The playoffs have been a wacky time. Hardly anyone predicted the Canadiens to win their opening round series, yet they made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Final. I guess that’s why they play the games.

Before you take stock in anyone’s Stanley Cup predictions maybe it’s time we check out their records so far. It’s much easier to put this up when my underdog pick continues to win (that would be the Flyers – I readily admit I had no faith in Montreal).

It was pretty hard to go back and find different writer’s predictions, so the list is much smaller than when I put it up after the first round. Maybe that’s because some people made terrible picks and didn’t want to put their name next to any others. Or maybe my record was actually the worst and I wanted to make myself look good. Believe what you will.

So just in time for the first game of the Stanley Cup you can see who is predicting either the Hawks or Flyers and what their record has been this post-season. Here is another link to Dobber Hockey where you can see the same type of format for a group of writers. Very few sites made finding their predictions this easily. Maybe there’s a reason for that.

For the third year in a row the Stanley Cup Final is an excellent match-up for the NHL (Gary Bettman is secretly mad). Two major American cities that have young and exciting teams.

This is actually a much closer matchup than the seedings suggest. While Philadelphia finished the regular season as the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed with 88 points, 24 behind the Hawks, they shouldn't be considered heavy underdogs.

At this point Philadelphia is playing like the team everyone thought they would be at the beginning of the season, rather than the one that limped into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season.

Philadelphia is sort of like the Eastern Conference version of the Blackhawks, just a little older and maybe a little shallower on the blueline.

The Chicago Blackhawks are who we thought they were.

Let’s break this sucker down.

Leaf fans may be conflicted about who to cheer for during this Stanley Cup Final. There are factors that could make seeing either Mike Richards or Jonathan Toews lift the Stanley Cup unsettling for Leafs Nation.

The Leafs and Flyers have a pretty heated rivalry that dates back to the 1970s when both teams took gooning to a whole new level. The rivalry was rekindled in the late 90s and early 2000s with a couple hard-fought playoff series. It’s because of the Flyers that instead of remembering this about the 2004 playoffs, I remember this.

While Leaf and Flyer fans do not like each other there is the complicating matter of Chicago’s last Stanley Cup victory – which happened a long time ago. Their last Stanley Cup happened so long ago that they actually own the longest drought in all of hockey. The team with the inglorious distinction of owning the second longest drought is the Toronto Maple Leafs. My math skills are lacking, but even I know that if Chicago wins the Stanley Cup then the Leafs will have the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL.

This factor is so compelling that one Leafs fan (who shall remain nameless for his safety) said he would cheer for the Canadiens against the Blackhawks if that was the Stanley Cup Final. That’s obscene, but I think it shows how strongly some fans feel about this disgraceful record.

Even though it means that Chicago will erase their Stanley Cup famine, I am firmly cheering for them to win the Stanley Cup.

The San Jose Sharks once again failed to make it to the Stanley Cup Final after being a top-seed in the Western Conference. They didn’t lose in horrific fashion, but the result will leave the Sharks with the same empty feeling that they have every year.

It's convenient to label this loss to the Blackhawks as another Sharks’ collapse, especially since they were swept 4-0, but that would be disingenuous. The Sharks may have lost four straight to the Hawks, but every game was close and more than a few could have gone the other way. And this wasn’t some underdog team that upset the Sharks - it was the most complete team in the entire league.

While there is no shame in losing in the Conference Final to a team like the Chicago Blackhawks, this is definitely a bitter moment for the Sharks and their fans, especially since it was all over so quickly.

Now the Sharks head into a summer where they face many big decisions. This team doesn’t need to be blown apart, but major changes certainly need to happen. This is a good team, but one who has failed to win a Stanley Cup despite being pegged by analysts as heavy favourites for a number of years. It may be time for Doug Wilson to realize that the current core of the team just isn’t good enough to win the Stanley Cup.