NHL playoff predictions

Interesting commercial and food for thought Dept. Not sure what to make of the Fifth Third Bank. My questions would be -- what happened to the 1st and 2nd banks? Did they go under? And if this is their fifth try at a third bank, here's hoping they can finally get it right. At any rate, the name itself doesn't exactly inspire consumer confidence, ya know?

OK, enough of that nonsense. On to the playoffs.

The defending Stanley Cup champs Chicago Black Hawks staved off elimination in their own building a few hours ago, but it took them double overtime to finally put away the LA Kings. At that, the Kings lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 to be played in LA. Can the Hawks win out there to force a Game 7 back in the Windy City?

Nope. Since falling behind 0-3 to the San Jose Sharks in the opening playoff round, the Kings have been on a roll. They would come back to win four in a row over the Sharks, then defeat Anaheim in a seven games series which included an amazing five road wins between the two teams, the last being the Kings knocking off the Ducks in the shadows of Disneyland. Then again, the term "road game" was misleading in that series. How far apart are LA and Anaheim anyway? A drive and a 7 iron?

Nevertheless, the Kings seem to have regained the form they showed just 2 years ago, when they entered the playoffs as only a #8 seed and rolled to the Cup. Chicago's not going to beat these guys two games in a row, though I still think the Black Hawks have the coolest uniforms in all of pro sports. Besides, with no NFL team, the Lakers a mess and the Clippers going through the whole Donald Sterling snafu, LA could use a break right about now.

In the east, Montreal and the NY Rangers is an interesting match-up. The Rangers lead the series 3-2 with Game 6 in Madison Square Garden. They better win it to close out those pesky Habs, because they surely don't want to go back to Montreal for a Game 7. Both teams have shown they can win on the other's home ice, but can you imagine the fever pitch of the fans, players, etc., in Montreal for a Game 7 that would propel them into the Stanley Cup Finals? The Canadiens haven't hoisted Lord Stanley's Cup since 1993, when ironically they defeated the LA Kings 4 games to 1. The coach of the Kings at the time? One Barry Melrose, who has become quite the noted NHL television personality and analyst. Barry still knows hockey -- big time. To boot, Montreal has suffered through even more doldrums than LA in the professional sports world. No NBA franchise. Yeah, they have a CFL team, but that's hardly the same as an NFL presence. And baseball? Their Expos folded up shop a while back and moved to Washington DC to become the Nationals. Ouch.

How huge would another Stanley Cup be in Montreal? Off the charts.

So who should win between them and the Rangers? The Rangers are a logical favorite because they have two games and only need to win one. But I'm taking Montreal to go to the Finals for sentimental reasons, one in particular. I'll get back to that.

New York's a great town. Lots of things to see and stuff to do. But the natives are also quite rude in their ways.

Then again, I was in Montreal a while back, and was treated like a peasant around town, and particularly at a fine dining establishment because I couldn't speak French.

So it's probably a fair statement to say New Yorkers and Montrealers can both be offensive to visitors, though in different ways.

Yet I want Montreal to win this series. Why?

Because I love hearing both national anthems before the games. Unlike other pro sports, the NHL trots out some world-class singers to belt out these anthems. And they don't jazz it up, blues it up, rock it up, rap it up, or otherwise change the songs to draw attention to themselves. They sing them as they were written. National anthems are supposed to be about honoring countries, not some celebrity flavor of the day getting their 5 minutes to show off while butchering the songs themselves. And certainly no crotch-grabbing. Ahem.

So for that reason alone I hope Les Habitants make it to the Stanley Cup Finals. Once there, who to root for? Tough choice.

They can be pretty uppety in LA too, with all the high falootin movie stars running around. And the traffic is brutal. Six lanes both ways on a freeway and it's bumper to bumper for miles? Only in LA. WAY too many cars.

Whatever. It's two good teams that most thought wouldn't be in the Finals in the first place. It should be a helluva series.

May the best team win -- and bring on the national anthems.....