And now for the showdown we've all been waiting for!!!

Well folks it's finally happened! The wings managed to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and muscle their way past the Stars! One thing's for sure, Dallas can be proud of their season! The big news however, is that we will finally get to see the clash between the two titans that have dominated the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs!

As much as I would love to say that the Penguins are totally going to destroy the Wings (I've said so before), I've been giving it some additional thought lately and I can't say that the series is as clear cut as all that.

Pittsburgh is young and hungry for a cup, and even their third line can can go on a scoring spree, but there's not a lot of experience there. Detroit on the other hand, has a lot of experienced players, no shortage of scoring power, plus a tight defence, but they only have the one line that can score. On top of that I still say Marc-André Fleury is a better goaltender than Chris Osgood, who hasn't been really tested during these series.

When it all comes down to it, I think that Pittsburgh's offence will ultimately just be too much for Detroit to handle, and the superior goaltending will make a difference for the Pens, but this will still be a hard fought series. Pittsburgh in seven. (Expect a lot of OT)

Surprise!

Well, it looks like I totally underestimated the Stars, and completely overestimated the Habs. At least the Sharks didn't go quietly. For a while there, it looked like they might just pull of a miracle! The Habs on the other hand played well in game 7 of the first round, and were pretty much useless for the rest of the playoffs. Price was brilliant enough in the first round to help them barely squeak past Boston (a team they should have destroyed), but was really not on his game against Philly, it almost makes me wonder if he was playing hurt. Even if he wasn't, he is an amazing goaltender, and I hope this series hasn't destroyed his confidence. Habs fans can take comfort in the fact that most critics didn't even expect their team to make the playoffs this year.

I can't say that Pittsburgh blasting past New York was much of a surprise, though I honestly thought Colorado would take at least one game from the wings.

Here are my predictions for the next round:

Pittsburgh vs. Philly.

Well it looks like Brière made the right decision about which team was more likely to win the Stanley Cup, unfortunately for him he will go no further. Martin Biron's performance against a team as deep as Montreal was quite the accomplishment, but there's no getting around the fact that Pittsburgh is not a hockey team, they're a firing squad! Now that Hossa appears to have shaken his playoff curse, he has added to a team that can easily be compared to the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s. Pens in five.

Detroit vs Dallas.

Once again we have the perpetual underdogs from Dallas against yet another juggernaut team. Dallas has beaten the odds before, but the wings, like the Penguins, are positively monstrous. I don't think the stars can pull it off. I hate the wings, but they're just too strong. Unless Philly can pull off a miracle, Detroit will get a taste of their own medicine though in the finals. Wings in seven.

What kind of reforms are in our future?

Well, it appears that exams and essays really kept me out of the loop for the last month, because it was only this morning that I picked up a copy the April 18th edition of The Lawyers weekly and learned that Justice Bastarache of the Supreme Court will be retiring on June 30th of this year.

The article by Cristin Schmitz also points out that this event is not just significant because it means the end of a very hard working Justice's time with the highest court in the land, but also because for the first time, Stephen Harper's government will be tested on its ability to keep its promise to reform the Supreme Court nomination process. It should be noted that Harper has already appointed one new justice to the Supreme Court, Justice Rothstein, but this was at a time when the reformed process brought about by Paul Martin was already well under way, and he was already under a lot of pressure to make an appointment, his critics were pretty forgiving at the time.

Now, as Schmitz points out, this announcement means that the PM will have a full six months before the next court session begins in order to hash out the changes he wants made to the nomination process. With a spring election looking to be pretty much out of the question at the moment, it is likely that he will either have to come through with some important changes, or have to deal with the political consequences of having broken yet another election promise.

It looks like we're in for some interesting debate, on what promises to be a highly emotional subject. This should be interesting!