and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I present to you the annual playoff predictions as stated by my pal frost:

ROUND THE FIRST

CONFERENCE THE EAST
(1) tampa bay lightning vs. (8) new york islanders
so the isles made it again, except this time they'll be out of hockey's limelight in toronto or ottawa and instead they'll be suffering through 85°F off-days in the tampa sun. meanwhile, tampa bay is now apparently a really good team, and they're some people's picks to win the eastern conference. although they are not mine, and although they were 1-3 against the isles this year, including two losses in their own building, the grind of a 7-game series against a team this talented will wear down the isles. unless the islanders start to finally get some production out of alexei yashin (and they won't), the 'ning will win this series. bet the over, though, every night.
LIGHTNING 4, ISLANDERS 3

(2) boston bruins vs. (7) montréal canadiens
oh good, these two teams meeting again. i got worried there for a moment, it had been a whole year since they met in the playoffs. the habs limped in to the playoffs by losing 5 of 6, only able to beat buffalo in a meaningless game to both teams in the last game of the season. the b's, meanwhile, have won 9 of their last 13, including a resounding victory on the season's final day to win a division. so boston wins this series on account of being the hotter team. now, if the habs took the ice completely covered head-to-toe in new york yankees attire, well, that'd be a different story altogether.
BRUINS 4, CANADIENS 2

(3) philadelphia flyers vs. (6) new jersey devils
normally i'd immediately scoff at this matchup because the flyers are notorious playoff chokers and the devils are proven champions. but the devils are just unimpressive this year. the obvious disparities here are the goalies (brodeur vs... um... esche? burke? frost? who the eff knows?) and the forwards (roenick, recchi, gagné, zhamnov, amonte... philly is pretty stacked there). and although _i_ am a goalie and a firm believer that that is the most important position to be playing well in the playoffs, the absence of scott stevens from the devils lineup is reason enough to think that philly's list of forwards above will be too much for the devs.
FLYERS 4, DEVILS 1

(4) toronto maple leafs vs. (5) ottawa senators
this is the eastern conference's version of edmonton/dallas. every damned year, these teams play. the leafs have won every time. hate to make another yankees/red sox reference, but... well... leafs = yanks, sens = sox. the sens can be 5 outs away with a 2-run lead from FINALLY putting away the leafs... but they'll find a way to screw it all up. no, this rivalry doesn't have the same history as the yanks and sox, but if you gave it 80 or so more years, it would.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, SENATORS 1

THAT OTHER CONFERENCE

(1) detroit red wings vs. (8) nashville predators
jeez, i'm hearing a lot of people say that the wings are going to lose this series. okay, fine, the preds are a fast, exciting team. and they're better than they're given credit for, and not a lot of people know much about them. against the detroit red wings, that'll win you one game. sure, the ducks pulled off the upset last year by emerging from obscurity, but do you really think these same wings are going to let that happen again? if so, you are dillusional.
RED WINGS 4, PREDATORS 1

(2) san jose sharks vs. (7) st. louis blues
so the san jose sharks showed up a year late. this is what they were supposed to do last season. the sharks don't have marco sturm, and they lost teemu selanne to injury, and owen nolan was traded away, and NOW they're good. and as for this matchup, it comes straight down to goalies. san jose has one of the best in the NHL. the blues have chris osgood, whose best years are firmly behind him. that means night in and night out, the blues will be frustrated and unable to solve nabokov, and they will go very quietly.
SHARKS 4, BLUES 0

(3) vancouver canucks vs. (6) calgary flames
the canucks FINALLY ended colorado/québec's streak of 10 straight division titles by taking the northwest on the season's final weekend. as a reward, they'll run into the best goalie in the entire league this season (that make the playoffs anyway, otherwise it's roberto luongo), miika kiprusoff. the 'nucks have plenty of scoring punch even without bertuzzi. but not enough. the flames have scoring punch in this dude named iginla. and they have a goalie named dan cloutier, who has shown that in the playoffs, he is just awful. so calgary rolls on.
FLAMES 4, CANUCKS 3

(4) colorado avalanche vs. (5) dallas stars
NOW i'm starting to sound like a broken record. because this series comes down to goalies as well. marty turco is also one of the top 5 in the league, david aebischer is not in the top 20. and if the avs decide to go with tommy salo, he'll just see those green dallas stars jerseys and immedately have a nervous breakdown. but beyond that, the avs managed to rest most of their superstars for their final meaningless game of the regular season just to be cautious, but the ONE superstar they didn't rest--paul karyia--found a way to sprain his ankle in the game. OOOOOOPPPSSS. avalanche will lose handily, and tony granato will be fired before may 1st.
STARS 4, AVALANCHE 1

ROUND DEUCE

RIGHT CONFERENCE

(1) tampa bay lightning vs. (4) toronto maple leafs
martin st. louis won't find an inch of open ice in this series. it's one thing to succeed against the leafs in the regular season. it's another thing to succeed against them in the playoffs. just ask the islanders. or senators. it will be a VERY high scoring series, but the leafs will come out on top behind the strength of their veteran leadership, and they'll all celebrate by hitting denny's for a nice seniors discount, then maybe an episode of matlock and then in bed by 6:00pm.
MAPLE LEAFS 4, LIGHTNING 2

(2) boston bruins vs. (3) philadelphia flyers
okay, cue that flyers choke. boston is a team hitting its stride at the right time. they're going to be hard to beat, and as deep as the flyers seem to be, they're not going to get past a team playing like the b's will be.
BRUINS 4, FLYERS 3

LEFT CONFERENCE

(1) detroit red wings vs. (6) calgary flames
this looks like a lopsided series, but it's really not. kiprusoff, to me, seems to have all the makings of being this year's jean-sebastien giguere. the wings are stuck with manny legace in net while they pay curtis joseph and dominik hasek millions and millions of dollars NOT to play. but this is not to say legace is a bad goalie--he's not. he could be a #1 on many nhl teams. the flames are not going to go down easily, but they will. their only hope is that kiprusoff can keep them in games long enough for detroit to make mistakes in their own end, but i don't think that's gonna happen.
RED WINGS 4, FLAMES 3

(2) san jose sharks vs. (5) dallas stars
here we go. mono a mono. turco and nabokov. dallas had been putting pressure on san jose all through the end of the year for the pacific division title, but never caught them. i'm not really sure who will win this series, but i think dallas has more experience and more grit than san jose does. on top of that, san jose is an eaiser place for dallas to win than dallas is for san jose. so flip a coin on this one. i'll go with dallas.
STARS 4, RED WINGS 3

ROUND III

(2) boston bruins vs. (4) toronto maple leafs
instant classic. this series will be one to remember. this is a great matchup of two great original 6 franchises, and this is for ALMOST all the marbles. boston will prevail, however, because toronto's age will catch up with them once they get to the third round.
BRUINS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 3

(1) detroit red wings vs. (5) dallas stars
if this series materializes, it's going to go to dallas. they are a grittier, harder-working, dare i say dirtier team than detroit. detroit is a great team, but they don't seem to work for it, with the exception of steve yzerman, who has worked hard for everything he's ever gotten. anyway, dallas wins.
STARS 4, RED WINGS 1

FINAL THAT WILL NOT ACTUALLY HAPPEN

(2) boston bruins vs. (5) dallas stars
so the red sox didn't get it done, but the b's aren't cursed. they managed to hang on to bobby orr until he sucked and THEN traded him. anyway, i don't have to back up my pick here, because this won't actually happen anyway.
BRUINS 4, STARS x, where x is an integer and 4 > x > -1.

I'll take those odds.