Opening myself up for ridicule

I figured I would do the honourable thing and check up on my pre-season predictions for the Eastern and Western Conference standings to provide you with an update of just how wrong I was, simply because I'm a sucker for some good cyber mockery. So let me have it.

East
Well, I guess I'll start with the good stuff and that's the fact I had the Devils, Flyers and Penguins ranked exactly where they finished. I also had the Capitals winning the conference, and I wasn't too far off on that one, so I'm going to give myself a pat on the back. But I had the Habs finishing second, the Bruins sixth and the Panthers and Sabres filling out the top eight. Those I left out were the Rangers in ninth and the Hurricanes in 11th. Overall, I'm actually pretty happy with how things turned out for my predictions in the East with six of the eight playoff teams correct, with my biggest oversight definitely being my Hurricanes pick, and I had four teams slotted where they actually finished (hard to miss the Islanders finishing last).

West
Now this is a completely different story. I did pick the Red Wings and Sharks to finish 1-2, so they just flipped positions on me, but that's when it starts to get all goofy. I had the Oilers winning the Northwest and grabbing the three seed based on their late-season charge last year that fell just short of a playoff berth. Obviously I didn't foresee the train wreck coming in Edmonton this year, which I feel was actually worse than what went on in Montreal, just without all the crime rumours flying around. I also had the Canucks, Flames and Blue Jackets out of the playoffs, while the Stars, Wild and Predators were in. The Canucks have truly surprised me this season, while I have a hard time explaining how the Flames looked so unbeatable for a long stretch this season. I have a feeling the Calgary team we're seeing now is closer to reality, but the fact is they led the division most of the year and I definitely didn't see that coming. As for the Blue Jackets, it's hard to predict a rookie goalie coming out of nowhere and leading you to the franchise's first playoff berth, so I won't beat myself up over that one, and you also can't foresee Brenden Morrow and Sergei Zubov being lost for the year while Marty Turco messed the bed all season for the Stars. Overall, I only got four of the eight playoff teams right and the only team I had slotted correctly were the Kings coming 12th in the conference. Pretty horrific stuff.

Stay tuned for my playoff predictions coming this week as I prepare for my trip to lovely Boston, Mass., where I'll be blogging the Habs-Bruins series not only for you over here on The Daily Hab-it but also at cbc.ca. I'll get a link up as to where you can catch my CBC stuff as soon as it gets going.