defence

Capitals d. Montreal in 5. Washington's biggest flaw is their defense and PK but it won't be enough for Montreal to overcome.
Flyers d. Devils in 6. They have played well against them all season and are entering the postseason on a high note.
Bruins d. Sabres in 7. LALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALALA
Penguins d. Senators in 6. Pittsburgh has too many good players.

Sharks d. Avalanche in 6. It won't be as easy as the Sharks probably think. Craig Anderson has the ability to turn into Giguere 03 and not let anything in for games at a time. The Sharks should really try to get this one over as soon as possible.
Blackhawks d. Predators in 6. God help us all if Nashville pulls this off, Czech will be even more intolerable than normal.
Kings d. Canucks in 7. No idea why.
Red Wings d. Dogs in 5. Red Wings were playing great down the stretch and are healthy. Good on the Dogs for playing as well as they did but I don't think they will string together the 4 games to beat a team like the Red Wings.

black hair

Good question, makes me feel un-unique.

As for picks:

Caps in 4 (Habs would be lucky to win a game)
Flyers in 6 (Brodeur has shit the bed in the playoffs recently and the Flyers are better than they've played most of the season)
Sabres in 5 (The Bruins have no offence, the Sabres have the best goalie in hockey, do the math)
Penguins in 7 (This will be closer than people think)

Sharks in 5 (Avs are happy to be there)
Hawks in 6 (Preds will play them close)
Canucks in 5 (Luongo at his best or not, the Kings are not ready yet and the Canucks actually have an offence now)
Wings in 5 (Still the team to beat in the West)

taxi pulls up

I will abstain from picking our matchup as a matter of superstition. I will also rate them on a confidence scale.

Caps in 5 (Sure thing)
Pens in 4 (Not totally confident, about the number of games I mean)
Devils in 4 (Likely)
Sabres in 7 (Unsure)

Sharks in 5 (Likely, because I don't buy Anderson as a playoff goaltender)
Hawks in 7 (The goaltending carousel could carry this series longer than it should be, plus Nashville play a tight game. They haven't played each other since December)
Detroit in 5 (Utmost confidence)

metal tray

If Roy is healthy-ish, Phoenix/Portland should be the best series of round 1. Atlanta/Milwaukee will be pretty fun too. Cleveland/Chicago will be a terrible beatdown while Miami/Boston will probably just be terrible.

Dallas/San Antonio can end up a really tight 7 game series or 5 game domination by either team. Wide open.

Baskin too late

Roy is not going to be out, but he is going to be a bit gimpy. Still, Portland can handle Dallas and Phoenix, but not Utah. I'm kind of psyched to get a possible PHX/DAL/LAL draw in the playoffs. The three top seeds Portland can hang with (and won season series against)? Okay!

Lakers-"Thunder" should definitely be the best match-up of the first round. Denver-Utah would be a bloodbath, in a good way and Cleveland-Chicago would also be one, but in a really bad way.

wow

So this is Duke's first Final 4 appearance since 2004. I actually thought it had been longer than that. Looking it up that team had Duhon, Deng, Reddick, Shelden Williams, Daniel Ewing and Shavlick Randolph. They lost by 1 pt to eventual national champion UCONN, the Ben Gordon/Emeka Okafor/Villanueva team.

I can't believe I don't remember that.

This is Michigan State's 3rd Final 4 appearance in the last 6 years and 6th out of 11. Very impressive.