You’ve probably seen pictures of the famous Bobby Orr goal numerous times these last few days, since we are approaching a rematch of the 1970 Stanley Cup Final. But in case you’ve been out of the loop, the Boston Bruins (107 points, 3^rd overall, 2^nd in Atlantic) will face off against the St. Louis Blues (99 points, 12^th overall, 3^rd in Central) for the Stanley Cup. The series starts Monday at 8 pm ET.    

As for the conference final, the panel correctly picked Boston but incorrectly picked San Jose as conference winners. The panel currently has a 5-9 record picking playoff series this season, mainly due to an unpredictable 2-6 first round. That brings the panel's lifetime record to 94-54.

Congratulations to Dobber, Rick Roos, Mario Prata, Adam Daly-Frey, and our good friend the coin for correctly picking both conference final winners. Amazingly, the coin toss has gone 6-0 over these last two rounds! Also, a special congrats to Adam for correctly picking the number of games (Boston in 4, St. Louis in 6) in both series!

Check out the full list of Round 1 picks, Round 2 picks, and conference final picks.  

About the panel's picks:

The panel was virtually split in its Stanley Cup winner, with Boston listed as the slightest of favorites. Maybe we should hedge and call this a tie to cut our losses and go home? Nah, that’s not what we do here. The Bruins might boast more top-end talent (particularly on the top line) and the more established goalie, but this Blues team is overflowing with size, depth, and heart. The Bruins may have finished with the league’s third-best record (not all the top teams were eliminated early), but the Blues have the league’s best record post-New Year’s Day. As we’ve learned this season, you just never know who will come out on top in a playoff series.

The Conn Smythe winner was more clear. Tuukka Rask was picked by five panelists as the eventual Conn Smythe Trophy winner. Rask leads all playoff goalies with a 1.84 GAA and a .942 SV% and is also tied with Jordan Binnington for the most playoff wins. Rask is proving once again that teams that win in the playoffs need a hot goalie. The St. Louis picks were split among several players for the Conn Smythe winner.

For the coin toss, the team with home-ice advantage (Boston) was given heads. The coin used was a special Vancouver 2010 Olympics hockey quarter from my late grandmother’s collection (which I obtained last weekend).

Here are our full results, with the consensus picks in the final box of the table below.

Agree? Disagree? Comments?

About the panel:

Dobber launched this website in 2005 after he was the fantasy hockey columnist for The Hockey News website, The Fantasy Sports Network, and a contributor to The Forecaster. DobberHockey has since grown into the Dobber Sports Network and has work can be found across the Internet, including on Sportsnet.

Ian Gooding is the managing editor of DobberHockey and a regular writer on the daily Ramblings beat. He has also contributed to many other sites, including Sportsnet, Today’s Slapshot, Kukla’s Korner, and fantasyhockey.com.

Mike Clifford is an associate editor of DobberHockey and contributor for Rotowire and other fantasy hockey ventures.

Cam Robinson is the managing editor at DobberProspects and, along with Ian Gooding and Mike Clifford, collaborates to Daily Ramblings. He is a regular guest on Vancouver sports talk radio.

Mario Prata is the manager of special projects and marketing for Dobber Sports. He is also a co-founder of the famous The Sports Forecaster magazine.

Eric Daoust manages our valued Frozen Pool section.

Tom Collins writes the weekly Top 10 column that can be found here every Monday.

Rick Roos authors the weekly Roos Let Loose column every Wednesday. He is the former Cage Match writer for Dobber Hockey.

Adam Daly-Frey checks out what's coming down the pipe with the Looking Ahead column every Friday.

Alex MacLean authors the salary cap column Capped, which can be found here every Thursday.

Brennan DeSouza writes the weekly line combinations column every Tuesday, and gives us the latest injury information every Wednesday.

Brayden Olafson pens the weekly prospect column The Journey that can be found here every Saturday. He has also contributed to Dobber Prospects.

Grant Campbell writes the Frozen Pool Forensics column on Fridays.

Cam Metz pens the Eastern Edge column that is published on Tuesdays.

Chris Kane writes the weekly Wild West column every Monday.

Flip Livingstone is our Saturday game picks author. He is a former NHL writer for theScore with past experience at such outlets as Postmedia, Hockey Night in Canada, and the CBC.

Michael Zacour is our Geek of the Week author and a regular contributor on the Forum.

Enjoy the Stanley Cup Final, folks!