Walt announces winner of Stanley Cup 2013

A reader has the temerity to suggest that Walt give the results of his prognostications every now and then, and admit his (very occasional) errors and inaccuracies. Very well. Here is the tally from the first round of National Hockey League playoffs.

Walt handicaps the NHL playoffs -- Western Conference
Let's be clear. The point of the exercise was to predict which teams would go through to the second round. The guesses about how many games it would take to settle each series were just for fun. Walt called three out of four correctly, the exception being the LA Kings' Quick win (geddit?) over St. Louis Blues. Pct. right .750.

Walt handicaps the NHL playoffs -- Eastern Conference
Puck pundits saw some surprises in the results here, but the only series that fooled Walt was Montréal vs Ottawa, which the Senators won in just five games. But when a team plays without half a dozen of its key players, including its ace goalie, what can you expect? And incompetent officiating doesn't help either.

The other surprise (to Walt) was Toronto stretching its series against Boston to a 7th game. The choke is on Maple Leafs fans. As in the West, Walt got three right, only one wrong. Pct. .750.

Now let's cut to the chase. Never mind the second and third playoff rounds. What you want to know -- and make money on -- is who's going to win Lord Stanley's silver chalice. Right? You can turn off the TV for a couple of weeks, and when you switch it on again in time for the Stanley Cup finals, you're going to see... Pittsburgh Penguins vs Chicago Blackhawks (formerly the Black Hawks).

Chicago was the class of the NHL Western Conference all of the Bettman-shortened season. They let Minnesota win a game in the first round just for the sport of it, and to finish the series on home ice. Pittsburgh can play much better than they did in a 4-1 win over Ottawa last night. Malkin, Iginla and Sid the Kid -- how ya gonna stop those guys?

Walt's prediction... May I have the envelope, please? ... ... ... Chicago. You read it here first. Lifetime pct .978.