Still lots of hockey to play before the Stanley Cup

Ding, ding. Round Two!

The smoke has settled, the dust has cleared, and the Colorado Avalanche are nowhere to be found. Neither are the St. Louis Blues. In fact, after last night, the Western Conference's playoff picture is turning into a Rob Zombie movie for the conference's elite teams.

Moving on to the second round in the West are the Vancouver Canucks, the Minnesota Wild, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, and the Dallas Stars.

The Avs and the Blues both carried $60 million payrolls, and enormous playoff expectations. Both carried a 3-1 lead into their respective series. Both had the announcers saying that it was only a matter of when before these two teams moved on the second round.

Well, both choked like a bad porn star. The Wild and the Canucks fought back to win three games in a row and take their respective best-of-seven series to move on to round two. That means that the only team in the Western semifinals who is supposed to be there is the Stars, who will face off against the (also) surprise Ducks.

How will things work out? The crystal ball says that Dallas looked a little sloppy in its first round series against the Edmonton Oilers, and that could be a problem. The Stars are not up against Tommy Salo anymore, a goaltender who has never carried a series. Instead they are facing the brick wall that is "Giggy," Jean Sebastian Giguere.

The Ducks play a smart, simple game that focuses on defense It is actually very similar to that of the Stars when they had their Cup runs in the late 1990's. It punishes teams who overextend themselves, or make that one bad play. The Oilers play more of a run-and-gun style, and they still pushed Dallas to a close game six.

Dallas will need to get Turco to play consistently, and they are going to have to pray to the Lord Jesus himself that they do what the defending Stanley Cup champions could not. Solve Giguere.

As for the other series, Vancouver against Minnesota, it really is a toss-up. Neither team is supposed to be there, so who's the favorite? Inside the NHL can't say. It's just too hard.

Minnesota's Stanely Cup winning coach Jacques Lemaire versus Vancouver's Stanley Cup winning coach Marc Crawford. Vancouver's inexperienced playoff goaltender Dan Cloutier? The Wild's Manny Fernandez has even fewer playoff games under his belt, but looked unbelievable in game seven against Colorado.

Where the Canucks hold the edge is on defense, with solid performers like Ed Jovonoski, Mattias Ohlund and Brent Sopel. Also, the Wild has nothing like the Canucks' top line of Todd Burtuzzi, Markus Naslund and Brendan Morrison.

But Vancouver is prone to breakdowns and scoring droughts, something that a smart, defensive team like the Wild will make them pay for. And no one would argue that Minnesota is hungry to prove the naysayers wrong, again. The end result is a series to watch.

The Eastern Conference is much simpler. No underdog won a series, which leaves the Ottawa Senators to face off against the Philadelphia Flyers and the New Jersey Devils to play against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Ottawa and New Jersey both romped through their first round series, leaving them rested and ready to go into the second round.

Philly, on the other hand, suffered through a punishing series with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although the last game was a blowout thanks to Leafs' goaltender Ed Belfour falling apart like a cheap bicycle, Toronto is a big team, and the hitting was heavy. Not to mention that there were seven overtime periods in the series, an extra two full games and change. There is no way the Flyers are not tired.

As for the Devils and the Lightning, an upset is possible. But it will require some offensive magic from Tampa Bay, goaltending magic from the Lightning's Nikolai Khabibulin, and a complete and utter breakdown at the other end of the ice. If the Lightning can do something special in the first couple of games, then there will be a series.

But if the Devils' defense and goaltending shut down Tampa Bay like they did the Bruins, do not expect the series to go past five games.