Playoffs, baby. PLAYOFFS

I wish that title was my exact feelings, but, alas, the Leafs imploded in 2015. However, sixteen teams enter the toughest tournament in the world. Four best-of-seven series to capture the Stanley Cup. Looking at match-ups it's a little upsetting from a Canadian standpoint since there can be a maximum of three of the five Canadian teams moving on to the next round. There are going to be some great bouts though. I'm going to go through them all and pick my winners. Then continue to do the same for each round. It means I'm going to have to devote myself to Gamecenter, and I can't wait!

St. Louis Blues vs. Minnesota Wild

Both of these teams don't have an enormous amount of depth at this level. Internationally, yes, but that's a whole different kettle of fish and, more importantly, a different roster. Both teams have a collection of grit players, skilled puck-handlers, and work horse d-men. 

St. Louis always looks like a team to take the whole thing but they never have an easy road to get to the playoffs and that takes a toll. I really like the look of the team their depth improves every year because they've been in the playoffs the past three years, gaining experience as they progress. With a strong core of Backes, Oshie, Pietrangelo, Bouwmeester, accompanied by Vlad Tarasenko, their leading scorer, they're very intimidating on paper. Their deadline pick-ups (Olli Jokinen and Zybnek Michalek) are great and add even more depth to the roster. It's hard to attack a weakness on the team. Elliott and Allen are both capable starters which furthers the Blues' depth

Devan Dubnyk has come out of the woodwork to get Minnesota into the postseason and he'll be playing in his first playoff game since 2006. Records show that he hasn't moved onto the second round, ever. However, he has completely turned the Wild and they're the best team he's ever had in front of him at this level. Two of whom are locals Zach Parise and Ryan Suter the anchors of the team. Suter logged major minutes and Parise led the team in goals. I'm interested to see how the wiley Nino Niederreiter plays, he had 5 game-winners during the season plays with that grit you need in the playoffs. He is the team's x-factor. A part from Suter the defense looks pretty young but their toughness should make up for that. 

I think I overused the word depth when talking about St.Louis, they were in Minnesota's position three years ago. Blues in 5.  

Chicago Blackhawks vs. Nashville Predators

This is my second favorite first round series. Both teams have few weaknesses, the team that exercises their strength will defeat the other. Nashville has some unreal team defense and tending, while Chicago has a playoff tested team that plays very good hockey.

The Blackhawks have been touted as one of the Dynasties in the league having won two cups since 2010 and reaching the Western Finals four times in that span. Now, Patrick Kane broke his collarbone and is starting to skate but still hasn't taken part in contact drills. His presence on the ice is a make or break for Chiacgo because there is no other player on the team with hands like him. Captain Serious still steers the ship with Coach Q while Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook lead the defensive corps. Their young role players are playoff-tested and I'd look to one of them to fill in for Kane, for at least this series. Crawford will need to be a showstopper for the boys in red.

The Preds have a new coach that has tons of playoff experience, and they have the talent to go deep into the playoffs. We'll work our way out from the crease: Pekka Rinne is a monster. I always put him as a Vezina winner because he's quick and a mountain of a man. Shea Weber and the other blueliners are big and fast. At one point during the season their GM said Cody Franson is the best passer he has ever drafted. He is a great passer, but when you say that after drafting the likes of Roman Josi, Seth Jones, Ryan Ellis (x-factor), departed Ryan Suter, and the team's captain! Well they're deep in that department. Offensively Filip Forsberg is playing great and holds a drool-worthy plus/minus paired with James Neal is a deadly combo. 

I will treasure this series, it's gonna be a marathon because these two teams are great. Laviolette's going to get his boys to reach that hidden gear and get them to the second round. Predators in 7 

Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks vs. Winnipeg Jets

Looking at the rosters this will be a grinder series with bruising hits the whole way through and fights, expect a lot of those.

Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry are two of the greatest players in the league and definitely the best on the West Coast. With better lines underneath them and the ability to play away from each other as well they have a better shot than they did in years past. A big point to make is that Boudreau has never gotten a team out of the first round and frankly this isn't the best team he's coached. Considering Pat Maroon, one of the many bruisers on the team, is sixth on the scoring sheet other players need to get hot for them to score the goals. However, John Gibson had a great playoffs last year and I don't see why he can't do something like that again considering he's been chilling out in the AHL for a majority of the season. 

Now there are the Jets. Just like Anaheim the Jets are a tenacious bunch. Led by Andrew Ladd and the big nasty Dusty Byfuglien (two key pieces in the first Chicago cup-winning team in 2010) will be major leaders on the ice. Stafford and Tyler Myers have the opportunity to make the mid-season trade look marvelous if they step up to play to their potential. Bryan Little and Blake Wheeler are required to produce for the team offensively night in and night out. Lee Stempniak is a defensive wildcard here, if he can shut down the Ducks' Ryan Kesler then there isn't a reason the Jets shouldn't win. 

Let's go Canada! Boudreau flounders like Peyton Manning in the playoffs: Jets in 7 

Vancouver Canucks vs. Calgary Flames

Honestly when I looked at the standings near the end of the season I had no flipping idea Vancouver was doing well. In fact, I called them aiming for McDavid. Oops. The Flames are a very young team that will need to keep playing the same way they've been playing all season to make it out of this round against a very veteran team. 

The Sedin sisters are back! They are playing a significantly younger and faster team, thus, mistake-free hockey and poise will propel them into the next round. They can't win by playing the Flames' style. Eddie Lack is the tentative starter, barring Miller's return, either way the team has a very underrated defense. Offensively Burrows, Vrbata, alternate as the third wheel on that top line with the Sedins who are catalysts for goals. If one can start putting pucks in the net on the second line that will further up their chances to pass the Flames   

The Flames' coach Bob Hartley has been putting the Flames through the playoff simulation the whole season. The season was broken into seven-game sets by their coach and the team managed to win at least 4 games in each of those sets. There's no reason to think they can't do it now. They've been preparing for this all season. When they're captain Mark Giordano had a season ending injury the Flames saw players emerge into role players to keep winning four out of seven. Gaudreau and Monahan are still young players but will learn a lot in the Flames first trip to the second season without Jarome Iginla. It's a new chapter for the Flames.

This is a pretty big toss-up for me: the old and experienced pinned up against the young and the reckless. I think the Bob Hartley's system will be the determining factor. Flames in 6  

Montréal Canadiens vs. Ottawa Senators

I couldn't care less about this series, it's very hard for me to like, let alone cheer, for one of these teams. That and they're basically the same.

Let's look at the Habs: young developing players, stellar defense man, American star, good two-way centres and great goaltending. Brendan "Carseat" Gallagher is very comparable to Brad Marchand (because of size), a driving force in the Bruins journey to the cup in 2011, and will need to be that sort of player in the coming months. PK Subban is the quarterback of the Habs powerplay and an offensive threat every time he's got his stick in the air. Patches of course led the league in plus minus (+38) and I've heard he can score too. Oh yeah, and Carey Price and played his way into the MVP story and has completely earned all those compliments.

Now there's Ottawa, Matt Hoffman and Mark Stone have been called up this year and have both put netted twenty pucks, not bad for their rookie seasons. Stone was a late bloomer and could be labelled as one of the reasons for Ottawa's late playoff push. Erik Karlsson captains the team and leads by not being afraid to make the big play with his stick or his body. He needs to play better than Subban in order to have a shot. Two great goalies are backing up the Senators: Craig Anderson and the Hamburglar. The team is lead offensively by Karlsson to an extent but Bobby "Silver" Ryan needs to step up his game in order to make this a series.

Although most of Ottawa's roster has won at the AHL level, the idea that Carey Price will lose four games out of seven is ridiculous. Canadiens in 5.
  

New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

This is a rematch from last year's Metro Division final, however, the teams have both had shake ups since their last postseason appearances. It will be interesting to see who made the right trades and hires.

The President Trophy winning Rangers are a very confident team with lots of big guys like Rick Nash, Chris Kreider, and all their blueliners (Keith Yandle was a great trade at the deadline). Rick was a ghost in the playoffs last year and that can't happen because they've lost Brad Richards. Look for Stepan and Brassard to fill in for that absence. Brian Boyle's replacement has yet to be found in my opinion but the team-effort on the penalty kill and faceoffs can make that a non-issue. King Henrik, or Cam Talbot, give the Rangers a chance to win every night the question is if Lunqvist has enough fuel left in the tank for another big playoff push. I'm sure they're still thirsty for a drink after getting as close as they did last year. 

The Penguins shook up their roster in a moderate way, dumping James Neal for Patrik Hornqvist and picking up Dan Winnik from Leafs at the deadline. Winnik is not playoff tested like Crosby, Kunitz or Malkin but he's tough and an penalty-killing workhorse. If he gets a goal or two consider it a bonus. Crosby and Malkin will have their work cut out for them against the Rangers stout defense and need to produce either separately or together to make this an actual series. Fleury is always a wildcard player for me he has moments of grief and greatness, depending on who shows up determines the fate of the Penguins. 

Rangers consistency offensively and defensively will propel them past the Penguins. Rangers in 6. 

New York Islanders vs. Washington Capitals

With Alexander Ovechkin and John Tavares going head to head for hopefully seven games, there no reason why this shouldn't be the series to watch. Every time there's a wind-up the crowds going to be cheering.

I predicted the Islanders making the playoffs this year, Tavares stepped up in a big way and the young guns followed suit. They have a lot of great role players. Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin are hitting machines and will be looking to cause havoc every shift. The Isles backstop is more than favorable, Jaro Halak became famous a couple years back when he stood on his head for Montréal in April and May. The blue line got exactly what it needed at the beginning of the season two playoff tested defensemen Nick Leddy and Johnny Boychuk which brings the locker room cup count out of the zeroes. 

After netting 53 goals this season Alex Ovechkin is here to prove that he can play playoff hockey too. The undisputed leader of the Capitals has to continue to produce a ridiculous number of shots (395) and goals for Washington to move on. Barry Trotz is coaching the best offensively gifted team he's ever had and his savvy and poise will be great for a Washington team that hasn't had great success in the playoffs. Brayden Holtby is the number one goalie and needs to make a mark here, his playoff numbers are 10-11. The past three playoff series have gone to seven games and Washington needs to start closing teams out and that starts with the Great Eight. 

This series will be a shootout series. Which ever goalie stops the most pucks is going to be on the winning team. Halak shares the same record in the post season as the man across from him, so I guess it's who blocks more shots in a nail-biter series. Islanders in 7    

Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Detroit Red Wings

The media labelled this the Yzerman cup, pegging the GM of the Tampa Bay Lightning against the team he captained for an eternity. Stevie Y played on a team that became a Dynasty now he's trying to make one himself in the front office. Can he impress, and more importantly out do, his former GM and coach?

Tampa Bay was benefited by the emergence of a top-notch second line of Tyler Johnson, Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov who were the leading scorers after Stamkos. They're scoring was great but the really incredible thing is they were a combined +102! This great two-way line will need to be the driving force to occupy the best of Detroit's defense to leave Steven Stamkos free to do what he wants. Ben Bishop is an American version of Pekka Rinne, but 2 inches taller! His size will force Detroit to make perfect shots or the keep him in the blue ice by playing underneath the goal line.

Detroit is in this weird limbo where they have these aging stars like Pavel Datsyuk, Jimmy Howard, and Hank Zetterberg while they have young guns transitioning into stars but don't seem to have the leadership qualities of their predecessors. The puck-handling skills of both Gustav Nyqvist and Tomas Tatar are intimidating and will be integral for Detroit to get through the first round. The defense will need to step up too in order to compete with the grit and skill of Tampa Bay's cycle. I'm sure Mike Babcock will have a strong game plan every night but it comes down to the talent he puts on the ice (mystery call up from Grand Rapids?) and that's what will make a difference.

Tampa Bay has a lot of leadership on the ice and experience as well and along with that PJK line this is an easy series to pick. Lightning in 6  

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Well there you have it predictions, better late than never. Happy Playoffs!

The first blog post in Doha about Doha

It's been a very long time since I've put something up here. Come Sunday evening I'll try my best to get some playoff predictions up. I called the Stars winning it all back before the season started and I want to redeem myself and cheer on those five Canadian teams -- except the Habs, they're schmucks.

Back to the matter, I was looking over my Korean blogs after talking about the good old days on the magical peninsula with some expats I met here that lived in Daegu. I forgot how much fun I had writing! I wrote a lot personally wrapping up my time in Korea and kept it close to the chest. When I got here I wrote some stuff during orientation and a blurb about my first impressions of the kids, then the pen only met the lesson plans and mark books, hence the lack of blogging. I started writing Friday morning during that purgatory of a hangover where you want to do something but it doesn't involve a high level of thinking.

Yet again, I digress. Work is good. I've met a bunch of new people from plenty of cool places that have taken unique paths to end up in this little chunk of the desert. As teachers do, I've been taught a lot about the profession these past 8 months in regards to the classroom, kids, teaching, and the world. Some of this information contradicts itself, but this a profession where uniqueness is essential to succeed and find your comfort zone. When you start working in a new environment, epiphanies of any size are incredibly important; they are the life force to keep you constantly improving and upping your game. The idea sounds bizarre, but I love continually finding bad habits and pushing myself to get better. Full of ambition, I boasted that I would try to improve on one thing everyday at one of our first meetings. That doesn't happen, I'm not regimented like that. This improvement has been organic and that suits my style. Self-improvement is awesome but other times veterans and superiors spell it out for you.

I had my first non-Korean observation since my practicum a month into the year and that was incredibly intimidating. Everyone around me was reassuring but I knew that I wasn't going to get a great score, because I was still figuring stuff out. Obviously, classroom management is a problem for the guy who organically modifies his teaching style. I was given tips and advice from staff that really helped me. The procedure of rebooting 26 ten-year-old children didn't take as long as I thought it would but at the same time there are a couple non-compliant kiddos.

And now we enter the most precious and strenuous part of teaching. Children. Sorry, they're students because they're learning, duh. I've realized after teaching in three countries that this age group will always have troubled kids, shy kids, balls of energy, future Einsteins, jocks and social butterflies. The only thing that's different is the reasons and the culture that surrounds them. I'm proud of their good intentions and confidence, but it just needs to be more consistent and directed properly and that's the life coach part of being a teacher. I'm not going to divulge anymore into the people and events in my classroom and school because I'd consider it gossip but I'd back all of my kids to the moon with their dreams and push them to get it. This wasn't an initial notion, it took me a couple weeks with them and a restless night to figure it out, for all of them. The best advice I got was from a mentor across the pond who told me that you have to be crazy about your kids, just like their parents should be, because when you become a teacher, you become a surrogate parent.

Oh and the parents, once again, I'm not going to slander I'm going to use suggestive language. This is my first time having the option to have continual parent involvement because in Korea I had one parent meeting in two years. When you strip these meetings down to the core it all comes down to one thing. In the Sopranos you'd have a sit-down when there's a problem: maybe someone isn't paying up the right percentages, maybe someone's in too deep, maybe the boss isn't reciprocating, maybe there's a rat in the house, or there are two guys fighting over money. Obviously my appointments aren't like that but you, the reader, are old enough to understand. Nobody books a meeting to congratulate someone, those are emails. There will be meetings that make you feel as proud as ever and ones where you're a speck. In the end, those meetings must reach this harmonious sense of satisfaction in the triangle of parent-teacher-student relations.

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After reading that jumble of words you don't get a real impression of Doha. That's because my job does take up a majority of my time. That, and traffic is pretty brutal here. The amount of construction is really ridiculous, small talk in hotel bars has led me to believe that this metro system is going to very big and not just centred around the World Cup in 2022, which is a very important fact. Along with that big show, Doha seems to be expecting a major jump in population too. Apartment complexes are coming up in herds. It makes sense they are attracting a lot of attention: they have soccer/football friendlies here and their own tennis open and they're developing some top talent here for the future of that sport as well. The music scene is mostly local, Ed Sheehan, or whatever his name is, came here but other than that most performances take place in Dubai. The local performers are lots of fun, I just saw Groove Office and they're pretty rocking. In the shadow of Burj Khalifa, Qatar is still on route to becoming a great country to visit and live in for the years to come, after all Rome wasn't built in a day either.

Doha does have some finished products that are beautiful. If I lived closer to the Corniche, it's like a boardwalk, I'd stroll down there everyday. That is one thing I miss about living in Haeundae, that smell of salt and the breeze that comes with it. They also have the Souqs which are markets that cater to the specifics. I've been down the gravel road of the Plant Souq, right across from the Vegetable Souq (Spoiler alert: lots of potatoes). It gives off the vibe of a farmer's market but for wholesales.

A little ways in from the Corniche, there is the traditional Souq as well where you can buy Middle Eastern crafts and clothes. This main Souq adjoined to the prestigious Falcon Souq! Yes, a market specifically for purchasing falcons, falcon caps, and other accessories that are terrible and yet ever-so appropriate gifts (its a symbol of Qatar) for your extended family. The Falcon Souq even has a hospital exclusively for falcons.

About five minutes away from the falcons is the Pet Souq. For me this is a terrible place to go. I live alone and strolling through alleys where all you see are sad animals crowded in cages it's very hard not to buy a rabbit, kitten, or puppy. Except the toucans because they're 3 000 USD and look content in a roomy cage eating Froot Loops. The parrots are even pricier. I never go there on purpose but the market paths wind around and are still a mystery to me.

If you dip out of the traditional Souq and back out to the Corniche you'll come up to the Museum of Islamic Art, or the MIA. It's a gorgeous building right on the water. The artifacts inside are very traditional and offer exactly what the title suggests. It's free too, so check it out if you're visiting and an art lover. If not, there's the lovely MIA park and the continuation of the Corniche that curves out behind the MIA. It would look like a tidal wave from a bird's eye view. Along the tan stones of the Corniche is tons of green space that is used to capacity for kicking around the football, having a picnic or just some quality family time. That is one of the strangest things here, is the amount of green grass you see maintained like Augusta in the middle of a desert. When I go there it doesn't feel like I'm in the middle of the desert.

At the end of the Corniche is a coffee place. Let it be clear the stuff they sell is standard, nothing exorbitant or unique, people come for the view. I've had many a trip down their at about 4 in the afternoon to watch the day turn to night and the lights across the water light up. And across that water is what Doha aspires to be, a booming metropolis with towering pieces of architecture that look like narwhals, twisters, pyramids, a zero, and some less-authentic rectangular skyscrapers. The sight is quite something especially when the lights come on. From an interpretive standpoint the skyline says a lot about the city itself: this is a city of expats, migrants, and indigenous people. Each building looks like it was built somewhere else and brought to Doha to give you this portrait of friends as opposed to family. And that's exactly what I've gotten out of this so far, friends I'd take a professional picture with, and it's called a staff photo.