It’s that time of the year again.  While most of the country is squarely under the minion of Mel Kiper Jr. and his multiple spreadsheets of NFL draft prognostication, a select few (I call them the 2 percenters) are awaiting the NHL’s second season with glee.

The biggest story is of course Pittsburgh’s young guns of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and even Jodran Staal, who has grown up much faster than the experts predicted. While the play of these three players will certainly hold weight in allowing Pittsburg to advance, it is perhaps the play of the forgotten youngster, the small but elastic Marc-Andre Fleury, who at the age of 22 enters his first NHL playoffs--a task akin to facing down a firing squad while on your first day as deputy. 

As Fleury will find out, there is nothing in sports in any form that equals the nightly intensity of the NHL playoffs.  This is evident just by watching the fan reaction in the stands.  Forgetting ratings, popularity, and even the actual level of play, I’ve been to both NBA playoff games and NHL playoff games, and in terms of crowd noise and palpable tension, the feeling at an NBA playoff game has in my experience never matched that of an NHL playoff game.  Now of course this could be different depending on where you live, but you’d be damned to tell me that the stalwart teams of the NBA including the Lakers, Knicks, and even Bulls, could match the intensity of a Red Wings, Maple Leafs, or Canadian game in terms of crowd reaction. During a Bulls playoff game during the team’s championship dynasty Michael Jordan may have come as close as anyone to emptying Chicago’s broad streets, but if you ask a Montreal native, they’ll tell you the city literally stops and business halts to a standstill during a Montreal Canadian game.  This occurs even when the team is lousy.  

Anyways, that’s enough NHL pimping from me. Here are a couple blind predictions as to who will win out in the game Doug Larson said, “is a form of disorderly conduct in which the score is kept."  Since Josh Binstock already covered the East, (good picks by the way Josh, especially on the Penguins!) let’s move on to the west.

(1)Detroit Red Wings vs. (8) Calgary Flames

This series marks a rematch of 2004, in which a Flames team with many of the same players they have today took out the top ranked Red Wings.  Could it happen again?  Certainly.  The Flames play a gritty game, and with guys like speeder Jerome Iginla, and the vastly improved Daymond Langkow and Kristian Huselius (who both immensely increased their offensive output this year and are now two of the most underrated power forwards in he year), they certainly have the talent to win the 2-1 games they will need in this series.

With a faster team, and more offensive firepower, the Red Wings will try to keep things relatively up-tempo.  They’ll eventually get there, and define the tempo of the series, but it will take a couple games.  I expect the first couple games of this series to be a defensive struggle, with Mikka Kiprusoff probably stealing one game for Calgary on the road. 

Detroit, however, will eventually win out in this series.  They will not take the Flames lightly, having already lost to them in 2004, and having been knocked off by Edmonton last year as the #1 seed.  This year Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and one seemingly reinvigorated Dominik Hasek, will make sure that Detroit experiences no early playoff heartbreaks.  Red Wings in 5

(2) Anaheim Ducks vs (7) Minnesota Wild

Minnesota might be the number seven seed right now, but currently they are the hotter team, going 7-2-1 in the last ten games and using Coach Jacques Lemaire’s trapping system to perfection.  This is good, because although the Wild are the more defensive minded team, they certainly aren’t as good on defense as the Ducks who feature two way players Chris Pronger and Scot Niedermeyer.  They provide senior leadership and skating and shooting ability at the Anaheim blue line.

On offense the Ducks will need Temmu Selanne to have a big series, and guys like Ryan Getztlaf will have to get him the puck at critical points in the game.  While the Ducks may have more offensive talent, Minnesota is never an easy team to play, as they play a methodical game and often wait for the opponent to make a mistake.

So in a battle between scorers and “the system,” I see the Minnesota Wild, winning out, as I expect the Wild to outplay the Ducks down-low, and ride goaltender Nicklas Backstrom to a series victory.  Wild in 6.