FanHouse Mattias Norstrom

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After what seems like forever, the NHL gets back on the ice tonight with the start of the Western Conference Finals tonight in Detroit as the Red Wings host the Dallas Stars. The Eastern Conference Final gets in gear tomorrow night for the battle of Pensylvania as the Penguins host the Flyers in Pittsburgh.

I'm not sure anyone is surprised that Detroit and Pittsburgh made it this far, though seeing Dallas and Philadelphia still alive this late in the game has to count as something of a shocker. As you'll see from our panel, while the discussion was nearly unanimous regarding predictions for both series, there were plenty of folks who were hedging their bets.

There's little in sports that's as important as Game 3 when a team finds itself down 2-0 in a series. A 2-1 deficit is manageable. Someone's gotta be ahead after three games and you know you've got two home games left. A 3-0 deficit is the kiss of death. In all major sports with best of seven playoff series, teams with a 3-0 lead are 260-3.

Down 2-0 was the exact deficit that the Rangers, Sharks, and Avalanche all found themselves facing going into last night's games. The Rangers and Avs had the benefit of playing in front of their home crowd, hoping to take advantage of the old adage that a series never starts until each team plays a home game. The Sharks faced the unenviable task of trying to start their comeback on the road in Dallas.

How did our three squads fare? Umm ... yeah ... about that ...