Witchcrafting 2012 | Stanley Cup Predictions | Post-QF Update

*another macchiato done, a nice, yet tiny bit of chocolate cake collected, time to write some more*

If like me you are a Flyers fan, you were in for a craaaaazy ride! That was an awesome series versus the Pens. Even the Witch had no clue it would unfold like it did. Goals were being scored like there was no tomorrow and the fights a reason for concern. Would our Roo or Danny or Jagr make it to the next game or not? What a ride this series was. Even more so because we WON it! Yeah.

Looking at the other series the one that stood out for me was the Kings booting out the Nucks. With Richie there I have been following them a lot closer than before and I hoped for them to win. But I won't lie, I thought it was a long-shot, so yeah, this was a pleasing win by the Kings. And the Yotes, who'd have thought? Finally, I was sad to see the Bruins go, but the Caps did amaze me (eventhough I had predicted the series win heheh).

Anyways, this Witch had planned to update her predictions sooner, but got sidetracked by life ;) ... so let me see ...

*continues with the wishful thinking, absurdity, hoping, runewatching, coin-flipping and crystal-ballery!*


EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
[Rangers #1 vs Caps #7]
As I am writing this, the series is tied at 1-1. I predicted this series so I am going with my initial assessment (quite a bit of it is wishful thinking): With the Sens out of the way it is time for the Rangers to say bye bye. Come on Caps! 4-3 Caps. 

[Flyers #5 vs Devils #4]
Well. I had predicted my Flyers to make it through. But I hate the Devils so much, so I hoped they wouldn't make it this far. Not that I am fond of the Panthers mind you, but yeah. Got this one wrong. The Flyers will of course win, but as my guys like to keep us guessing they'll need a few games to accomplish it. 4-2 Flyers.

[Caps vs Flyers]
This outcome remains at this point. So going with my earlier prediction again. 4-2 Flyers.


WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
[Blues #2 vs Kings #8]
Yippee! I called this one right too. The Coins helped me with predicting the Sharks-Blues series. And I used them to predict this match-up as well: Kings are tails. Oooooh nice, I would have gone with the Kings here too. And The Coins agree strongly. 4-1 Kings. I am sure The Coins have their reasons, but I am going to be bold and say this will be a 4-0 win for the Kings!

[Yotes #3 vs Preds #4]
Got the Yotes right. They did a nice job disposing of the Hawks. Thank you. The Preds got rid off my fave Western team, the Wings. Definitely not happy with that. So mainly out of spite I predict. 4-1 Yotes.

[Kings vs Yotes]
Not the Conference Finals I predicted in my first post, but it's not too bad really. But love the Kings and I don't need runes or The Coins for this one. 4-2 Kings.


STANLEY CUP FINALS
[Flyers vs Kings]
My dream - Flyers vs Red Wings - got shattered lol ... but I am quite looking forward to seeing this final match-up happening ... my oh my ... that would be quite something. Carts and Richie battling their old team? Quite delish lol ... but Flyers got this one. 4-3 Flyers.

I like a seven game final series!

The Witch Is Back! | Witchcrafting 2012 | Stanley Cup Predictions

*macchiato done, cookies collected, time to write*

Ah, just when you thought I would never post again, I raise from the Ashes. Probably not for long. This blogging is so timeconsuming for me, that since late November, I have found zero time to write something. But how could I not return for my favourite pastime of the season: utterly and completely misreading the stars and other omens and failing in predicting the winner of the Stanley Cup!

But the Witch is back! And as last year, you can feast your eyes on a mix of wishful thinking, absurdity, hoping, runewatching, coin-flipping and crystal-ballery!


EASTERN CONFERENCE
[Senators #8 vs Rangers #1]
Last year the Rangers fought with all their might to make it to #8 ahead of the Canes. What a difference a year can make. This year they had several great runs and at times I had to admit they looked strong. Definitely stronger than I like seeing them. And they have King Henrik. Oh boy. But they also provided me with some fun moments and although I have no love for this squad at all, Torts definitely made my day the other week when he so openly dissed the Pens Prima Donnas. Nice. The Sens, ugh. So unless the Rangers decide to fail again in the first round, I can see them win this one quite easily. 4-2 Rags, I mean Rangers.

[Caps #7 vs Bruins #2]
Oh no. I hate this match-up this early in the Playoffs *wince*. Once the Flyers had 'left the building' last year, I totally jumped on the Bruins bandwagon. They were playing the game the way I had expected to see my Flyers play. But I have a soft spot for the Caps too. And correct me if I'm wrong, but there were some sparks in those last few games ... *ponders deeply* ... I can't think of bad things to say about the Bruins, such a complete team. And the Caps, do they even have a goalie?! But a little voice in my head is telling me to expect the perhaps unexpected and that maybe the Caps won't choke this time around. I am going to upset my buddy Sven with this and myself a bit too to be honest. 4-3 Caps.

[Devils #6 vs Panthers #3]
I have no particular interest in this match-up. Hate the Devils though, Panthers are so-so. So this is easy to decide on. The series score has nothing to do with me thinking the Panthers are THAT good, no, it's just a reflection of my dislike of the Debs. 4-0 Panthers.

[Flyers #5 vs Pens #4]
Oh boy. Really? In the first round? *sigh* Look. After the crazy trades that happened after the post-season I was really worried about how things would pan out for my Flyers this season. But I must admit, I am quite pleased. The season hasn't been perfect, but I had good hopes for a good Playoffs run. Hmm, well, if nothing else, I expect fireworks between the two. No love lost there! I don't mind seeing another bout of Lavvy trying to climb the boarding in order to give Bylsma a good talking to :D ... but the Pens, if they keep a healthy team, are quite formidable. Vomitted a bit in my mouth there :S ... so I am going for a mix of hoping and love for my Flyboys. 4-3 Flyers.

 
WESTERN CONFERENCE
[Kings #8 vs Nucks #1]
I just don't like the Nucks. Well, maybe Ryan Kessler, but that's it. The Kings have Anze! And Richie! And oh no, Carter, but I won't hold it against them. So simply because I hate the Nucks. I say. 4-2 Kings.

[Sharks #7 vs Blues #2]
Eh the Sharks made it again, eh? And the Blues too this time. What a lousy series, both are just such non-entities for me. So I am going to consult The Coins! Tail is Sharks. *flips a coin several times* Oh, The Coins like a full series! 4-3 Blues. Whatever.

[Blackhawks #6 vs Yotes #3]
What is that? The Hawks are still here? I blotted them out last year. So pesky of them to return again ... *continues pretending the Hawks do not exist* ... guess that's a by for the Yotes. Lucky bastards. 4-0 - as they had no opponents - Yotes. 

[Red Wings #5 vs Predators #4]
Red Wings, my fave Western team. So, easy for me. Wings of course win. Don't want them to get too tired. 4-2 Wings.


EASTERN CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
[Rangers vs Caps]
Ohhhh, with the Sens out of the way it is time for the Rangers to say bye bye. Come on Caps! 4-3 Caps.

[Panthers vs Flyers]
Yeah no rocket science required to figure out what I am going to predict here ;) ... 4-1 Flyers.

[Caps vs Flyers]
Caps, I love you guys, but my Flyers will get stronger with each series. 4-2 Flyers.


WESTERN CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS & FINALS
[Kings vs Blues]
As The Coins helped me out during the first round, let me consult them again. Kings are tails. Oooooh nice, I would have gone with the Kings here. And The Coins agree strongly. 4-1 Kings.

[Yotes - Red Wings]
No contest. Red Wings march through and quite easily too with lots of Datsyukian dekes. 4-1 Wings.

[Kings vs Red Wings]
You may know I am an Eastern Conference girl myself, but this is a sexy Western Conference Finals match-up. Delish! My Western faves have to win this one though, would love to see them in the SC Finals! But the Kings won't just give it up and will take it all the way to game seven, before gracefully bowing out. 4-3 Wings.


STANLEY CUP FINALS
[Flyers vs Red Wings]
Hahah, this is the exact same final series I predicted last year. My my, how wrong I was. But hey, a mix of wishful thinking, absurdity, hoping, runewatching, coin-flipping and crystal-ballery can be very potent and maybe this year that dream really will come true xD ... last year I predicted a 4-2 Flyers win and I see no reason why it should be different in this SC dream. So yeah. 4-2 Flyers. And I will be in Hockey Heaven!

So what do you think?

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 5 | April 24th, 2011

Guys, Summer has arrived early in the Netherlands! Easter Weekend is proving to be perfect weather-wise and my weekend could have been even more perfect if I could get my hockey fix! I am however staying at my parents' place and they do not have ESPN America. Which makes sense because they do not care about American Sports at all ;) ... so instead of watching a few fun games last night, I had to follow the games through the NHL BlackBerry applet. But that is OK, at least I knew what was going on and I have DVR'ed all the games ESPN aired yesterday for future viewing. So what happened last night?

[Bolts-Pens] 8-2. Pens still lead series 3-2. So I could not watch this game, but watching the score go up and up and up for the Bolts on the NHL BlackBerry applet was wild enough. At 5-0 I thought OK, good going Bolts. At 7-0 I started to feel sorry for the Pens. Can you believe it? For my predictions I still need the Pens to win, but cannot help feeling joy seeing them lose to the Bolts like this ;)

[Rangers-Caps] 1-3. Caps clinch series win with an excellent 4-1 result. Caps did what they had to do and rather deftly disposed of the Rags. Feel like I can stop calling them Rangers ;) Only glitch: why did the Caps allow a goal in the final seconds? By the way, I just impressed myself. I predicted a 4-1 Caps series win lol ... at least got one right in terms of numbers ;) ... Oh yeah. BYE BYE RAGS! Hahah, glad you are gone!

[Habs-Bruins] 1-2. Bruins now lead series 3-2. Timmmeeeeeeh! The Vezina Trophy is yours buddy! I have yet to see the game and believe me, I am happy it is waiting for me on my DVR. But the NHL report, the tweets and the FB posts all point in one direction: one hell of a memorable game! Will probably add an {edit} once I have seen it. I love a good hockey game (ok, who does not?) and even more so if it leads to a Habs defeat ;)

[Kings-Sharks] 3-1. Sharks lead series 3-2. OK, The Coins were predicting this one perfectly till this game. The predicted 4-1 is out of the window now, but The Coins are still in the running for predicting the series winner and if they get that right I might use the coins to redo my Semi Finals predictions ;)

Tonight my Flyers are playing to stay in the running. And the Ducklings are in the same situation. The Nucks. Hmm. What do you guys think? Will they pick up speed again, or will they let the Hawks smother them and tie the series?

If you care, check my original Whimsical Playoffs Predictions here:
My Whimsical Playoffs Predictions

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 4 | April 21st, 2011

I could not contain my need to find out how last night's games went, so as I was headed for work, stuck in heavy traffic, I was reading tweets on my BlackBerry. And as I was scrolling I saw good news for the Caps, good news for the Pens fans, good news for the Ducklings and I thought "Hey, this is looking good!" and then I came upon the Flyers result and no. A 1-0 shutout is not what I was hoping for at all. Not at all. And it is also a bit of a lame loss. You know things are not going the way they should when you get your happy hockey fix from other teams. Cause I was very very pleased when I read the Red Wings have sweeped this series!

[Caps-Rangers] 4-3. Caps lead 3-1. Whew. The Rangers were onto something here. Caps were 3-0 behind after the 2nd period but managed to score three goals in a row to make it 3-3. OT was not enough for either team to clinch the win and the game had to go into second OT where Chimera scored to bring the Caps victory. Phew!

[Pens-Bolts] 3-2. Pens lead 3-1. Another long tough game. Bolts did good coming back from a 2-0 deficit. Took the Pens double OT to wint his one. Still think the Pens will win this round, but not without the Bolts fighting back!

[Flyers-Sabres] 0-1. Tied at 2-2. I hate games that generate only one goal. At least it was not a soft goal. Tough game, pretty much a goalie game too. Suppose we should be glad Boosh was in net. And really? A brawl at the end of the game? Shall watch it when I get home. In any case, not too happy with this result *sigh*

[Ducks-Preds] 6-3. Tied at 2-2. Awww my Ducklings fought back and well, not much else to add than well done Duckies, two more wins to go!

[Red Wings-Yotes] 6-3. Wings sweep this round with a 4-0 win! My fave Western Conference team, looking sharp. Have DVR-ed this one and will watch as soon as I get home!

And saunter over here to see my complete Whimsical Playoffs Predictions:
My Whimsical Playoffs Predictions

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 3 | April 18th 2011

Sunday Hockey Night! On ESPN America: Caps vs Rangers and Nucks vs Blackhawks. It was 9.15pm CET, I sat down, started up this post and waited for the puck drop for the Caps game. Would have loved to see the Nucks game as well, but that was a bit too late for me to watch.

In any case, I was ready to watch and scribble down things that excited me during this game.This is what happened next.

*watches and waits*
*watches and waits some more*
*watches and waits even a bit more*
*zzzZzzzZZzzzzzz*
*wakes up in the last few minutes as some PPs generate some interesting moments in front of the Caps goal*

That pretty much sums up the first period for me. I hoped the next one would be better, but ESPN ported the NBC feed so I had to battle through their ignorance first:

Oh intermission idiocy. Honestly, those idiot NBC announcers should be shot. The crap they talk is amazing. No, letting it go, this is not the right post for that particular rant.

The second period started in much the same vein as the first. Annoyingly enough however, the Rangers scored out of the blue. What a damper. That was not the result I was hoping for. I do not like it when the Rangers lead. But at least it seemed to wake the Caps up. With fives minutes to go, the Caps finally managed to build up some pressure. It seemed short-lived, but just when I started to think it would just fizzle out, Ovi scored! A 1-1 before intermission sounded great to me at this time. And then the Rangers just had to go and mess things up again. They literally scored in the last second. Or maybe not? The clock said 0.00 ... So did they score? The War Room was consulted of course and they took their time too. The place was quiet. Everyone was waiting. The ref took his spot and then a bit of nothing lol ... what a great moment for an equipment malfunction! It definitely added to the suspension. He skated to the ref booth and finally we got to hear the decision.

NO GOAL!

That beats hitting the locker room with a 2-1 deficit! Third period started. I was caught up in some reading and only after six minutes into the game did I hear some excitement coming from the crowd and I had to rewind to see what happened. It was a Caps breakout that was thwarted by the Rangers. Ranger Ruslan Fedotenko did a huge belly slide in order to get his stick on the puck. It looked somewhat cool, but to call it 'outstanding defensive play' like the NBC announcers (them again!) did? Just goes to show what morrons they are. Especially so, because in the process Fedotenko nearly scored on his own goalie lol ... hahah ... 'outstanding' ... *shakes head in dismay*

Then after a while the Rangers scored but Knuble equalised the game with five minutes to go. It looked as if this game would go into OT, but then the Rangers scored to make it 3-2. With less than two minutes to go and with just a few lame attempts by the Caps it was too late for the Caps and we could chalk it up as a Caps loss. Not splendid at all. Personally I thought the Caps played a bad game. They took too many penalties and looked shabby and a bit disorganised in general. The Caps still lead the series 2-1, but they need to crank up their game next time!

In related news:
[Nucks-Hawks] 3-2. The Nucks now lead the series by 3-0. Doubtful the Hawks will manage to recover. And that is good news.
[Ducks-Preds] 3-4. Hmm sounds like an interesting game. More eventful than the Caps game. They should have aired this one last night. This series is definitely interesting. I think it might go to the full seven games being played. Still think the Ducks will win it. Or at least should hahah.

Tonight my Flyboys play. I hope that the last game unleashed their inner beast. I want another win and preferably less goals by the Sabres lol ... I would like a 5-2 win ;)

And as a reminder, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 2 | April 16th, 2011

Oh, some interesting results for me to read this morning!

[Bolts-Pens] 5-1. Whoa, that is a bit unexpected actually. Playing desperate does seem to pay off. And Flower was dominant in Game 1, but this time it was good old trusty Roloson who upstaged the other goalie.
[Rangers-Caps] 0-2. Excellent. The Rags shut-out! And the Caps were in defence mode, wonder what we will get to see if they also amp up the good old offence!
[Hawks-Nucks] 3-4. Nicely done there, Nucks on schedule to win, like they should.
[Preds-Ducks] 3-5.Welcome back Bobby, Ryan & Corey. These three little Ducklings got their act together and gave us a cool win. Good for my predictions, onto the next one boys!

Today my Flyers play. Will not be aired on ESPN, so I may have to resort to some good old-fashioned stream hunting. I am waiting for my boys to unleash the energy that certainly must be building up to dangerous levels. After that 1-0 loss ... that energy must be waiting to break out. Right? I expect some excellent goals by Roo and Mesz. No idea why Mesz, but it has been known to happen and why should it not happen today?

And as per usual, for my complete predictions, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 1 | April 14th, 2011

The Puck Has Dropped!

Hate it, hate it, hate it that I cannot watch at least some of the games live during the week. But work in the morning eh? Will try to catch as many games as I can over the weekend though. And I DVR'd two of last night's games and will check those out when I get home. So thanks nhl.com for NHL Gamecenter. That will my first online stop for the weeks to come :D

Alright, not a bad start at all.

[Pens-Bolts] 3-0. Not going to celebrate, but it is good for my predictions. OK. Some appreciation: Well done Flower!
[Yotes-Red Wings] 2-4. YEAH! And Datsyuk scored one.
[Rangers-Caps] 1-2 ... took an OT, but our Russian buddies Ovi & Semin nailed them! Yeah!
[Blackhawks-Nucks] 0-2. A shut-out. Excellent.
[Preds-Ducks] 4-1. Shaky start for the Ducklings. Ouch!

Tonight my Flyers play. Excited beyond belief!

Oh, for my complete predictions, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast