Seedings to be Finalized Tonight...

After nearly a week of waiting, the Boston Bruins will find out who their second-round opponent will be by the end of the night tonight. With two game 7's on tap for the evening (Carolina @ New Jersey, New York @ Washington), the semi-final match-ups will finally be completely set. However, there are plenty of different scenarios that could play out. The Bruins could play either New York, Carolina or Pittsburgh. There is no way they could play either New Jersey or Washington in this coming round.

Here are the scenarios for the two key teams (Canes and Rangers), and the end result in each of them:

Rangers

• If RANGERS win and DEVILS win, the Bruins play the RANGERS
• If RANGERS win and HURRICANES win, the Bruins play the RANGERS
  
• If RANGERS lose and DEVILS win, the Bruins play the PENGUINS
• If RANGERS lose and HURRICANES win, the Bruins play the HURRICANES

Hurricanes

• If HURRICANES win and RANGERS win, the Bruins play the RANGERS
• If HURRICANES win and CAPITALS win, the Bruins play the HURRICANES
• If HURRICANES lose and RANGERS win, the Bruins play the RANGERS
• If HURRICANES lose and CAPITALS win, the Bruins play the PENGUINS

Basically, the Bruins will only play the Penguins if both higher-seeds (Caps and Devs) advance. If one upset occurs, the Bruins play the lowest seed available. If BOTH upsets occur, the Bruins would play the Rangers, because they are guaranteed to be the lowest seed left standing.

It's really not as confusing as it sounds, and will all be sorted out within three hours (barring overtime, of course).

Predictions? I'm sticking to my originals, and saying the Canes win and Captials win, setting up the return of Sergei Samsonov to the Garden later this week, and a Bruins-Canes Conference Semifinal.