It's a big weekend. Purdue's women kick off Big Ten tournament play tonight against Michigan St. Purdue's men will look for vengeance against the Hoosiers on Sunday. The Blackhawks look for another big win to try to climb into a position to get home ice again tonight. The Pacers look for their sixth straight win tomorrow. Good times all around. The problem is, they are all in the future, and prognosticating those games doesn't make for very interesting reading. What might be a little more interesting is a "What would happen if the playoffs started today?" game with the NHL. Let's start out west, because those are the teams I know better. In the first round, Vancouver would take on Dallas, Detroit would have San Jose, Phoenix would have Chicago, and St. Louis would have Nashville. I think all the top seeds would move on here except for Phoenix. The Blackhawks catch a pretty big break here because of how the NHL playoffs are set up. Unlike the NBA, divisions mean a little bit in hockey. Division winners get the top three seeds and guaranteed home ice. This means that even though the Coyotes only have 75 points, which would have them in a tie for sixth with the Blackhawks, they get to slide into third. I think the Blackhawks are much better than sixth place, but unfortunately find themselves there thanks to an extended losing streak that sticks out like a sore thumb. I think they'll fix that by the playoffs. After the reseeding in the second round, that would pit Vancouver against Chicago (again), and Detroit against St. Louis. I think Vancouver would probably take care of Chicago fairly easily. They are just finishing off their revenge after Chicago kept putting them out of the playoffs until last year. Detroit and St. Louis would be a very good series against probably the two best home ice teams in the league. Because of this, I'm saying it would go seven games and end with a Detroit win. In a Vancouver-Detroit conference final, I want to pick Vancouver. I don't really know what's holding me back from it, either. But my gut is saying Detroit takes this one surprisingly easily. Five games. I don't want to be right about that, but that's what I'm seeing. In the Eastern Conference, the first round would have the Rangers taking on a surprisingly spry Jets team, defending-champion Bruins against the Devils, Florida against Ottawa, and Pittsburgh against Philadelphia. The Jets would put up a much better fight than if they were in the same position in Atlanta, just because of the crowd and buzz around them in Canada. But, the Rangers would prevail, I think. I also think the Bruins would brush by the Devils no problem. Ottawa and Florida would be a very good series, both being pretty surprising squads. I think I would pick Ottawa, though it would be a seven gamer that could go either way. And Pitt-Philly would also be a seven-game series, probably the best series of the first round. I'll take the Pens here, mostly because as much as Fluery scares me sometimes, he's still light years ahead of anybody the Flyers would stick in goal. In the second round, that leaves us with the Rangers taking on the Sens and the Bruins with the Penguins. A couple solid series, but I think both top seeds would move on without too much trouble. And then the Blueshirts magical run would end, because the Bruins are a very, very good team who are looking to repeat. As much as I would like a repeat of last year's Stanley Cup, I do think it will be Detroit and Boston. Still a good match up, and Original Six ordeal. I'd be pulling for Boston in this one, but I think Detroit would take it. Maybe it's because Detroit was so dominant when I first really started paying attention to hockey, maybe the fearful Blackhawk fan in me (it doesn't take long to pick up, trust me). But I think Detroit would take this one, we'll say in six games. It'll be interesting to revisit this a little closer to the playoffs, though, because both conferences are still so tight in their seeding. Things are definitely subject to change. Comments are closed.
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