What’s that you say? March Madness is over? You have nothing to do until Alabama and Michigan kick off in Dallas in September?
Well, never fear, because I have a solution for all you sports fans who don’t want to watch the NBA and think it’s way too early to start following baseball.
The NHL playoffs are here!
Now, I do realize that many of you have no idea what’s going on in the professional sports league that’s all too foreign to Alabamians, so I’ve comprised a simple guide for each matchup and tried to explain it in terms everyone can understand.
We’ll start in the Eastern Conference:
1 New York Rangers vs 8 Ottawa Senators: The Rangers were a popular preseason pick to win the Stanley Cup, so it’s no surprise that they find themselves atop the East, but the Senators were quite the opposite. No one in their right mind would have picked them to make the playoffs, yet here they are.
2 Boston Bruins vs 7 Washington Capitals: The Bruins won the Cup last year and are hungry for more. The Capitals have grossly underachieved this season but got hot towards the end. They also boast one of the best players in the league in Alex Ovechkin. This series could be a lot of fun.
3 Florida Panthers vs 6 New Jersey Devils: The Panthers are not a good team, but they play in an awful division, and because of the funky way the NHL seeds the playoffs, they find themselves with the three seed. It’s like if Florida were the Big East champion and the Devils are Arkansas or Georgia coming out of the SEC.
4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs 5 Philadelphia Flyers: If you only pick one series to follow in the postseason, watch this one. The Penguins have the two best players in the world — Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby — and are playing better than anybody else in the league. They’re matched against in-state rival Philadelphia, which took a lot of gambles in the offseason (YouTube “Bryzgalov universe.” You’re welcome.) to win a Cup. There will be blood.
And now over to the West.
1 Vancouver Canucks vs 8 Los Angeles Kings: The Kings looked all but out of the playoff race until they made a trade deadline acquisition for Jeff Carter to bolster their scoring. They now look set to compete with anybody in the league, including the Canucks, whose season ended in game 7 of the Finals last year.
2 St. Louis Blues vs 7 San Jose Sharks: The Blues and Sharks have under- and over-achieved, respectively, this season and find themselves matched up in the playoffs. Both teams are built the same way — with big, bruising forwards and strong goaltending — so two goals might be enough to win any game in this series.
3 Phoenix Coyotes vs 6 Chicago Blackhawks: Much like the Panthers, the Coyotes find themselves seeded so high as a product of playing in a poor division. The Blackhawks are getting healthy and playing well, which could spell trouble for what could be the last season of hockey in the desert.
4 Nashville Predators vs 5 Detroit Red Wings: The Predators are pretty much in go-for-it mode, with many of their best players set to become free agents after this season. But the team is poised to make a historic playoff run after winning its first series last season; however, the ever-consistent Detroit Red Wings are standing in their way.
