I looked at the hockey scores this morning and found that the winners of all four games last night were who I picked to win their respective series. Then I realized that nobody knew this because I hadn’t posted my picks! So here I go:

• Buffalo over the Islanders
• New Jersey over Tampa Bay
• The Rangers over Atlanta
• Ottawa over Pittsburgh — though I don’t think I’d want to play Pittsburgh in next year’s playoffs.
• Dallas Detroit over Calgary
• Anaheim over Minnesota
• Vancouver over Dallas
• Nashville over San Jose

I’ll make my second round picks once the first round is done, but right now, I’m picking Buffalo over Detroit in the Cup final.