Merlin, I am not.

A hockey prognosticator I will never be. I would have been able to tell you that Vancouver and Boston wouldn't compete for the Stanley Cup this year. That was easy, and easily predictable. Very rarely are teams able to keep everyone healthy, energized and available to make a back-to-back Cup run. Vancouver imploded, and now their future looks uncertain. Comical, almost, given that they won the President's Trophy as the best regular-season club. The Boston Bruins don't face quite the battle that Vancouver will in the off-season, but there are one or two problem areas that they will need to address, including in net where Tim Thomas didn't look as other-worldly as he did last year. The St. Louis Blues and New York Rangers were touted as possible champions when the last dregs of May and early June rolled around, but the Rangers have looked completely average throughout their two series against the Senators and the Washington Capitals, and the Blues were swept away by a fast, tough club from Los Angeles. Quite simply, nobody is living up to their billing. I happened to watch the New Jersey Devils play last night, and as they eliminated the Philadelphia Flyers I noted that they were not the underdogs they were made out to be. Let's be serious here: The Flyers were nothing more than also-rans in a division where they were the third best team. There were serious questions about their defence and their goaltending, and other than their strength in depth at forward, there wasn't anything to suggest that they would win the Cup. They happened to expose the number one flaw in the Pittsburgh Penguins setup: defence. In fact, the team that won the series didn't win by defending, they won by outscoring their opposition. That anyone thought Philadelphia would walk into a series with New Jersey and simply defend brilliantly just doesn't watch enough of the game as a whole. New Jersey didn't do anything flashy, they just played smart hockey. They skated well. Their positioning was excellent. They had active sticks on the forecheck, in defence, and while penalty killing. The Flyers penchant for shorthanded goals was nullified. The idea that they would get pucks on Brodeur and then come crashing the net was duly nullified by Brodeur's excellent puck handling skills and his ability to act as a third defence man. The other series was the same. Nashville and Phoenix was never going to be a flashy blockbuster a la Vancouver and Chicago, but it was going to determine one of the two teams who would battle for conference supremacy. I mean, these are not small potatoes. We're talking about Phoenix as potential conference champions, here. Nashville imploded, simply put. That Poile thought he could recapture lightning by signing Radulov was a farce. He wasn't good enough to stick around the first time, and his attitude demonstrated exactly why he's been exiled to Russia all this time -- it's not just the money. Then there's Kostitsyn who exited Montreal for exactly the same reason: attitude and commitment. It appears that the two of them were only committed to sailing off into the sunset, or the nearest club. There's something to be said for the old-time hockey attitude coming out when it matters most. Not this holier-than-thou, prima-donna routine so aptly demonstrated by these two European players. A sad exit, and they won't be back as far as I can see. Phoenix is a terrific story. Tippett is a wonderful coach, and what he's done with this club is nothing short of amazing. De Boer was probably cast aside by several clubs in search of a flashier coach, and look what he's done with New Jersey. Then there's Darrell Sutter who has history on his side, having now beaten the first and second seeds in the conference and is about to come up against the third seed, he's been here before with his fabled Calgary Flames and came just minutes and a goal short of winning the Cup. Here's the difference between these two sides: Los Angeles has the proven, experienced goaltending. Smith is phenomenal, but this is unchartered territory for him. Quick is the man, has been the man, and is just now proving what a force he will be in the league for some time. Doughty is justifying his salary. Brown is proving why a deadline move would have been a team killer. These are not your parents' Los Angeles Kings. I am going to predict that the Los Angeles Kings will move on in 6 games, to the Stanley Cup Final. I am also going to predict a bloody battle in the Eastern Conference final, where the New Jersey Devils and the New York Rangers are going to take it 7 rounds, and the New York Rangers will prevail, though I'd love nothing more than for the Devils to win it. The Kings are going to be unstoppable this year. They're the Champions. Plan the parade. Then again, I could be back in a couple of weeks to recant and apologize. We'll see.