Jeremy Rutherford: Who's having a blast watching the NHL playoffs on Versus? These have been some great games so far, as evidenced by the TV ratings. That's great to see. The next round should only get better with four great series.

Here's my predictions:

West
Colorado over Detroit
San Jose over Dallas

East
Montreal over Philadelphia
Pittsburgh over New York Rangers

Let's get chattin . . .

Adam: JR,
1. Do you know what players the Blues could possibly select with their two second round picks?

2. Do you know when the prospects camp will be, and will it be open to the public at the Mills?

Jeremy Rutherford:
In the second round, the Blues have the 33rd and 34th picks overall. It's really difficult to forecast, but if the Blues go with a defenseman at (No. 4), which I expect, then they'll be looking for a forward with one or both of those picks.

One guy climbing up on draft boards is Matthew Calvert, who plays for Brandon. He's a bit on the small side, but he's impressed enough scouts that they think he can be a player. He had 24 goals and 40 assists in 72 games with Brandon this season.

2) The development camp will be the last week of June, following the NHL draft June 20-21. I think the camp will be held at Scottrade Center this year, as opposed to the Mills Mall.

brutch: JR, thanks for continuing this into the Blues' offseason.

Has the NHL given any reason as to why the well rested Penguins and Rangers don't start their series until after the Canadiens and Flyers start their series? It looks like the league is looking to give Crosby any little advantage they can.

Also, what are your picks for round 2?

Jeremy Rutherford:

I don't know if a longer break will help Pittsburgh. Usually teams have a tough time playing after a long break. If I'm the Penguins, I want to play on the first night available. As much as I'd like to buy into your conspiracy theory, that stuff is usually dicated by TV. I haven't looked into too much, but that's my guess.

In my introduction, I went with Colorado and San Jose in the West and Montreal and Pittsburgh in the East.

Detroit has finally went to Chris Osgood in goal, which is a good move, but Colorado has more firepower than Nashville. Colorado was on the fringe of a playoff spot at the trade deadline and made a couple of shrewd moves to improve their team. That gave everyone on the team a jolt and I think Coach Q has the Avs playing well.

I picked San Jose to beat Calgary, but I've got to admit I was scared after a few games. Jarome Iginla is a beast and Miikka Kiprusoff looked unbelievable. But San Jose showed so much toughness and got a great Game 7 from the dinosaur, Jeremy Roenick.

I wanted to pick Philadelphia over Montreal because the Flyers are coming off a big Game 7 win, but I think the Canadiens are playing really well, even though they struggled with Boston. Carey Price is going to make a name for himself this postseason.

Pittsburgh and New York might be the toughest series to handicap. It's the youth vs. the veterans. I think the youth prevails.

Liz: JR, after watching the Washington Capitals all season and observing the team's camaraderie and chemistry [aside from their obvious talent] and how far it took them, what in your opinion do the Blues have to do to capture a little of their brand of magic?
Like Alex Ovechkin, Paul Kariya was always the most excited player on the ice when ANYONE on his shift scored. What has to happen to get the other players that involved and supportive of each other?
And JD, I hope you are abandoning the status quo and will be implementing new ideas on how to encourage better relationships between the players and coaching staff. I hear you do read this column.

Jeremy Rutherford:
It's simple. Alex Ovechkin is THE most exciting player in hockey. When he scores a big goal, he shows so much excitement. Teams take on the personality of their star players. When Ovechkin shows that emotion, the rest of the players do, too. It helps that Ovechkin is a modest star player. Teammates love him, and they appreciate his support when they do well.

The Blues don't have a player like Alex Ovechkin - not many teams do I realize. But the leaders of the Blues are guys like Keith Tkachuk and Paul Kariya, who are well past that part of their careers. Sure they'll celebrate a goal, but they're not going be as vibrant as an Ovechkin.

That's not to say you can't win with players like Tkachuk and Kariya, but you're not going to have the tangible camaraderie that you see even on TV witht the Capitals.

Nick Rolando: Hey JR, appreciate your chats online. As a St. Louis sports fan of all three teams it's tough to get news down here (Lakeland) about my teams without going online to stltoday.com. Anyways, my question was if the Blues are picking in the top five again next year, do you think the Blues still have an excuse of "building for the future" after not making the playoffs again? It seems like the message is going to get old if you're picking in the top 5 every year and not showing progress. Thanks again! PS- I hope the Rams pick Dorsey.

Jeremy Rutherford:
In a chat with Jarmo Kekalainen a month ago, he was surprised that the Blues were picking fourth in this summer's draft. After the Blues got out to a great start, Kekalainen thought he might be selecting in the middle of the first round at the earliest. But a sluggish second half has the Blues making their second Top 5 pick in three years.

I don't think anyone anticipates the Blues picking in the top five next season. If that happens, then it will interesting to see what approach John Davidson and Co. take with the public. While I think their plan is still on solid ground, they can't continue to preach about rebuilding in 2009.