Round 1 Debrief

So I guess for the sake of simplicity I won't really go over the teams I correctly predicted. But I did make 4 errors.
To begin with let's start with Washington/New York. New York was up 2-0 in the series and then 3-1. It all looked like it was New York's series to win but it all went downhill very quickly. To begin, Goaltending was key. Simeon Varlamov is proving that he can stand tall in his trial by fire and the relatively unknown goalie proved to backstop Washington solidly while the Caps did what they do best in scoring. Henrik Lundqvist turned out to be human afterall and Washington managed to score fairly consistently on him to get themselves into that game seven. In a series I thought goaltending would be the big deciding vote, it surely was. There was no Jose Theodore to give the Rangers an offensive chance. Simeon Varlamov managed to shut that down.

New Jersey/Carolina
This was a tough one and an exciting one for sure. Cam Ward was phenomanal and Martin Brodeur may be showing signs of slowing down. The offensive guns for Carolina outshone those of the Devils and in a series where once again goaltending was to prevail, Ward simply did it better

San Jose/ Anaheim
This was a big one. Not many thought Anaheim would pull it off and yet here we are with another Shark choke. It was definitely a shock for sure to see them lose once again and yet not so much. I personally thought this might be the year the sharks go dep but as a Senators fan I know the feeling of having a strong solid team and experience an early upset. The sharks simply disappeared. Their big guns showed up too little too late and in the end they failed togive their team a fighting chance.

Pittsburgh/Philadelphia
This one should have ben a lot closer I think. Philly simply took too many penalties in the first two games and that cost them the series. Goaltending, as usual, also played a role with Biron not looking like he was up to task.

In the end it was clear the better teams won with 7/8 Favourites winning. Shame San Jose didn't get the Memo on that....