Can we all stop whining about our NHL playoff pools?
I'm among the guilty ones, but I'm over it now.
Vancouver and Pittsburgh are done. We know. Our pools are all cooked, except for those lucky few who picked based on jerseys - although anyone who likes the Kings' jerseys that much probably got run over by Raffi Torres.
I'm not going to pile on the Canucks here. I actually liked them until the last couple of years when they and their fans turned into Whining Time Station.
I'm just as glad to see Los Angeles (and their hilarious Twitter account) advance as I am to see the Canucks bounced.
The other remaining Canadian team, as of Tuesday, is the Ottawa Senators.
No, I am not cheering for the Sens because they're the only Canadian team left.
Yes, I will hit you with a sledgehammer if you suggest that I should.
Why would I cheer for a team that I despise? Why would I want a rival team to win the Cup?
I don't even care about the number of Canadians that each team has on their roster. Nationality does not enter the equation.
I don't particularly like the Rangers either, but I would rather not see Norm Park fall into a state of depression.
We have already seen Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Jose fall by the wayside. The Rangers and Bruins could be soon to follow.
I love it.
The second round of the Western Conference playoffs will feature St. Louis, Nashville, Los Angeles and either Phoenix or Chicago.
None of those teams, aside from Chicago, has had much playoff success in a long time.
The Blues, Coyotes, Predators and Kings are all teams that have developed oodles of young talent over the years. The Blues and Kings have been regarded as up-and-coming contenders for a while.
It's good to see it finally happening.
No matter how much of a hockey fan you are, the odds are good that you didn't see much of any of these teams on TV in the regular season.
I'm tired of watching the same old teams the last few years. It'll be nice to see some fresh blood.
I don't know if this can be called a changing of the guard in the West, though.
St. Louis, certainly, is a team that has finally come of age. The Kings, meanwhile, underachieved all season and put it together over a five-game series.
Nashville has been in the second tier of the West for a few years and now has a shot to go deep after taking care of Detroit and having Vancouver knocked out of their path. Phoenix has been a playoff team for a couple of years and finally got over that first-round hump due largely to goalie Mike Smith.
Meanwhile, the Canucks' window for being a contender is still very much open, and if they can find a trade for Roberto Luongo this summer, Cory Schneider should be an elite starter for years.
(By the way - I am the furthest thing from a fan of Luongo, but yanking him for Schneider after the first two games was absolutely the wrong move.)
Chicago will move back into the conference's elite if they can find a reliable goalie, or if Corey Crawford returns to his 2010-11 form.
Still, there is clearly a new wave of contenders in the West.
The Blues have perhaps the league's most exciting cast of young forwards outside of Edmonton.
But like the Kings, many of those forwards are capable of more production than they managed this season.
The emergence of superstar defenceman Alex Pietrangelo (yes: superstar) and stellar play from goalies Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott was enough to offset that this year.
Los Angeles has, in my opinion, the 2012 Vezina Trophy winner in Jonathan Quick and a talented cast of forwards that can't possibly be as bad as it was this season.
Despite regressing a bit the last two years, Doughty is to the Kings what Pietrangelo is to the Blues.
The two teams are built quite similarly and we better get used to seeing them make deep playoff runs.
As for this year? Philly and Nashville in the final, with Pekka Rinne, Shea Weber and Ryan Suter leading the Preds to the Stanley Cup.
If that doesn't convince Suter and Weber to stick around, nothing will.
I reserve the right to change my prediction if the Flyers run into the Bruins. Ilya Bryzgalov is scared of bears, remember?
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at sports@estevanmercury.ca, on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at estevanmercury.ca/bruinsbanter. To the Adam Lind haters, is a friggin' triple play enough to keep you quiet for a while?
