[Alberta's Child]

First Detroit, now Colorado. What's with all these over-hyped Western Conference teams this year?

Maybe my Devils are going to win their third Cup in the last 8 years after all.

[Night Hides Not]

As a Stars fan, I was looking forward to a Marty Turco-Patrick Roy matchup. I am not looking forward to a match with the Wild...they've played the Stars tough from Day 1.

Western Conference is tough, baby. Just goes to show what happens when you let your guard down, and the other team's goalie gets on a roll.

Gee, I guess the Stars weren't so stupid after all, letting Belfour go.

[aardvark1]

Being a Detroit fan (since the first day I saw a 19-year-old Steve Yzerman play), I was disappointed when they lost, but what a wierd playoff season this will be. Hockey needed something like this to get the focus off Detroit and Colorado.

[discostu]

I wouldn't say they were overhyped, they just blew it. Detroit ran into the legendary playoff killer: a hot goaltender, 165 save on 171 shots is just not something you can plan on. They averaged over 43 shots a game, that would ensure victory 99% of the time... the other 1% being the times you run into a hot goalie. Now the Detroit coaching staff does deserve a scolding, they never changed the style of play. Scotty always mixed it up in a playoff series even if his guys were winning because you don't want the opposition to know what to expect, this year's Wings have played the same (usually winning) style all year.

Colorado has been bitten by the 7 game series bug for a while (at one point the commentators said this was their 11th series to go to 7 in a row). When you can't finish opponents off you're asking for upsets, especially if it goes into OT then it's all about one lucky bounce. They're still a great team but somewhere during the quest to get Ray Borque a ring they lost the killer instinct.

Right now the finals are probably Stars - Devils (note the Devils are the only Eastern Conference team to win since 95... the east really sucks). But if I'm the Stars I'm looking at a conference semis containing two giant killers and I'm scared.