The regular season has ended and here are the first round matchups as well as predictions:

In the east Montreal (8) will be in Boston (1), NY Rangers (7) will be in Washington (2), Carolina (6) will be in New Jersey (3), and Philadelphia (5) will be in Pittsburgh (4).

In the west Anaheim (8) will be in San Jose (1), Columbus (7) will be in Detroit (2), St. Louis (6) will be in Vancouver (3), and Calgary (5) will be in Chicago (4).

Predictions: Although Montreal has historically dominated Boston in the playoffs, I think Boston will win that series.  I think the Rangers will pull off an upset of Washington, it will be a good one but goaltending will cost the Caps.  NJ/Carolina is the toughest one to pick for me, but I’m going to go with NJ because they got it together their last few games and I think Carolina just had a hot streak or else they would not even be in the playoffs.  Pittsburgh will dominate Philadelphia, enough said on that series.  San Jose should be able to knock off Anaheim, although San Jose has not been a great playoff team throughout their history.  Detroit will beat Columbus.  Upset special in the west, St. Louis will knock off Vancouver.  And finally Chicago will beat Calgary unless Kippur can play the way he did prior to the trade deadline.

Lastly I would like to discuss the three point game that any fan of a team in a tight playoff race dreads down the stretch.  When two teams who are close in the playoffs are playing each other while a third team who is also close in the standing is watching that game looking for help from one of the teams the worst thing that can happen is for the game to go to overtime giving points to both teams.  Now if you isolate each game and think “well if a game goes to overtime and a shootout one team will lose, but not by regulation rules so a point should be awarded to the team for being tied after 60 minutes of regulation hockey”.   Ok… maybe, but now look at the grand scheme of things.  Some NHL games are worth three points, and some are worth two.  That does not add up, certain games should not weigh heavier in the standings than another.  In baseball each game is worth one game in the standings; half for each team.  So if the Yankees beat the Twins they gain a half game on the Red Sox (unless the Red Sox lose on the same night then the Sox would lose a half game making the Yankees gain a full game).  If the Yankees beat the Red Sox then the Yanks would gain a half game, Sox would lose a half game so head to head you gain a full game on the other team.  This does not happen in hockey because of the fact that some games are worth more than others.

There are two solutions to this problem, and I really believe it is a problem.  One: do not award a point for overtime loses, have just a win loss record and you can go to a “games back” standings system like baseball and basketball (or keep points but every game would only be worth two).  Now I know that won’t happen because this was brought up years ago and General Managers did not feel that a team who ties after regulation should go without any points if they lose a game in a shootout or four on four hockey.  So the second solution is making every game worth three points.  If a game ends in regulation, the winning team will get three points and the losing team zero.  If the game goes to overtime, then the points are split two to one with the winner getting two. 

This was discussed at the General Managers meeting in March but no changes were made.  This seems like it could work but the problems would be that points would skyrocket, and the other thing would be the NHL would have to go back to a four column record again (Wins, Overtime wins, Loses, Overtime loses), and when you factor in ties from the pre-shootout days then teams all time records versus each other will have five columns….. wow! What do our readers think?

Well hockey fans, enjoy the first round of the playoffs!!  Until next time.