2011 Stanley Cup Playoff Preview (Conference Semifinals)

Hello friends! After 1 of the most exciting and dramatic 1st rounds in Stanley Cup Playoff history it is now on to the Conference Semifinals! 1 quick note before I start and that is I will be previewing each series in the order in which each series will start! So with that let's start with the series that will kick off Round 2 tomorrow night!

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (5) Nashville Predators

After being eliminated by the Chicago Blackhawks each of the last 2 years the Canucks finally got that monkey off their back with an exciting and dramatic 2-1 OT victory in Game 7! Meanwhile the Nashville Predators made franchise history by winning their 1st ever Stanley Cup Playoff series by defeating the Anaheim Ducks in 6 games! Both teams split the season series 2-2. So who wins? Well I think that it's going to be a pretty good series for the most part but in the end I like Vancouver to win this series in 6 games as I expect the Sedin twins to have a big series as well as Roberto Luongo to bounce back from an average performance against Chicago!

Winners: Vancouver Canucks 4 games to 2

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning

For the 2nd time in 3 years the Caps took care of business against the upstart New York Rangers winning the series in 5 games! Meanwhile the Tampa Bay Lightning came back from a 3-1 series deficit against a Pittsburgh Penguin team that was without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin for their 1st playoff series win since winning their only Stanley Cup title in 2004! Washington dominated the regular season series against their division rivals 4-1-1! So who wins? Well to be honest I'm torn because my gut tells me to go with Washington but my heart tells me to go with Tampa to pull off another upset! Damn this 1 is tough but in the end I'm going to go with Washington to win this series in 7 games but watch out for Lightning goalie Dwayne Roloson who is 6-0 all time in elimination games but I think that Ove (Alexander Ovechkin) and his band of merry men have too many more weapons than the big 3 of Tampa Bay (Steven Stamkos, Martin St. Louis, and Vincent Lecavalier) along with some very good goaltending from Michal Neuvirth!

Winners: Washington Capitals 4 games to 3

(2) San Jose Sharks vs. (3) Detroit Red Wings

Of the 2 Western Semifinals series I am looking more forward to this series as this will be the 2nd straight year that these 2 Western powers will be meeting in the Conference Semis! San Jose was tested quite a bit by their division rivals the LA Kings but still managed to win that series in 6 games! Meanwhile the Red Wings will have had 9 days of rest going into Friday night's Game 1 as a result of their dominating 4 game sweep of the Phoenix Coyotes! This for me is another very tough series to call because both of these teams are scary and crazy good! To be honest San Jose needs to win this series more because they are in my opinion the best team without a Stanley Cup title and a loss to Detroit will keep that burden on their back for at least another year! While Detroit is looking for pay back on the Sharks as they were beaten by San Jose in this round last year in 5 games! San Jose won the regular season series 3-1 which going into this series gives them the slight advantage! Both teams are loaded with offensive weapons with Joe Thornton, Dany Heatley, Patrick Marleau, Devin Setoguchi, and Joe Pavelski leading the way for San Jose while Detroit counters with their veterans Pavel Datsyuk, Nicklas Lidstrom, Johan Franzen, offseason acquisition Mike Modano, and possibly could have Henrik Zetterberg back in their lineup as he did not play in the Phoenix series due to injury. San Jose has last year's playoff hero for Chicago Antii Niemi in goal while Detroit counters with Jimmy Howard! Very tough series to call but in the end I am going to go with Detroit to win this series in 7 hard fought games but I would not be surprised if San Jose wins this series but right now I have to go with the veteran and more experienced team!

Winners: Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 3

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (3) Boston Bruins

Before I get to my prediction for this series let me just give you some quick stats here! Philly overcame a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Buffalo Sabres in 7 games and in the process became the 1st team since the 1988 Detroit Red Wings to win a series using 3 different goalies (Brian Boucher, Michael Leighton, and Sergei Bobrovsky) while Boston overcame a 2-0 series deficit for the 1st time in franchise history to outlast their hated rivals the Montreal Canadiens in 1 of the greatest 7 game Playoff series you will ever see despite going 0-21 on the Power Play! Although I am looking forward to all 4 semifinal series this is the series that I am most looking forward to for so many reasons! 1. Boston will be looking for some big time payback against the Fly guys for Philly pulling off 1 of the most epic comebacks in Playoff history by overcoming a 3-0 series deficit and a 3-0 score deficit in Game 7 in Boston oh by the way! 2. Both teams are so evenly matched on the offensive side as Philly is led by Daniel Briere, Claude Giroux, Jeff Carter, and Scott Hartnell while Boston is led by Zdeno Chara, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, and the wily veteran Mark Recchi! As of now I would give the slight advantage to Boston because they won the regular season series 3-0-1! To me this is without question the toughest series for me to call! So who wins? Good question I don't know! But if I'm going to pick a winner here I will go with Boston to win this series in 7 hard fought games as I think Tim Thomas will have another monster series like he did against Montreal while Philly's goaltending will be their downfall mainly because they have 3 goalies and in my opinion 1 goalie is better than 3!

Winners: Boston Bruins 4 games to 3

Overall I am very much looking forward to Round 2 of these Stanley Cup Playoffs as I think that the Philly/Boston series will be the show stealer while San Jose and Detroit should be just as fun and entertaining while the Vancouver/Nashville and Washington/Tampa Bay series should be pretty good for the most part!

Well friends those are my thoughts on the Conference Semifinals thanks so much for reading and be sure to join me back here on Saturday night as I will not only have my predictions for Sunday's WWE Extreme Rules PPV but I might also have my predictions for the 2nd round of the NBA Playoffs as well so stay tuned for that! So until then you know the routine everybody! Thumbs up talk to ya later! YEAH!!! Bye bye for now!