Canes Country’s 2019 Playoff Pick ‘Em Challenge: Round 3

Here we go: down to the final four, and despite the oddities inherent in what’s been a wild playoffs so far, the presence of the Hurricanes is keeping a whole bunch of people within striking distance of the top of the Playoff Pick ‘Em leaderboard.

First off, while Incipient Senescence has a solid lead, props to ptblespaul for not only getting all four winners right, but predicting the correct length in three of them. His 23-point performance was the best of anyone in the second round. Also, a shoutout to Michael Fisher and Lrccolt4, who stuck their necks out to predict the Canes in a sweep and got rewarded for their confidence. Well done!

Here’s how the scoreboard looks at the midway point of the playoffs:

So, onto the third round, then. A refresher on the rules:

• Make a selection for each third round series in the comments of this post: who wins, and in how many games.
• In the third round, you’ll get four points for each winning team you correctly pick. If you pick both the correct team and the correct series length, you’ll also get five bonus points.
• You will have until the start of Game 1 of each series to pick the winner of that series. For the Eastern Conference final, that is tonight - Thursday, May 9 at 8:00 p.m. Any picks of either Carolina or Boston after that time will not be counted. For the Western Conference final, it’s Saturday, May 11 at 8:00 p.m., at which time the comments will close.
• By the way, we have prizes! The top two winners will each get a T-shirt. The winner will get to pick between a Mr. Game 7 shirt and a “They’re Playing Tag” shirt, and the runner-up will get the other one. (Go buy them now, though, if you don’t think you’ll win!)

Here are the series for you to pick:

Eastern Conference Final: (A2) Boston Bruins vs. (WC1) Carolina Hurricanes
Western Conference Final: (P2) San Jose Sharks vs. (C3) St. Louis Blues

The CC staff picks are below. Good luck!