-3 Vancouver
Detroit 4-1 Phoenix

See? Phoenix is already up 2-1 in their series. I can't get that one right now. But, in my defense, how was I supposed to know that Phoenix actually had a hockey team?

The New Hockey Night In Canada Theme Song

That's my brother's kick at the HNIC song contest. Go to the song's page to give it a high rating and nice comment to give it a better chance of becoming a finalist.

My Greatest Fear

The Stanley Cup playoffs are upon us and something funny is going on. I'm not ready to suggest a full blown conspiracy, but I'm getting close.

The Montreal Canadiens have won a Stanley Cup in every decade. With there being only 2 years left, I thought for sure that this streak would be ending, thankfully. Before this season started, they were supposed to be fighting for 8th place at best. But it turns out that they finished 1st in the East. So, with time being of the essence, the Habs look to be a contender for the cup. Like I said, something funny is going on. Therefore, as much as I will be rooting against them, Montreal is my pick for the cup... because it's been predetermined. Huh, look at that... I did suggest a full blown conspiracy.

My first round predictions are as follows:
Montreal over Boston
Pittsburgh over Ottawa
Washington over Philadelphia
New York over New Jersey

Nashville over Detroit
San Jose over Calgary
Minnesota over Colorado
Anaheim over Dallas

Week (or so) In Review

I haven't been posting much lately, but things have been happening, so this'll basically be 3 posts for the price of 1!

I got back from my cruise last week. I was another great time. This year we were on the ms Westerdam. It was, for the most part, the same ship as we went on last year, as they're both of the same class, so I knew my way around right off the bat (a good thing). This year, our stops included Half Moon Cay (Little San Salvador Island), San Juan, St. Thomas/St. John, and Nassau. The highlight this year was the Bioluminescent Bay Kayak excursion, in which we kayaked into a bay at night and saw how when the water was disturbed, it glowed. Way cool. And by the end, I had only gained 1.6lbs despite eating whatever and whenever I wanted... but of course, I was much more active while on the trip.

My second mini-post is to say that I went to the Winter Classic game in Buffalo on New Year's Day. It was the bachelor party activity for Marty. We had tickets up in the third level, so the play was quite far away, but you could still see the action. We tailgated before the game, and made Marty do ridiculous things. He was a really good sport about it... in fact, I think he enjoyed it a little too much. The crowd was really awesome and everyone was into the game. Unfortunately, the snow created frequent stop in play as they had to clear and/or fix the ice. But in the end, Crosby won the game in a shootout, so it was everything the NHL could have wanted.

And following that, yesterday Marty got married to Felicity. I was fortunate enough to be asked to be a groomsman (which marks my fifth time being in a wedding party). It was a lot of fun, and I got to meet a few new people. Congratulations to them, if they read this.

I can't promise more frequent updates... I'll try, but no promises.

I Know Where I've Seen This Before

Still on this Predators to Hamilton thing... It's been suggested that to ensure that attendance stays low so the Predators can get out of their lease with the city of Nashville, they can do a couple things: raise the prices of tickets to an insane amount of money, or put the crappiest team on the ice possible so no one comes to watch.

If the latter turned out to be the case, wouldn't that be quite the credibility problem for the NHL? Thinking about this possibility got me thinking that I've seen this somewhere before... then it hit me. The movie Major League. You remember that one... it has Charlie Sheen as the "Wild Thing". The owner of the Cleveland Indians wanted to move them to Miami (this was before the Florida Marlins) so she got rid of all the good players and got a bunch of nobodies. Life imitates Hollywood, I guess. I'd go see Major League 4: Ice Cold.

Hamilton Predators

Hey look, I found my blog! I was wondering where that went.

So anyway, the following topic is one which I've been following with great interest over the last few weeks, but I wasn't sure of what to say about it. I'm still not, but there's a post-shaped void in my blog that needs to be filled.

I'm sure by now, we've all heard the news that Jim Balsille (CEO of RIM and generally filthy rich) has almost finalized a deal to purchase the Nashville Predators... a team that is quite good, but is ripe for relocation because of poor attendance. Right now, barring a bunch of tickets being sold in Nashville (unlikely), it looks like a foregone conclusion that the team will move to Hamilton. Hamilton, a city that been baited with the prospect of having an NHL team many times before. This potential move has been discussed a great deal, especially on Prime Time Sports, which I listen to frequently. Most people think another NHL team in southern Ontario will thrive with a base of hockey fans and corporations that are basically shut out of being able to go see Toronto Maple Leaf games.

I'm here to tell you that it won't be the grand success that some are making it out to be.

Of course, I think a team will be able to operate and stay afloat, but it just won't be a smashing success... and I'll tell you why.

Let's go back to December when Balsille was about to purchase the Pittsburg Penguins, which eventually fell through, but the word on the street was the his intentions were to move the team to southern Ontario... initially, the speculation centreing around Hamilton. But then the speculation started to change, and since this guy's done a bunch of stuff in Waterloo (keeping RIM here, doing things with the university, etc), the new rumour was that he wanted to actually have a team somewhere in K-W. Personally, I thought, "Yeah right... it'd be cool, but no chance". Eventually, the Penguins deal fell through and that was that... until the Predators deal came along.

Since the Predators could easily be moved as their lease would be easy to get out of due to attendance, speculation was flying much more than before on the team being moved to S. Ontario. But this time, the bulk of the speculation focused on K-W. It's at this point I made my mistake... I bought into the rumours of a NHL team in town here in Waterloo, and I got excited about the prospect. Well, then the deal with Hamilton came to light and I thought, "I'm not going to switch allegiances for a team in Hamilton". And that's when it struck me, and this bring me back to my point about how a team in Southern Ontario won't be a huge success... If I won't switch loyalties to a team in Hamilton, what's to make someone who's not from K-W root for a team here if this was the final destination. The answer is... nothing. This area is full of hockey fans, but they already have their favorite teams, be it the Leafs, Red Wings, Canadiens, Sabres, Senators, or miscellaneous. The only core fans a new team here can hope to get are the ones in the actual city the team moves to.

So, Hamilton... have your NHL team... you'll do alright. But you can't count on hordes of fans coming from Waterloo Region, Brantford, London, Mississauga, etc.

Of course, maybe I'm just bitter that the impossible dream isn't going to become a reality.

Hockey Stuff

So, the Leafs lost last night. No real surprise there, but the Leafs did have a nice start where Gerber made a few beauty saves. But a loss is a loss, and the Leafs always lose to the Senators*.

I read a disturbing article today about how the CBC's contract with the NHL is up after this year and that CTV/TSN is expected to get a 10 year deal to broadcast Hockey Night In Canada. I can't even imagine how awful it will be to have those tools on "NHL on TSN" doing HNIC. I like Dave Hodge, Bob Mackenzie, and even Pierre McGuire (if he wasn't the colour commentator), but I can't stand Darren Dreger and Tie Domi. I know, those guys are the new ones, but they made a show I hated last year even worse. I really can't put my finger on what it is about that show that I've never liked, but I've never liked it. It's too bad that Sportsnet really cut back on Hockeycentral, because I liked that show.

And in other news, it looks like the guy who owns the Waterloo company RIM bought the Penguins. The craziest rumour I heard connected with that is if he can't get a new arena in Pittsburg he'll move the team to Canada... most likely Hamilton. But if Hamilton falls through, he'll just bring 'em to Kitchener-Waterloo. That's freakin' nuts! I, for one, welcome our new Penguin overlords. I say build a new huge arena on that Centre Block in downtown Kitchener. The Waterloo Penguins... heh, it'll never happen, but man it's fun to think about.

* - In the regular season only

Maple Leafs' 06-07 Schedule (or... "Do You Think Doing It More Makes It More Special... Or Less Special?")

Every season I like to put the Leafs' TV schedule in an easy to print format in a spreadsheet to put on the wall beside my desk for easy reference (click here to download the .pdf... it's quite good). Nothing too much different this year when compared to last year. 28 games on CBC, 27 on TSN, 15 on Sportsnet, and 12 on LeafsTV. There's no olympic break this year, so it's not as busy at the end, and it ends a couple weeks earlier.

However, something struck me as odd. 7 of the 8 game that Toronto plays against Montreal are on Saturday night... Hockey Night in Canada. Am I the only one who thinks that the CBC is really overdoing the whole "it's a special night because it's the old-time rivals meeting up on Saturday night on HNIC" thing? When it was a handful of games a season, I agree, it was a little bit special. But I think it's just a bit of overkill. Last season, 6 of the 8 games were Saturday. Granted, they play a bunch more games against each other now than they did before the lockout, so maybe that has a hand in it. I don't know, maybe I'm being overly sensitive. Sensitive to what, I don't know.

Anyway, predictions for this season... 11th in the East. That's right, I went there.

Peca in Toronto?

So, a day after Lindros leaving to go to Dallas, the word on the street is that Michael Peca has signed a deal with the Leafs to play next season. That's good and all... he's a good player. I'm just interested in seeing him on the same team with Tucker. That is all.

Oilers Fans

Did you catch Game 3 of the Oilers vs. Ducks series on Tuesday night. What a fantastic game! Or, more accuately, what a third period! Eight goals, and a monstrous near-comeback by Anaheim. Crazy.

But actually this caught my attention... Before the game, the crowd was sing the national anthem so loudly, the singer actually stopped and held up the microphone and let the crowd finish the job. It was just amazing. I always thought that would be a great idea... a perfect way to really get the home crowd into it even more. There's a video of it posted on the web here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meLpuF9UMvk. Those are quite the fans over there in Edmonton. Being a Leafs fan, I think we're pretty good, but I could never imagine the suits in the Air Canada Centre ever doing something like this. Good for Edmonton... I hope they win the cup.

Old School Sting vs Knights

I was in for a treat on New Year's Day as I went with the fam to the Sarnia Sports and Entertainment Centre to see the Sarnia Sting play the London Knights. This was the first Sting home game I've been to in over a year. Now ever since the Sting moved from the Sarnia Arena to the SSEC, the atmosphere has been awful at OHL games in Sarnia. Maybe things have changed (unlikely) or perhaps it was because there were a good number of London fans there (likely), but this was a great game to be at live. In the first few years of the Sting being in existance, the Sarnia-London games were always bigtime rivalry games... Lots of intensity, hits, fights, and players playing like they really wanted to win. I think it has lost it's edge since London was moved from the West division to the Midwest division, but last night you couldn't tell. It was the second game of a home and home series, and it started with a fight (which actually is kind of lame). Anyway, the past two years, Sarnia have really been a horrible team, while London... quite the opposite. But Sarnia prevailed this time, winning 5-2. There was a nice brawl with a few minutes left in the third, and some superfans were able to distract the London bench. It was not a good night for the Knights.

Anyway, to top it all off, at the end of the game all the Sting players lined up on the blue line and saluted the fans by raising their sticks. I thought that was really cool. I don't know if they've been doing that all season when they win at home (which really can't be all that often) or if all OHL teams are doing it now, but I thought it was a great idea, and it really makes me want to root for them the rest of the season.

NHL All-Star Game Cancelled

So, they've cancelled the all-star game now, eh? I'm not saying this is a surprise... it's not. It'd be a surprise if they actually played next season. But do you want to know the worst thing about this is? That means that the next available All-Star game will be held in Atlanta to make up for this lost one. AT-FREAKIN-LANTA!?!?!!? I'll admit, it probably is good for the hockey fans in Atlanta. Seriously, I hope they both have a great time.

Matt Wins the Stanley Cup!

Why not? Nobody else will win it this year.



Well, I suppose I didn't win it... But I did stand beside it on my trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame with Dan. Yep, Dan and I went to the happiest place on earth while the ladies wasted their time shopping. Good deal. Here are some other pictures.





The only drawback was that I didn't get to destroy the "lucky loonie". I hate that coin! Seriously, it was a good idea the first time, but now there's a lucky loonie for everything Canada is involved with. It's ridiculous! The mystique has been totally destroyed by everyone wanting to copy a good idea.