Possible 1st round UPSETS...which team

[everfeb]

It currently looks like the Panthers are playing the Rags. THis is probably the worst possible matchup for my team and i absolutly would prefer to play the Caps. If this happesn pick up some Rangers.

My brain is not working right now. Which is your team?

[Eskimo Brother]

Thank you for all the replies. Appreciate you taking the time. Lots of bracket changes last night. Don't know how much they change things but draft is tonight.

...Still Stars-Minny, SL-Chi, TB-Det. Changes Philly out, Caps-Bos, Pens-NYI, Flor-NYR.

Does this change anyone's thinking regarding Caps and Pens advancing?

Think we will just avoid Bruins, Wings and Flyers. Draft tonight and I believe bracket match ups can still change by Sunday night???

Thanks guys.

Avoid any team that can still miss the playoffs unless you want to take Giroux with your last choice.
I'm still going with the Caps and Pens in those new match ups.

[JagrBomb]

Thank you for all the replies. Appreciate you taking the time. Lots of bracket changes last night. Don't know how much they change things but draft is tonight.

...Still Stars-Minny, SL-Chi, TB-Det. Changes Philly out, Caps-Bos, Pens-NYI, Flor-NYR.

Does this change anyone's thinking regarding Caps and Pens advancing?

Think we will just avoid Bruins, Wings and Flyers. Draft tonight and I believe bracket match ups can still change by Sunday night???

Thanks guys.

Pens will beat NYI.

Caps will likely have trouble with PHI/BOS and PIT if they meet.

If you're looking for an upset i'd pick Tampa's opponent and Ranger's opponent, those should give you the best odds to land one.

[Eskimo Brother]

My brain is not working right now. Which is your team?

It's early, have a cup of coffee. Pretty sure he's saying his team is the Panthers, as the Rangers can't play the Caps

[everfeb]

It's early, have a cup of coffee. Pretty sure he's saying his team is the Panthers, as the Rangers can't play the Caps

2 cups already. Thought he was talking about Florida but Caps/Panthers can't meet in 1st or 2nd rounds as they are both clinched Division leaders no?

[Eskimo Brother]

2 cups already. Thought he was talking about Florida but Caps/Panthers can't meet in 1st or 2nd rounds as they are both clinched Division leaders no?

Maybe I should start on my coffee then, because I'm back to being confused as well. No team at this point possibly plays either of the NYRs or the Caps. It's one or the other.
I still think it was the Panthers, but you're right, they can't line up with the Caps until the East finals.

[everfeb]

Just had another coffee. Not helping. Of these 3, Flyers, Wings and Boston...any of them can still make or miss the playoffs under different scenarios. Is that right?

[Eskimo Brother]

Yes. Comes down to Saturday, and likely even Philly's game Sunday

[everfeb]

Thanks Eskimo Brother. Won't take any of them then.

[Instant Karma]

My brain is not working right now. Which is your team?

keytolife mans the Panthers thread on the forums (and does an excellent job of it).

If you have any Panthers questions, he's your go-to guy.

[chuckcouples]

My pick for first round upset will be the Wild over the Stars. The Wild have better goaltending and better defense. The Wild have also seemed to go on lengthy winning streaks every time that they needed to win some games. They has been extremely inconsistent this season but they have shown the ability to beat good teams handily as their season sweep of the Blackhawks shows.

[Big Ev]

I will bet on whoever plays the Caps and Stars. Caps haven't been impressive lately and the Stars don't play playoff hockey.

[rtstr]

I will bet on whoever plays the Caps and Stars. Caps haven't been impressive lately and the Stars don't play playoff hockey.

I agree with this. The Stars can be exposed by the rough play some West teams use and Holtby is not as good as his numbers suggest. He doesn't steal games and that's what you need in the playoffs.

It will be hard to win on the road in WSH, though.

[everfeb]

Heading out to the draft. After a team meeting this AM think we are going with Caps, Pens and later on Rangers. Unless a real good player from a solid team in the west is available for our 2nd pick (36th overall). Then it will be Crosby or Ovechkin our 1st overall pick (we still haven't decided) followed by a player from the west.

[everfeb]

I have a headache, long night and beer.
There were some rule changes before the draft. Goalies now get 1 pt for win and 2 more points for a shutout making then more valuable than when it was W-1,SO-1. The number of rounds was cut from 11 to 10 so 180 picks instead of 198 (it still took forever). And there was a secret pick after the 4th round. Interesting. We could take any player not drafted through the first 4 rounds and secret picks were still in play beginning in round 5. No franchise knew who any other franchise selected. In theory, all 18 franchises could have taken the same player. We took Lundqvist as our secret and got him agin in round 5. Go Rangers.
We were going to picks Caps, Pens and Rangers. Pens didn't work out, they went faster than caps. We had 1st overall, took Ovi and our 2nd was 36th overall so of course all the really big names went fast. First 10 picks drafted were: Ovi, Syd, Tarasenko, Kane, Benn, Getzlaf, Kuznetsov Kopi, Letang, Backstom. Best Cap we could get by 36th pick was Carlson then we got Johanson early in 3rd round..and there were really no good caps left by the time our 4th pick came up.
Our team in order of when picked:
Ovi
Carlson
Johanson
Crawford
Lundqvist (secret)
Lundqvist in 5th
Nash
Yandle
Rinnie
Johanson
Josi (we were going to nab Fleury here but the guy picking right before us took him. Probably should have taken him earlier but thought we might be able to sneak him
late due to his injury-wrong).
Decent looking team on paper but it's the playoffs so need the hockey gods to favour us. To finish in the $$$ Caps have to go very deep, need a couple of upsets and shutouts and Chicago has to do it's thing. OR we could easily be out after round one.

Thanks or your thoughts and opinions. Appreciate all of you taking the time.