Okay, admittedly my predictions this year have been less than stellar, but only one more series to go:
Detroit vs Pittsburgh - Tough series, both teams are on huge rolls right now. Both are looking extremely impressive, and both have been dominating the competition thus far. They match up very well too, both have great offense, solid goaltending, and solid defence. I'd give the slight edge in defence to Detroit, and the slight edge in offense to Pittsburgh, and goaltending I'd say they're about equal (Osgood has been much better than his stats indicate, and Fleury hasn't quite been as spectacular as his stats would indicate). Tough series to call, but I'll give the edge to the Wings for two reasons: home ice and experience. My prediction: Detroit in 6.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Round 3 predictions
I don't even want to think about my round 2 results (LOL), so I'm going straight to round 3 predictions. Hopefully I'll do better (I suppose I couldn't do any worse....)
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Eastern Conference
Pittsburgh Penguins vs Philadelphia Flyers - Interesting matchup. So far the Pens have absolutely dominated the competition, whereas the Flyers barely squeaked by the Caps, and then had a relatively easy go against the suddenly inconsistent Habs. This will be a much different test for Pittsburgh, as neither Ottawa nor New York had anywhere near the physical presence or defensive mindset of the Flyers. As well, Biron is simply playing outstanding. Really tough one to call, but I can't see the Pens completely falling apart given their outstanding start. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit Red Wings vs Dallas Stars - Holy crap is Marty Turco a goaltending god or what? I watched all 4 OT periods of that last Sharks/Stars game and he was simply amazing. Looking extremely calm and confident right now. The team playing in front of him looks pretty good too, they looked a bit shaky at times vs the Sharks, but managed to persevere and come through. Detroit OTOH completely obliterated Colorado in round 2, and is simply on a roll right now. Really close matchup, in many ways this matchup was destined to happen -- the two teams were #1 and #2 in the Western conference for a good chunk of the season until Dallas slipped a bit in the later going. Flip a coin, but I really like Dallas's experience, and even though Osgood is playing about as well as he ever has, there's no doubt which team has the better 'tender. My prediction: Dallas in 6.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Xbox Live Orientation
Came across this while watching the latest Sessler's Soapbox. It's a funny vid of a hypothetical Xbox Live Orienation, and it's gets everything just about completely bang on.
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/videos/21418/Xbox_Live_Orientation.html
Round 2 - My wife's predictions
My wife's turn:
Eastern Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - Colorado in 6
San Jose vs Dallas - Sharks in 6
Western Conference
Pittsburgh vs New York - Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal vs Philly - Montreal in 7
Eastern Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - Colorado in 6
San Jose vs Dallas - Sharks in 6
Western Conference
Pittsburgh vs New York - Pittsburgh in 6
Montreal vs Philly - Montreal in 7
Round 2 Predictions
Okay, now that round 1 is over and it's already official I won't do as well this year as last year (I was wrong with only 1 series in all of last year's playoffs), it's time to move on to round 2. Here's my pics:
Eastern Conference
Montreal vs Philadelphia - I watched a good chunk of the Flyers/Caps series, and in particular that game 7 in which the Capitals were flat out robbed by some absolutely horrible officiating. The Flyers were clearly outplayed by a younger, more enthusiastic Capitals team, but found themselves on the winning side of the series due more to luck than anything else (IMHO). And that was against an (at-best) average Capitals team. Montreal looked rock solid in all but 2 of the games against Boston (the execptions being #5 and #6 where they really looked tentative). They're young, but unlike the Capitals they are a much more complete team, and are coming off of a very strong performance in game 7 against Boston. I don't think this one's even going to be close. If there's a sweep in round 2, this will be it. My prediction: Montreal in 4.
Pittsburgh vs New York - Wow, how about that Malkin guy eh? Sidney who? ;) Okay okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but right now the Pens look like the team to beat in the East. Everybody knew the offense would be there, but Fleury looked absolutely rock-solid in net and goaltending was the biggest question mark about this team going into the post-season. If Fleury can keep it up, the Pens could very easily go all the way this year. New York played very well against a completely flat New Jersey team, but they are an aging team, and I don't think they have the depth, enthusiasm, or determination to get past the Pens. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - DING! Fight! This should be the best series of round 2. These two teams have history going back a long ways, and it's the first time they've met in the post-season in a long time. A lot of people are looking at Detroit as the clear favourite, but I actually think this series is quite close. Colorado looked very good disposing of Minnesota, and Detroit looked quite shaky at times vs Nashville. This one may very well come down to goaltending, and I don't think there's any question that the Avs have the edge in that regard. Should be close, but my prediction: Colorado in 7.
San Jose vs Dallas - This one's also pretty tough to call. San Jose looked very vulnerable against a gritty Calgary team in round 1, and Joe Thornton played well in game 7, but was almost invisible for the rest of the series. Dallas on the other hand surprised many with their "upset" of the defending Stanley Cup champs. Really close series, but San Jose is still my pick to go all the way. My prediction: San Jose in 7.
Eastern Conference
Montreal vs Philadelphia - I watched a good chunk of the Flyers/Caps series, and in particular that game 7 in which the Capitals were flat out robbed by some absolutely horrible officiating. The Flyers were clearly outplayed by a younger, more enthusiastic Capitals team, but found themselves on the winning side of the series due more to luck than anything else (IMHO). And that was against an (at-best) average Capitals team. Montreal looked rock solid in all but 2 of the games against Boston (the execptions being #5 and #6 where they really looked tentative). They're young, but unlike the Capitals they are a much more complete team, and are coming off of a very strong performance in game 7 against Boston. I don't think this one's even going to be close. If there's a sweep in round 2, this will be it. My prediction: Montreal in 4.
Pittsburgh vs New York - Wow, how about that Malkin guy eh? Sidney who? ;) Okay okay, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but right now the Pens look like the team to beat in the East. Everybody knew the offense would be there, but Fleury looked absolutely rock-solid in net and goaltending was the biggest question mark about this team going into the post-season. If Fleury can keep it up, the Pens could very easily go all the way this year. New York played very well against a completely flat New Jersey team, but they are an aging team, and I don't think they have the depth, enthusiasm, or determination to get past the Pens. My prediction: Pittsburgh in 6.
Western Conference
Detroit vs Colorado - DING! Fight! This should be the best series of round 2. These two teams have history going back a long ways, and it's the first time they've met in the post-season in a long time. A lot of people are looking at Detroit as the clear favourite, but I actually think this series is quite close. Colorado looked very good disposing of Minnesota, and Detroit looked quite shaky at times vs Nashville. This one may very well come down to goaltending, and I don't think there's any question that the Avs have the edge in that regard. Should be close, but my prediction: Colorado in 7.
San Jose vs Dallas - This one's also pretty tough to call. San Jose looked very vulnerable against a gritty Calgary team in round 1, and Joe Thornton played well in game 7, but was almost invisible for the rest of the series. Dallas on the other hand surprised many with their "upset" of the defending Stanley Cup champs. Really close series, but San Jose is still my pick to go all the way. My prediction: San Jose in 7.
Round 1 - Comparison With TSN
Another thing I commonly do is compare my predictions with those of the "experts" at TSN. For those unfamiliar, they have a panel of hockey people who make predictions along with a monkey who spins a wheel to randomly pick a winner for a series. What's interesting is that oftentimes the monkey does better than the experts. :)
The picks from the people at TSN for this year can be found here.
So how did I do? Here's the breakdown:
Bob McKenzie 6-2
Mike Milbury 5-3
Darren Pang 5-3
James Duthie 5-3
Maggie the Monkey 5-3
Adam "Pedle Zelnip" 5-3
My wife 2-6
So basically I was about the same as the people at TSN. Here's hoping I can improve in round #2.
The picks from the people at TSN for this year can be found here.
So how did I do? Here's the breakdown:
Bob McKenzie 6-2
Mike Milbury 5-3
Darren Pang 5-3
James Duthie 5-3
Maggie the Monkey 5-3
Adam "Pedle Zelnip" 5-3
My wife 2-6
So basically I was about the same as the people at TSN. Here's hoping I can improve in round #2.
Round 1 Results
Okay, round 1 is now over, time to summarize.
Also as well, I didn't mention this in the blog post relating to my initial predictions, but every year my wife and I compete to see who has the better predictions. To resolve this argument we needed some sort of quantifiable, mathematical evaluation scheme. In the past what we've done is we awarded 1 point for predicting the correct winner of a series, and another point for predicting the correct number of games. Thus each series was worth a maximum of 2 points.
However, this year we're changing the formula, now predicting the winner is 2 points, and predicting the correct number of games is 1 point, for a total of 3 possible per series.
So, how does this play out with this year's round 1? Well, I had two perfect predictions (Colorado in 6 and San Jose in 7), and 3 where I predicted the correct winner (but not the correct number of games) so I have:
2 x 3 + 3 * 2 = 12 points
She had two perfect predictions (Colorado in 6 and Montreal in 7), and 4 where she predicted the correct number of games (but not the winner), so she has:
2 x 3 + 4 x 1 = 10 points
So yes, that's right, I'm currently whooping her. :)
Also as well, I didn't mention this in the blog post relating to my initial predictions, but every year my wife and I compete to see who has the better predictions. To resolve this argument we needed some sort of quantifiable, mathematical evaluation scheme. In the past what we've done is we awarded 1 point for predicting the correct winner of a series, and another point for predicting the correct number of games. Thus each series was worth a maximum of 2 points.
However, this year we're changing the formula, now predicting the winner is 2 points, and predicting the correct number of games is 1 point, for a total of 3 possible per series.
So, how does this play out with this year's round 1? Well, I had two perfect predictions (Colorado in 6 and San Jose in 7), and 3 where I predicted the correct winner (but not the correct number of games) so I have:
2 x 3 + 3 * 2 = 12 points
She had two perfect predictions (Colorado in 6 and Montreal in 7), and 4 where she predicted the correct number of games (but not the winner), so she has:
2 x 3 + 4 x 1 = 10 points
So yes, that's right, I'm currently whooping her. :)
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