Delusion-Elle

The first round of the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup playoffs ended yesterday night and, boy, was this an interesting first round! My predictions for the first round were very very very off. I only ended up predicting the winners of 3 of the 8 match-ups correctly, but even then I did not get the number of games right. Granted, I'm not a big hockey statistics person so I didn't expect very accurate predictions from myself, but let's take a look at the second round now...

West

Blues vs. Kings (in 7) - The Blues did win their series against the Sharks, and they did so in a mere 5 games. Yes, the Kings have some stellar goaltending, but the Blues have Elliott and Halak -- both are superstar goalies who, in my opinion, are the main reason why the team made it so far this year. That being said, Quick and Bernier are good, as well! Neither team has a really exceptional superstar, but their goalies are why they're here, and because of that, I think that it'll be a close series, but I think the Blues have the edge.

Coyotes vs. Preds (in 7) - This should be another close series. Smith and Rinne have been superb goalies so far, but I don't think that the discrepancies in this series will lie with the netminding. The Coyotes have always been a moderately good team, but the Predators have been getting really good in the most recent years, so I'll give them the edge in this match-up.

East

Rangers vs. Caps (in 6) - Again, I feel like I'm just waiting for the Caps to choke. They are known for it, and I don't think that that trend will be changing. The goaltending for the Rangers has been good, and surprisingly, the Caps have found some stable goaltending with Holtby. I'd like to see Ovechkin push this to 6 or 7 games, but I think that the Rangers definitely have the edge in this one. Also, Tortorella is scary when he's mad.

Flyers vs. Devils (in 6) - The Flyers were very strong in the first round, and I don't think that that momentum will be disappearing. The Devils... I admit that I know very very little about the Devils. I remember their poor performance a few years ago, but it looks like the team has picked itself up again. That being said, I don't think that this is their year to recapture Cup glory.

I will probably be very very wrong for some of these, but that's the fun of playoff predictions! :D