YAWN, SECOND ROUND

Don't get me wrong, the Stars playing in the second round is OUTSTANDING. (And up 2-0 after two games in San Jose is delicious) However, there is little question that a trip to the third round (or Conference Final) would be much more titillating.

Now before you "well duh Razor" me, let me explain.

Conference Quarter Finals

The opening round is always phenomenal. You get David vs Goliath (1 vs 8). You get teams who are playoff fresh and ready to battle. You get upsets. You are drenched in high octane hockey nightly with 16 of the league's 30 teams scratching and clawing for every victory while fans in those 16 cities are running dangerously high playoff fevers. And this year the first round gave us three Game 7 spectacles.

Conference Semi-Finals

And then, along comes the second round -- the middle sister -- the Jan Brady of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The teams have been whittled to 8. The energy and momentum swings seem a little less frenetic. The games seem a lot more "controlled". The teams are even more evenly matched. In a nut shell, it seems a lot like the regular season again.

Conference Finals

The four survivors and their growing band of believers move to round three. This is where it gets real. The two best teams in each conference go head to head with both the pride of accomplishment (Getting to a conference final isn't easy)and the carrot of a trip to the Stanley Cup Final dangling four wins in front of them. Just look at the Stars history for evidence of this; back to back seven game epics with the Colorado Avalanche in 1999 and 2000. Year after year this round is THE best hockey that the tournament produces.

Stanley Cup Final

Despite the enormous media focus and hype the Final rarely lives up to it. Last year Ottawa had to sit around for 9 days waiting for the West to be won and it was a buzz-kill. Sure the Carolina-Edmonton series in 2006 was a dandy but that has become a rarity. This year might be one of those again but more probable is it not being much of a match for the 2008 Conference Finals. Maybe we can blame, at least in part, the rancid schedule the NHL has had in recent regular seasons for that. (The schedule is changing next season with more cross-conference games -- thank god)

So prognostarazor sees things unfolding this way: Stars over Ducks. Stars over Sharks. Stars over Red Wings (In a titanic seven game set). Then Stars and Habs in the Final.

Enjoy.