By Hockey Guru
The stage is set - Mike Bolt has on the white gloves, Gary Bettman has polished his dome and the champagne is on ice - all that's left is for Chicago to win game 6.
Of course, Philadelphia has been on written off before .... well written off by others - not the Guru (who alluded to the possibility of an 0-3 comeback against Boston in Game 2 of that series) - so is tonight actually the end of the 2009-2010 NHL Season?
First, the more important question needs to be addreessed - Where was Carnac for Games 3, 4 and 5?
Well, let's just say that after the amazing run put together during these playoffs and with the millions of followers putting the expertise to work for them - a few fine gentleman invited the Guru for a lovely evening of dinner at Satriele's and some entertainment at the Bada Bing.
It seems that it was in everyone's best interest to take a few days off from predictions. Fortunately, an arrangement in everyone's best interest was made.
Over the course of that dinner - it was interesting to discuss how after the first two games of this year's Stanley Cup Finals - with record-breaking ratings - it would be in the best interest of NBC and the NHL to see this series extended as far as possible.
A couple guests at that dinner suggested that perhaps a certain interpretation of the rules might create a better opportunity for the series to be extended. Interestingly enough, Philly wins the next two games in the series - squaring things up at 2 games each and ensuring a minimum of 6 games for the series.
While the Guru waivered and was actually swayed in Game One - the crystal ball continues to show that the Blackhawks can win in any type of game. Tonight - the prediction of the Hawks out-scoring the Flyers will continue - final prediction 4-1 Chicago. (It would have been too easy to predict 4-3 or 4-2 - so the Guru is erring thinking that the under may come in as there may be more focus on defensive responsibility early - a lot of dumping and chasing, a lot of hitting and perimeter opportunities that will be stopped. The prediction is that there minimal powerplays (maybe 1 each in the first period - more likely no penalties in the first) and that the game is tight defensively for a while.
The best thing about predicting Chicago in Game 6 - is that there's a 75% chance that Guru ends the season correctly ('cause if he's wrong -there's the 50-50 chance to be right in game 7)!
The worst thing about predicting Chicago in Game 6?
ReplyDeleteThat your influential prediction not only resulted no more hockey, but worse than that - no more Carnac.
On behalf of the league, thanks for providing no less than 20 of these things - more than any other feature this year, by far.