I’m going to comment on the interesting trends that I’ve seen develop with the picks. First - very few people picked upsets in the 1-8 and 2-7 games in the West. I honestly expected a few more people to pick St. Louis, certainly I expected more people to pick the Blues than the Preds, which isn’t what happened.

The other pick of mention is the fact that most people picked Montreal. I’ve gotta think that this is mostly wishful thinking. I’m as big a Habs fan as you’ll find, and I almost picked the Bruins. They looked pretty good before picking up Gonchar, and now I think they look as strong as anyone in the East. I really would have rather seen the Habs draw Toronto in the first round. I’m not saying they can’t win, or even that they won’t. I just would have thought that more people would have picked the Bruins.

The first round starts today, so get your picks in as soon as possible (if you haven’t already.)

I watched the Women’s World Hockey Championships

Gold medal game last night. I’ve never seen worse officiating in a big game like that in my entire life. Apparently they don’t have video replay at their disposal, but also apparently, they should. If I were an American player, I would be pretty disgusted at how that game was called. I’m happy that the Canadian women managed to win it, but I honestly think they would have won without the officiating “help” that they recieved.eah, 8 in a row, but I think the 8th deserves and asterisk.Simpson’s quote of the day: “Yep! High as a kite everybody! Goofballs!” - Chief Wiggum

The playoff matchups are finally decided, so I have to make my picks, so that all of you can run out and place your bets on the teams that I don’t pick.

Western Conference

(1) vs. (8) - Nashville is overmatched here, but by an aging team. Detroit was knocked out of the playoffs early last year, and I expect them to come out of the corner swinging. This might be the only series that doesn’t go 6 or 7 games. My pick: Detroit

(2) vs. (7) - San Jose gets no respect. I don’t know why that is, but for whatever reason, St. Louis is picked by a lot of people, mainly those who haven’t seen San Jose play a single period this year. St. Louis had to come on strong to make the playoffs, so they’re on a bit of a roll, but I’m still picking San Jose

(3) vs. (6) - Here’s my first upset. Vancouver has been playing well in the past few games, while Calgary has stumbled. Playoffs are a different beast than the regular season though, and I’ll take a hard nosed, hard working team with a hot goalie over a team that was expected to run away with it, missing a star player, with a playoff question mark in net. Calgary will win this battle of Western Canada.

(4) vs. (5) - Another upset in the making. Mike Modano had an awful start to the season, but he’s been coming on strong since the all star break. Dallas is a tough team to beat, and Colorado isn’t so much a team, as a collection of vast amounts of talent. Goaltending will always be a question mark, until Colorado’s Swiss stopper proves himself. Patrick Roy’s pads are some big ones to try and fill (in more ways than one) I expect Mr. Aebisher will have a rough go of it this year, though that’s not to say he’ll never be a playoff goaltender. My pick is still Dallas

Eastern Conference

(1) vs. (8) - Again, Tampa gets no respect, people have said to me that the Habs would have been better off falling to 8th, so they could play Tampa, rather than play Toronto, Boston, or Ottawa. I think it’s a mistake to discount any team that can rack up that many points, despite the fact they’re playing in a weaker division. I’m picking Tampa Bay

(2) vs (7) - This will be an interesting series to watch. Special teams might very well be the difference, and Boston’s pickup of Sergei Gonchar at the trade deadline have made their powerplay look a lot better. I think that Theodore will outduel Raycroft, who’s playing in his first post-season. Montreal Did you really think I’d pick Boston?

(3) vs. (6) - in what promises to be a low scoring series, I’m hitching my wagon to future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur. I think Philly is still a goaltender short, so I’m picking New Jersey.

(4) vs. (5) - This will be a hard fought, physical, intense, close, clutchy, grabby, hack, slash, lie, cheat, steal, sell your own grandmother’s false teeth to win, kind of series. I think it’s too bad that one of these teams has to go home after the first round. I’d like to see Ottawa win, but I think Toronto has the edge in net, and in confidence, after the drubbing the Senators received from the Leafs on Saturday. As much as it pains me, I’m picking Toronto.

So, get your picks in, and I’ll add you to the pool. I hope to have more participation again this year, so if you haven’t put your name in before, give it a go this year. You can hardly do worse than I have.

For some reason I want to learn how to play Go. It’s a classic board game, that has history and depth to rival Chess, and an elegant simplicity to rival checkers. So, I want to learn how to play it. Here comes another insight into how my brain works though…

I’m fairly intelligent, was always good in school, quick to pick up new information etc. I don’t really care for chess though. I suspect I’m going to run into the same problem with Go, though at least Go has a handicap system. My problem is that Chess (and Go) have been studied to death. There are lots of books on the subject of Chess, standard openings, strategies that can be memorized and employed. The challenge then becomes “who can read the better book” or “who can recognize the patterns best,” rather than “who can react to this situation the best.” I want to feel like I’m playing a game that’s never been played before. With chess, despite the huge numbers of different board situations that can result, I always feel like I’m trapped in someone else’s game that they’ve played before. The level of unpredictability is pretty low, and someone trying something “new” and “unpredictable” finds that a good opponent will have anticipated their “new” strategy because their old “tried and true” strategies tell them what to do. If I want a game of pattern recognition, I’ll play Classic Concentration. Now I realize that at higher levels of Chess, the idea of playing by rote falls by the wayside somewhat, as everyone is so good that they’ve seen it all before, so the very best are both good at recognizing patterns, and coming up with new patterns that people hopefully haven’t seen before. To get to that point though, you’ve gotta pay your dues, and learn the standard openings, the standard strategies, and avoid the standard pitfalls. No chess grand-master is going to be surprised by a 7 move checkmate.

That doesn’t interest me, and that’s why I never took up chess in any serious way. I mean, yeah, I know how the pieces move, and I know some standard ways to get an easy checkmate against an unwary opponent, but that’s no fun, all it shows me is that they’ve never seen that particular set of moves before. I’m hoping that Go is different, precisely because it’s a more methodical, back and forth type of game, and while a single move might lose you the game, you (I) won’t know it until the final tally.

So, that’s why when you challenge me to a game of chess, I’ll usually decline. Though I have had some good games of chess with some people in the past, anyone who takes the game remotely seriously would probably cringe to see how we played them.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Oww! My lute!” - Martin

I love April Fools pranks, though I haven’t come up with a good one in recent memory. I really like reading about the creative things people have done, though of course the best ones are the ones that have you wondering if they could be real - I guess it’s a tough balancing act, making sure that it’s clear you’re pulling a prank, while making it believable enough to make it a good one.

Most pranks lately go well over the line of the absurd, which can be good too, but I want someone to prey on my gullibility. That’s what today is all about!

I found a page that is trying to track all the online April Fool’s pranks this year. Some good ones in there.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life if you had an electrified fooling machine.” - Homer