Who Cares?

Right - who cares about the Stanley Cup anymore?  Let's talk World Cup!  Here are my picks for 2010 in South Africa:

Group A: going through will be Mexico and South Africa.  I predict France will flame out.

Group B: a no-brainer: Argentina & Nigeria.  Go Super Eagles!

Group C: England & (though I don't think they're that good) the U.S.A.  These two had lucky draws!  England is strong!

Group D: Germany, obviously, and Ghana.

Group E: Netherlands, of course.  I'm a big fan of the African teams, and I think they'll all benefit from playing in their home continent.  But I'm picking Denmark instead of Cameroon for the second spot.  This is a pretty strong group!

Group F: I don't think Italy is as strong as they once were, but this isn't a really tough group.  I'm picking Paraguay for the second spot, but just because I like the South American teams.  It could just as easily be Slovakia.  But not the kiwis!

Group G: I predict that being in the Group of Death will be an advantage for Brazil.  They'll go through, along with Portugal, but there will be a strong showing from the Cote d'Ivoire, and perhaps even the North Koreans.

Group H: Spain and Chile look to be the obvious choices here.

Two of these five teams will be in the finals:

Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Netherlands, Portugal.  My outsider pick: Nigeria I mean Mexico.  Oh, and Chicago in 6.

Round 2 De-Brief

Almost forgot to do this.

Previously, on The Fearful Porpentine...

Adrian was ahead after the first round, 4 series to 3, with one series tied.

In Round 2,

• Adrian picked SJ over Detroit in 7; I said SJ in 6, so I win!
• Adrian said Chicago over Vancouver in 7; I said Chicago in 6, so I win again!
• Isn't this exciting?
• I said Boston over Philly in 5; Adrian said 7, so Adrian wins.
• I cravenly picked Pittsburgh over Mtl in 6, but Adrian courageously & correctly picked the Habs in 7!  Great job!

Adrian is thus up 6 series to 5!

The Final Four

With the Bruins up 3-0 in the first period of their game with Philly, I'm going to assume that Boston dodged their once-in-a-generation choke, and will host the first game in the Conference finals.  But who will win that series?  I'll say Montreal in 6 (though I secretly believe/hope that the Habs will only take 4 games, especially if Markov gets up to speed before the series is too old).

Out West, I'll pick the Sharks, with their under-the-radar efficiency in finishing off their opponents (under my radar, anyway - I haven't paid too much attention to their first two quick series).  With Ovechkin and Crosby out, pretty much all of the star players left in these playoffs are in the San Jose-Chicago series.  Two really good teams there!  I'll say SJ in 6, but I'm hoping for a hard-fought 7-game series (unless Boston wins, in which case, Anyone But Boston!

****** Hard to believe, but it turns out the Bruins have done a choke for the ages.  Not sure if this is better or worse for Montreal.  Perhaps Boston had better goaltending, but Philly is probably feeling pretty confident right now.  I'll stay with my Habs in 6 (I mean 4) over the Habs.  And, of course, Anyone But Philly!

Round 2

You're right, Adrian, you are indeed ahead in these all-important Stanley Cup Sweepstakes.  I'll just have to try harder!  And I'll start by putting my Round 2 picks up late.  Not that I wouldn't have made these exact same picks before these series started :)

• San Jose over Detroit in 6 - the Red Wings will come back, but they're in too big a hole to this point.
• Chicago over Vancouver in 6 - the Canucks should have held on to their lead last night!
• Pittsburgh over Montreal in 6 - boy, wouldn't I like to be wrong here!
• Boston over Philly in 5 - it's always weird to look back on what might have happened if a Game 1 Overtime had gone the other way

just hold on a minute....

i think dean's made a little scoring error... i picked Detroit, he picked Phoenix.

that makes it 4 to 3 for me!

haha!

anyway, on to round 2;

chicago over vancouver in 7

yes, i know, the hawks were pathetic in game one, but i still think they have what it takes to take vancouver. i'm still not convinced that luongo has what it takes for stanley cup success. and the only thing worse than the canucks winning the cup would be the leafs winning the cup.

SJ over detroit in 7

i don't think it's san jose's year - i don't think it ever will be as long as the Regular Season Hero line continues to wait for the end of the playoffs before they play hard again - but their second line is rolling. and nabokov seems to be playing well now. by the way; when is he going to write another book anyway? he's been coasting on Lolita for way too long.

boston over philly in the number of games required. let's say 7.

sure, why not. sets up for a dramatic eastern final which is...

montreal over pittsburgh in 7

maybe i'm cheating a bit because i just watched pittsburgh get all in a panic about not being to score and lose game 2. (hey Flames fans; did you see the game today? do you still think throwing a lot of money at bouwmeester was a better idea than throwing a lot of money at cammalleri?) it's been nearly 20 years since i was habs fan, but i can get behind them a lot easier than the canucks. go habs!