I’m not going to lie: for a while there in Round 2, I was a little concerned about my picks.  Detroit got blown away, Boston lunged out to a huge series lead, and Pittsburgh dominated Montreal in their first game.  But in the end, three out of four ain’t bad…and the uncertainty I felt mid-round was nothing compared to the uncertainty I feel about the Conference Finals.  There are just too many unknowns here to be sure of anything, and I could picture pretty much any outcome, but these are the ones I’ve landed on:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

• (7) Philadelphia vs (8) Montreal - CANADIENS IN 7 » Philly’s got size and Montreal’s got speed.  Given that it’s the “New NHL”, that could give the Canadiens the edge.  Their goaltending is also better; the Flyers are on their third-string guy (Michael Leighton), and Halak should be able to outmatch him easily.  But will the Habs continue their habit of letting the opposition jump out to series leads?  They’ve been playing with fire, and if the Flyers can get on them fast, they could be the ones to burn them.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

• (1) San Jose vs (2) Chicago - BLACKHAWKS IN 6 » This one wouldn’t be so tough if I believed - as everyone else seems to - that Joe Thornton has finally turned the corner and turned into a playoff performer.  As far as I’m concerned, though, Thornton, Marleau and the Sharks haven’t proven anything yet; their win over Detroit was convincing, but that huge loss to Johan Franzen is cause for pause.  If the quick, chippy Blackhawks can harass Nabokov enough to get him off his game (and his numbers say that he hasn’t really been “on” it yet), they could be headed for the Finals.