I occasionally do a post with my picks at the start of the NHL playoffs.
I forgot to do so this year but it’s probably not worth it as quite a few series aren’t going the way I’d expected – my Calgary Flames are struggling after winning the Western Conference title in the regular season, and worse, the overall best team, The Tampa Bay Lightning, who handily won the Eastern Conference, got swept in four straight games by the Columbus Blue Jackets (thus crushing my hopes for a 2004 Stanley Cup Final rematch and pretty much the hockey pool hopes of…everyone.)
The significance of this upset was captured on /r/hockey:
The Lightning had the 3rd-best record in NHL history (100+ points), and dominated the league all year. They’ve made at least the Conference Finals (3rd of 4 rounds of playoffs) 3 of the last 4 years.
The Columbus Blue Jackets basically had to win 7 of their final 8 games just to make it into the playoffs, and have never won a single round of the playoffs in the history of their franchise.
And the Lightning didn’t win a single game of the best-of-7-game series.
Basically, nobody saw this coming.
Now, as I settle in to watch another important competition, I’m hoping for another unexpected victory!
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