2010 NHL Playoffs Round I Eastern Conference

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-28; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (39-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):

Probably tomorrow night.

Series B: New Jersey Devils (48-35; 103 points; 1st Atlantic Division, 2nd Eastern Conference, 6th Overall) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (41-41; 88 points; 3rd Atlantic Division, 7th Eastern Conference, 18th Overall):

By earning a playoff spot with a gimmick win on Sunday evening, the Flyers got for themselves a great draw in the first round when the Devils defeated the Buffaslugs.  While everybody is justifiably concerned about the Flyers goaltending, they forget that the Flyers can score from time-to-time and when it come to shutting down juggernaut New Jersey offense, they only have to worry about Ilya Kovalchuk and Zack Parise.  The Flyers won 5 of the 6 games in the regular season, but will likely have to wear the Devils and goaltender Martin Brodeur down to win this series. That shouldn't be too hard because Brodeur is 37 and once again played well over 70 games and almost 4,500 minutes, not including the Olympics.  Since the lockout, Brodeur has faded badly in every playoff appearance and has not gotten past the first round in the last two years. Ilya Kovalchuk didn’t impress in his first playoff appearance three years ago and isn’t likely to react well to Philadelphia’s physical style of play over a two week period. In spite of the fact that he's playing for a big contract, don't expect him to greatly improve his 1 goal and 1 assist in 4 playoff games totals as the Flyers will look to intimidate him from start to finish. New Jersey however does have a real chance in this series because of the laughable state of the Flyers goaltending situation. However Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher doesn’t have to great for the Flyers to win this series, just needs not to lose the series for the Flyers. Philadelphia in seven.

Series C: Buffaslugs (45-37; 100 points; 1st Northeast Division, 3rd Eastern Conference, 11th Overall) vs. Boston3rd Northeast Division, 6th Eastern Conference, 14th Overall): Bruins (39-43; 91 points;

Well ladies and gentlemen; if you having trouble getting some sleep, this just might be the series for you to watch. Both the Buffaslugs and Boston Bruins have great defense and goaltending. They rank 4th and 2nd in the league respectively in goals against, but neither is known for scoring very much. While the Buffaslugs are 10th in goals for, the Bruins are dead last in 30th place. However, some of the Buffaslugs best forwards are nursing injuries right now and well, Boston's offense was bad before Matt Cooke blindsided Marc Savard. So if you want to try to sit through this series, we wish you the best of luck as there should be plenty of games going to overtime and plenty of overtime periods in those games. This series might become the leading argument for bringing the gimmick into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, for Boston, this is a much better fate than having to face Washington in the first round. The Buffaslugs though would be have been better off getting to the second with Montreal or Philadelphia. But instead, both teams have a fairly even series to play against each other in the first round. This series is a toss-up but because we have to pick a winner we’re going with the Buffaslugs in seven.

Series D: Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (47-35; 101 points; 2nd Atlantic Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 8th Overall) vs. Ottawa Senators (44-38, 94 points; 2nd Northeast Division, 5th Eastern Conference, 13th Overall):

Two familiar playoff foes who are playing for third time in four years get rubber match going tomorrow night. The general consensus among those with two brain cells or not complete and total homers is that the Penguin Scum are not nearly as good as they were last year. And last year they needed a ton of help in order to be awarded the Stanley Cup. So the first question begs, how much will they end up getting this year? The Penguin Scum will certainly need the help because the best player on the team, Evgeni Malkin-Lindros, has been MIA for most of the season, even when he wasn't injured. Ottawa though is banged up right now, Alexi Kovalev and Flip Kuba are out for the rest of the season, however the Senators are dangerous and very, very streaky. The big question of this series is how well does goaltender Brian Elliott play for Ottawa; If Elliott is on, the Penguin Scum are going to need to find Malkin-Lindros or just have the league break out the hose yet again to get past the Senators. But despite of all of that, we're having trouble coming up with a pick for this series because we can't decide what is stronger, our hatred for Pittsburgh or our hatred for Senator's General Manager Brian Murray? We're very wary of teams who think they only need to "turn it on" get going at this point in the season so we'll go with Ottawa in seven.