The series will have started by my next Ramblings, so I will say I do like how the teams match up in the East Final. Having stars like Rick Nash, Steven Stamkos, Henrik Lundqvist, and Tyler Johnson certainly makes for eminently watchable hockey.

I originally had the Islanders in the East Final against the Lightning. In that sense, I'll take the Lightning over the Rangers in seven. I do think this is going to be a lot of fun though. There is a ton of speed in both forward groups and that should make for fast-paced games.  

There's always that "revenge factor" that gets talked about when two teams meet, and St. Louis and Anton Stralman come to mind immediately. Stralman has been very good these playoffs, and I've already gone over St. Louis. Maybe there'll be a little extra motivation for both.

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I'm a Montreal fan so it's always sad to see the team get bounced from the playoffs. Tampa Bay is a good, deep team, and they deserved that series. They have been good all year, and seem to be on a roll heading into the East Final.

Let's face it: Carey Price wasn't his normal self in that series. The numbers aren't great, and he needed to be great for that Montreal team to win. That is the problem. In the first round, the Habs had a game where they scored four goals. They had a game in the second round where they scored six. In the other 10 games the team played, they scored an average of 1.5 goals per game. Relying on your goalie to limit the other team to one goal in over three-quarters of your games is a problem. Montreal wasn't able to score consistently all year, and a bad power play turned abysmal once the postseason hit. With guys like P.K. Subban, Andrei Markov, Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher, Jeff Petry, and P.A. Parenteau, the Habs shouldn't be that bad on the power play. Bad luck or not, they just looked awful in their movement most of the time as well (they did look better in Game 5, but reverted back to old habits in Game 6).

Montreal has a core of Price, Subban, and Pacioretty all in their primes. There is enough to build around here. I don't think the problem is with the personnel, necessarily.

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The Anaheim Ducks start their series with the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday. It's an interesting contrast in styles as the 'Hawks like to play more of the possession/forecheck game, while the create more high-probability shots at the peril of some underlying numbers at times. Both teams are very good at what they do, which makes me excited for this series to finally get going.

As good as the skaters are, I think this series comes down to goaltending. Not necessarily who can be great between Corey Crawford and Frederik Andersen, but who can keep their team in more games. Both are potent offences, and it would seem that no lead is safe for either side with the way both teams can score.

The first matchup I want to watch is Jonathan Toews and Ryan Getzlaf. Both players are among the elite centres in the NHL, and that's always a draw. I'll also be watching Corey Perry intently after taking that hit from Matt Stajan in the second round where it looked like he hyper-extended his knee. He may be just fine, but he has to show it come Sunday.

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