If nothing else, there is a pleasing alliterative quality to the two remaining NHL playoff series - Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia and Dallas vs. Detroit. After a 2-2 second-round which raises my overall playoff record to 9-3, I'm sticking with the two teams I've been backing all along, the favorites in each series, Pittsburgh and Detroit. T The Flyers surprised me by defeating Montreal; I didn't think either the Canadiens' goaltending or special teams would falter the way they did. But I had a sneaking suspicion that the Stars might upset San Jose, after the Sharks needed seven games to dispatch Calgary in the opening round. Stubbornly, I didn't want to move off San Jose - my annual choice for the Stanley Cup - but I wondered how they would respond to the Stars' edge in board play and the answer became clear soon enough: Not very well. Their toughest two-way forward, Ryan Clowe, didn't play as much or as well in the series as he did against the Flames; the Sharks survived one series against a team with a heart-and-soul leader in Jarome Iginla; they couldn't do it a second time against the Stars' Brendan Morrow. The Sharks need a player like that; how you pry one loose is another matter altogether. It may well that they need to develop one of their own; although if anybody comes available for salary-cap reasons, the Sharks will be one team in a position to expand the payroll to add a needed piece of the puzzle.
In the Eastern conference final, the Flyers will undoubtedly try to work over the Penguins' dynamic duo of Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. Won't work.
Pittsburgh in 6.
In the West, I'm going with a healthy, rested Red Wings team that ran into a lot of bad luck in last year's conference final against Anaheim. The karma feels a little better this time around.
Detroit in 5.