B/R NHL Community's Playoff Prediction Compilation: Eastern Conference

Since the first round of the 2010 NHL Playoffs were finally set last Sunday night, Bleacher Report has been utterly flooded with articles and slide shows with predictions after predictions.

Some previewed all the series; others focused on one conference's slate or just one Best-of-Seven battle. Some just gave their predictions and games won in; others wrote out a 500-word preview including each team's Keys to Winning the Series.

Some of us entered our predictions "old school" style, using the regular prose format; others incorporated multimedia a bit more and spaced out each series' pick in a different slide. Some of us made cases for an unexpected upset; others went with the flow, and, therefore, the more likely predictions, at least on paper.

Most B/R writers gave just their first-round predictions; however, a few were brave enough to set up their ideal bracket all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals.

But there was one thing that all of us did...we let the world know our opinion.

And here is where all of those opinions, ideas, judgments, outlooks, previews, and predictions come together—in one big article recapping Bleacher Report's NHL Community's predictions as a whole.

Looking through the article archives, I found 28 writers (including myself) who had put in at least one prediction on one series in an article and published it for the world to see.

Thirteen of us made our first-round picks on all eight first-round series in both conferences. Six others made their predictions on just one conference's set of four first-round battles. All of the other contributors wrote previews only on three or fewer of the eight total series.

In today's installment, we'll take a look at B/R's perspective on the Eastern Conference series, kicking off Wednesday night.

To see who B/R predicted to win the first round series in the Western Conference, click here.

There were oddball upset predictions, and there were those who called all the favorites as the winner of the series.

There was...well, about everything you can imagine, all scattered through seven pages of the NHL community article archives.

However, there was one thing that was uniform and standard in every article. They introduced their predictions or preview...and then they got down to business.

...Just like we're about to do write now in this 2010 edition of Bleacher Report's NHL Community's compiled first-round predictions.

Eastern Conference

No. 1 Washington Capitals vs. No. 8 Montreal Canadiens

Season Series: Washington earned five points, Montreal earned five points.

While Montreal didn't fare too badly in the season series, eventually splitting it, this series is lopsided from the very beginning.

Really, the Capitals require very few introductions. The NHL's latest Presidents' Trophy winners destroyed the Eastern Conference this season, finishing with 18 more points that second-place New Jersey.

They had the best record in the league, the best offense, the best power play, two of the league's top four point-scorers, the top four overall players in the league in +/-, and many, many more achievements.

Washington also comes into this series with just one regulation loss in their last 10 games.

Up against them will be a Montreal team that, well, as Kyle Holland put it, "...had their fair share of problems throughout the season."

While Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak battled for the goaltending spot, Tomas Plekanec managed to limp the Habs through the season and into the final playoff spot.

Despite a 3-4-3 finish, Montreal did manage to make it, but that may not be a good thing in the long run for their self esteem after this season concludes.

Simply put, as Tab Bamford typed into words, "Even if Jaroslav Halak and/or Carey Price stands on his head for a week, it won't matter against the potent Caps, if the Habs can't get the puck in the net."

Bleacher Report's Prediction: Capitals in five games (votes for Washington: 19 out of 20)

Mark Jones' Prediction: Capitals in five games

No. 2 New Jersey Devils vs. No. 7 Philadelphia Flyers

Season Series: Flyers earned 10 points, Devils earned 3 points.

Surprisingly, things loosened up a little in terms of the predictions for this series after a seriously one-sided affair for the Caps.

Even with the Flyers' injury issues—especially in the net—looming large, there was quite a bit of difference in the predictions.

With the fact that Philadelphia dominated the season series in mind, plenty of writers went for the underdog in this one.

Case in point, Philadelphia has already actually, in a way, been in the playoffs just fighting to get in. However, with a big question mark at goaltender for the Flyers and a lack of top-level play at any other category, Mark Ritter retorted, "...the Flyers are going to get 'fisted'...end of story."

Kyle Holland also supported the Devil's cause, but made a very good point when he mentioned that "Kovalchuk needs to score and score often." In order to get the offense going, Kovy is the key to setting that on fire. However, that may be a harder task than he imagines, given that his limited postseason experience of four total games make experience a surprisingly weak part of his resume.

In the long run, the majority ended up going with Mark and Kyle. With Martin Brodeur facing a weakened Flyers offense, Philly's hopes may end up dying upon Brian Boucher's outstretched glove hand.

Bleacher Report Community Pick: Devils in seven games (votes for New Jersey: 12 out of 19)

Mark Jones' Prediction: Devils in five games

No. 3 Buffalo Sabres vs. No. 6 Boston Bruins

Season Series: Sabres earned six points, Bruins earned eight points.

This tightly matched battle between two divisional foes not only set fire to a battle of the previews, but also drew the interest of many casual NHL fans from around the league.

This game matches up unexpected division-winner Buffalo against last year's Eastern Conference regular-season champion, Boston. The key storyline heading into Game One here is, without a doubt, the battle of the goaltenders.

Team USA and silver-medal winning goaltender Ryan Miller will be in the net for Buffalo, whose hopes may ride solely on him. However, that probably not a bad thing, as Miller has been "the man" for the Sabres this season.

The superstar netminder has gone 41-18-8 this season with a .929 save percentage and 2.22 goals-against average. Miller has also been dynamite against Boston, earning six points in four contests and racking up a .947 save percentage.

On the other end of the rink will be young Finnish goalie Tuukka Rask, who overtook the job from Tim Thomas early in the year, and hasn't given it up. The inexperienced Rask leads the league with a .931 save percentage and unbelievable 1.97 goals-against average.

Forget the rest of the team. The goaltending duel is where the series will be won and lost. And, as Tab Bamford said and many others agreed, "If the Olympics are any indication, late April might be Miller Time, [too]."

Bleacher Report Community Prediction: Sabres in seven games (votes for Buffalo: 14 out of 20)

Mark Jones' Series Prediction: Bruins in seven games

No. 4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 5 Ottawa Senators

Season Series: Penguins earned four points, Senators earned four points.

If you went just by the comments and votes we were getting, you would've thought I had accidentally made two previews for the Capitals-Canadiens series. To say the least, Pittsburgh had the votes of most everybody...in fact, everybody but one.

While Mike Kelly stood by his Senators allegiance, arguing that the Sens will come in with a jump, because "Ottawa enters the postseason as the hottest playoff team in the Eastern Conference, closing out the season at 7-2-1", most (actually, all) others went with the Penguins.

When asked what the Senators needed to do to win the series, his response of "Simple: stop Sidney Crosby" was, well, simple.

Of course, the only thing anywhere near simple about that was the sentence itself. Crosby comes fresh off a monstrous season, finishing tied with Steven Stamkos in most goals at 51 and second in points behind Henrik Sedin.

Additionally, even if Ottawa can succeed at that, they'll also have to deal with the other thrashing head of the defending Stanley Cup Champion's two-headed goal-scoring dragon, Evgeny Malkin.

Malkin, despite a few lingering injury issues, still recorded 77 points this season and has last year's Playoff MVP award still in his trophy case.

Then, don't forget about young Jordan Staal, newly acquired Alex Ponikarovsky, and, in net, Marc-Andre Fleury.

All in all, simply is about right. For the Penguins, this series will be very, very, very simple.

...And so were the predictions, too.

Bleacher Report Community Picks: Penguins in five games (votes for Pittsburgh: 20 out of 21)

Mark Jones' Prediction: Penguins in seven games

Check back in tomorrow evening for our community predictions for the first round of the Western Conference! All thanks to those who I quoted in this article!

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Mark Jones is currently Bleacher Report's featured columnist and community leader for the Carolina Hurricanes. In his 20 months so far with the site, he has written over 185 articles and received over 125,000 total reads.

Visit his profile to read more.