Don Cherry gives his prediction for Game 1 between the Bruins and Lightning.

The National Hockey League's most recognizable analyst has gone public with his prediction for Game 1 of the second round series between the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning in the Stanley Cup playoffs. I am of course referring to legendary NHL analyst Don Cherry and given his rather well documented history I think very few of you will be surprised to learn of which team he will be going with in this one. 

On Sunday afternoon Cherry took to social media to announce that he would be picking the Bruins in Game 1 of this series while also polling his followers for their own opinions. The general public thus far has been against Cherry on this one however with his poll reporting 59% of the votes for the Tampa Bay Lightning and only 41% for the Boston Bruins after roughly 15,000 votes at the time of this writing. This is certainly going to be an interesting matchup between these two teams and interestingly enough both of them will be missing arguably the most recognizable names on their respective rosters. 

In the case of the Boston Bruins they will be without starting goaltender Tuukka Rask, presumably for the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs, after Rask made the controversial decision to step away from the NHL's protective bubble in Toronto in order to go back home and be with his family. The situation surrounding the Lightning's missing star though is a little bit more mysterious at this time. The Lightning will be without their captain in Steven Stamkos for yet another game on Sunday with Lightning head coach Jon Cooper confirming as much when questioned by reporters earlier in the week. The Lightning coach seem frustrated about the continued questions regarding his captain suggesting that there was no point in asking about Stamkos' status moving forward. The fact that Stamkos is not even practicing with his teammates would suggest that, like Rask, this will be a long term absence for the Lightning but the team has thus far refused to reveal any information regarding what is believed to be a lower body injury. 

Do you agree with Cherry on this pick, or do you think his favoritism for the Bruins is clouding his judgement this time around?