NHL Playoffs: Second Round Playoff Predictions

Montreal Canadiens (1) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (6)

Montreal has all the tools to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, if not the Stanley Cup finals. They struggled against the eighth-seeded Boston Bruins, but, again, they're running with a rookie goaltender.

Reliable 20-year-old Carey Price has showed he can handle the pressure and responsibilities of a starting goaltender. He didn't buckle under the pressure of a Game Seven—in fact he came up huge with a shut out. With a playoff series win under his belt, he has more self-confidence and may perform better in this round.

The Flyers had a very intense series against the Washington Capitals. A big factor in this round is how Montreal's defense handles the Flyers offense intentionally crashing the net and into the goaltender.

If Montreal's defense punishes the Flyers offense, it may not be on a continual basis—like they did against Cristobal Huet.

Montreal has speed and finesse. The Flyers are deep offensively, but are slow on defense. Aside from Kimmo Timonen, they don't have a fast defenseman. Expect the Flyers to draw a lot of penalties.

If Montreal's power play pick it up this round expect this series to be over quickly.

Winner: Montreal in 6

Pittsburgh Penguins (2) vs. New York Rangers (5)

The Penguins are definitely the better team offensively and defensively. With probably the best two centers on their team in Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Rangers defense and Henrik Lundqvist will have to come up big.

The Rangers are depending on Chris Drury, Scott Gomez,  Brendan Shanahan, and Jaromir Jagr to score for them.

Shanahan probably was one of the best power forwards in the 90's but at age 38, you can't expect him to do much. Although, Jagr had a great first round against the New Jersey Devils, he's 36 and the question is does he have enough in his tank to keep going.

The Penguins have a lot more depth, Malkin, Crosby, Marian Hossa, Petr Sykora, Ryan Malone, Kris Letang, Sergei Gonchar, Ryan Whitney, and the aging Gary Roberts.

The best shot the Rangers have on tying down the Penguins' power offense is Sean Avery.

If Avery can some how get in the heads of all six of the Penguins' forwards and the offensive ability of their defense, they could pull off an upset, but it's doubtful.

Lundqvist will have to come up big—although, they're both matched goaltending-wise.

Lundqvist is a three-time Vezina finalist, while Fluery has played at Vezina level since his return from an injury and played excellent against the Senators.

The Rangers have to hope to keep the scores close and hope Drury can get his timely goals in.

Winner: Pittsburgh in 6

Detroit Red Wings (1) vs. Colorado Avalanche (6)

This series has always been a classic in the playoffs.

This long rivalry began in the '96 playoffs when Colorado dispatched the Wings in six games, after one of the best regular seasons since the 80's.

Patrick Roy and Steve Yzerman are retired. Sergei Fedorov, Brendan Shanahan, and others have moved on.

But there's still Kris Draper, Darren McCarty, Kirk Maltby, and Nicklas Lidstrom, and Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Adam Foote.

It's still a goodie.

This will be a back-and-forth series.

The Wings need Daniel Cleary, Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk, and Henrik Zetterberg to pick up their games and hope that Chris Osgood can keep up his stellar play if they want to win this series.

If not, they have to hope the aging Dominik Hasek can still play and falter like he did against the Preds.

The Aves have to hope that Forsberg and Sakic still has what it takes to pull out playoff magic and Jose Theodore keeps playing like its 2000 and 2003. But with Detroit's role players, youngsters, and veterans expect them to end up on top.

Winner: Detroit in 7

San Jose Sharks (2) vs. Dallas Stars (5)

The Sharks don't have a team that can win the Stanley Cup—they barely made it out of the first round. They're overrated and have been since the lockout ended. If it weren't for the unbelievable play by Jeremy Roenick in Game Seven, Calgary could very well have advanced to the second round.

Don't expect another game like that from him.

The Sharks need that play from Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau, and hope somehow Jonathan Cheechoo can get his scoring touch back after losing it when he won the Rocket trophy for most goals in 2006.

The Stars have more depth up front.

Five of their players have a point or more per game, and a few others just a point below that line. They beat the defending champs in six games without Sergei Zubov, who may be back this series, and with three rookie defensemen.

Marty Turco has put those playoff demons behind him, expect him to only get better with this newfound confidence after finally winning a playoff round.

Mike Riberio has been a great pick up for the Stars and has become an elite player under them.

Don't forget they also have a former Conn Smyth winner in Richards.

The Stars will be too much for the Sharks to handle. Maybe after this year, people will stop thinking so highly of the Sharks.

Winner: Dallas in 7