Ok, I lied.

Back in September, I re-evaluated my 06-07 predictions, but with one notable oversight. I kept picking Montreal to finish last in the Northeast. To quote myself,

Montreal, I'm not worried about at all.

Boy, was I wrong. I haven't said peep about that miscalculation since, except when grudgingly conceding the fact the Habs started out well and were looking good to the blogger formerly known as Reality Check. I wanted to gloat abit when the Habs fell on their faces almost all the way out of the playoffs. Glad I didn't, because just about the time everyone was about to write-off their chances, along comes a crazy win streak to bring them back from the brink.

Now we sit, two games remaining for each team, the outcome of these two games deciding the playoff fate of each. Montreal plays the resurgent Rangers, the Leafs play the DiPietro-less Islanders. Then the Habs visit the ACC. How glad am I the game isn't at the keg? Really glad. But I don't want to get ahead of myself. I refuse to make any predictions for these last two games, but I admit it. I'm worried the Habs won't get out of the way.

I'm feeling good about the Rangers' chances this evening. After giving up a big lead in Montreal nine days ago, I have a feeling Renney will be icing a motivated line up with the aim to win, unlike the game against the Islanders where coach aimed to survive intact and held Petr Slewcha out and inserted both Orr & Hollweg. I don't really mean that diss on Prucha. Carlo should've realized it wasn't worth it and positioned himself to control Prucha on the boards. Prucha shouldn't have leveraged Carlo the way he did. A Rangers fan buddy of mine mentioned Prucha doesn't have a reputation for being dirty, which I can respect as a justification. Still, in slo mo the replay isn't reinforcing that reputation in my mind.

With that said, I don't have a good feeling about the Leafs tonight. The Islanders get up for the Leafs, and if the Islanders lose, they will be eliminated. No more 'must win' games to hype up. Even without Ricky D and a full NHL D corps, the Islanders have a thing for Tucker, and he will likely be victimized for more than one marginal penalty. And Blake and Smyth are the kind of players that will burn you if you don't respect what they can do. Not to mention Satan, Yashin, Hunter, Kozlov, Campoli and Bergeron. You could say I'm freakin' out a bit at the moment.

C'mon Mats! Shut 'em up with a season saving game. Don't get smoked by Dubie!