Who has Home Ice Advantage in the Stanley Cup this year? Eastern or western teams?
485633
The East because the top seed always has home ice.  EX. Ottawa would have had home ice guaranteed all the way through the playoffs, but Edmonton will always be the away team, no matter what.
431776
HOCKEY ROX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!\n\nGO HABS GO!!!!!!!!!\n\nLeafs suk!!!\n\nGO lf LEAFS GO lf\n\n\nOLE OLE OLE OLE,  OLE,  OLE!!!!
1016450
Pulling for the Oilers.  The Cup needs to be in Canada for a year.  ;o)  GO OILERS!
312377
I think the Calgary Flames will win, given they are number one in the toughest division in the NHL.\n\n(But go Avs anyway!)
460710
san jose will be the dark horse of the west in the playoffs.  on paper the wings are the best.  how they hold up in the playoffs is a different story.  you have a good point about thorton.  he is good.  i hope they face the wings in the playoffs.
420552
i live in in big D. hey they are going to win it. no can play D like detriot. its over already. red wings all the way.
503316
The Sabres shall win the series AND the Stanley Cup!!:)\n\n\nGO SABRES!!!
1142308
It looks like the Carolina Hurricanes are going to win, because they are up 3-1 in the series.  I would have said that it would be a close series going until 7 games, but the Edmonton Oilers basically got to the finals because of their goalie Dwayne Roloson.  Now that he's injured, they don't have much of a chance because their remaining goalies are not very good.
333902
San Jose Sharks will win because they have the most Canadians on their team. All the "Canadian" teams captain's will be playing for Sweden and Finland in the world championships next week. Sundin likes Abba!
538161
There are 8 teams that advance to the quarter finals in the Western Conference and Eastern Conference. Teams play against one another based on their "seed" rank. The #1 team plays the #8 team, #2 against #7, and so forth. A team needs to win 4 out of 7 games to move on. Again the semi finals, teams are paired highest seeded team vs. lowest seeded team. Then the winners of the semi finals in each conference play each other in the conference finals. The winner goes on to face the winner of the other conference for the Stanley Cup Finals.\n\nThey have a great bracket showing the teams seed rank and show how many games were played in each round. http://www.sportsline.com/nhl/playoffrace/bracket
381058
The Detroit Red wings!! they have the talent and experience and the talent like Zetterberg, Datsyuk (who may be back in Game 2), Legace, Schneider, i could name the whole roster! I think that this year, Detroit is going to be the home of the Larry O'Brien trophy, the Stanley Cup and the World Series!! Just watch Game 1 against the Oilers today and you will see what I mean! Detroit is the answer to any "who is going to win?" question in major sports....except football.
531180
Sharks. They're winning and without much help from Thorton or Cheechoo. Marleau is a beast in the playoffs.
512586
I personally think the new NHL rules changed the way games are played.  Therefore, it's not necessarily true anymore to rely so much on old, experience veteran players.  The rules today demands younger, faster players/skaters whom are hungry to win!\n\nI personally think the Western Conference Finals will be the Sharks and Oilers.  The winner of this match will take the CUP!!!
242384
In the Eastern Conference Detroit is sure to reach the finals but in the West it's not as clear. There are three contenders: San Antonio, Dallas, and Phoenix. Each one of them has a chance of going to the finals so you really can't tell who's going to represent the west in the finals and who's going to win.
635381
Assuming we can get by Ottawa -- and I believe we can -- my proud Buffalo Sabres will win Lord Stanley's Cup and all of WNY (and those of us Sabres fans scattered about the rest of the world) will rejoice forevermore! :)\n\nGO SABRES!!!
627673
unbelievable! The devils are down 2-0 for a reason. The hurricanes will win the east. They have a complete offense and good chemistry. staal, williams, stillman, weight,  they got their share of stars and cam ward has put this team back where they should be. they will not only win the east, they will win the stanley cup.
392706
At the end of the regular season the top seeded teams play bottom seeded teams.  For example:\n\n1st vs 8th\n2nd vs 7th\n3rd vs 6th\n4th vs 5th\n\nAnd from each round of playoff the top seeded team gets home-ice advantage.  To win a Stanley Cup a team must win 16 games.\n\nThe usual game time is 7PM local time but sometimes the games are played in the afternoon (usually on Sat. or Sun)