In the west, Dallas clinched the first seed by winning their final game of the season versus the Nashville Predators and earned the right to take on Edmonton in the first round and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs. Edmonton has struggled of late, going winless in their last four games.

Detroit flew into the second seed by going 14-4-0-1 in the last five weeks of the season. They will be taking on Anaheim, which is led by Paul Kariya, Petr Sykora, and RPI alumni Adam Oates.

Colorado barely squeaked into the third spot by edging out Vancouver in the Northwest Division. They will face the young and talented Minnesota Wild, who have surged in the past year.

Vancouver, who just missed out on the Northwest crown, will have to face perennial playoff participant St. Louis. Chris Pronger just recovered from a year-long injury, and the Blues hope to rally around their returning leader.

In the east, the Ottawa Senators won the first seed and the President’s Cup, despite having financial issues all year. The Senators will take on the spiraling Islanders in the first round.

The second-seeded New Jersey Devils will take on the seventh-seeded Boston Bruins. The Bruins got off to a hot start, starting 11-2-1-1, but have gone into a tail-spin since then. They’ll need their top line of Joe Thorton, Mike Knuble, and Glen Murray to produce if they want to continue in the playoffs.

The Southeast Champion Tampa Bay Lighting hope to ride hot goaltender Nikolai Khabibulin to victory against Southeast rival Washington, who is well known to perform less than well in the playoffs.

The Philadelphia Flyers earned the fourth seed, and will take on the trade-bolstered Maple Leafs. The goony Maple Leafs added Owen Nolan at the trading deadline, which should help them both on the ice and in the locker room.

Now that you’ve got the picture, let’s get down to the predictions.

Dallas is all but a lock over the Oilers. The Stars have the goaltender with the greatest goals against average in the modern era—Marty Turco—and some very potent scorers. Detroit will walk over the Mighty Ducks on the wings of the line of rookie Henrik Zetteberg, Brett Hull, and Pavel Datysuk. Colorado has the hot goaltender and home ice advantage in the first round, but Minnesota is streaking, and will edge out the Avalanche in seven games. Vancouver and Saint Louis will play a very even series, but the Canucks will come out on top, riding the shoulders of goaltender Dan Cloutier.

In the east, Ottawa will quickly dispatch the pesky Islanders, and the Devils will beat out the beat up Bruins. Tampa Bay should dispatch the Capitals with the help of Khabibulin, and Philadelphia will edge out the Maple Leafs in a seven game, tough fought series.

So that puts Minnesota at Dallas, and Vancouver at Detroit in the west, Philadelphia at Ottawa, and Tampa Bay at New Jersey in the Eastern Conference.

Minnesota will hang around, but Dallas’ Turco will put the Wild away. Detroit and Vancouver will play a tight series, but the improved Red Wings will dispatch the Canucks much like they did last year. Ottawa’s talented scorers will beat Roman Cechmanek and the Flyers. Tampa Bay will skate with the Devils, but the Devils will beat the Lightning in six.

That puts Detroit at Dallas in the Western Conference Finals and New Jersey at Ottawa in the east.

Detroit and Dallas is a tough series to call. They tied in all four of their meetings this year, but Detroit’s young guns will put the Stars to bed. Ottawa will play a tough series, and will beat the worn-out Devils in seven games.