As the 2009-2010 season nears its end, some teams began looking forward to the 2010-2011 season a little sooner than others. Not even getting a chance to vie for the holy grail of hockey, the Stanley Cup, those teams that missed the postseason already turned their attention to evaluating their teams and making plans for the summer where they hope to bolster their ranks to make a run once more. Here we will take a look at the Eastern Conference’s non playoff teams, their free agents and what they should do to make themselves better.

White Boy does NBA Conference Finals yo

White Boy's record so far: Round 1: 6-2 + Round 2: 2= 8-4

This is a very soft 8-4 as I totally overestimated how important history is in a rivalry out west and badly overrated the other Cavs out east. Either way, without further adieu....

Being that a few of us bloggers on this site are from yinzerland, we must come on here and eat some crow.

Sorry for upstaging the big last 4 minutes of Mahatma and Yinzer's big game 2 but without further adieu.....

White Boy's record so far

1) Round 1= 6-2

2) Round 2.....

Lets see if I can have another 75% success rate in round 2. See what I'm thinking after the jump....

Two "new" rivals are once again heading to battle in the 2nd round of the playoffs. The Hawks and Nucks did the same thing last year in the playoffs which saw Chicago come out on top.

This year the teams have undergone some changes but remaining cast of characters that made it an enjoyable series are alive and well.

There's hate. Skill. And two passionate fanbases. And two creepers in green. Should be a good one.

A preview after the jump.

With some team’s season already over, changes are already starting to be made on teams that have fallen short of their ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup. As always, it is the front office that bears the brunt of the failure of a team because, as they say, you cannot fire all the players.

5) The Lakers-The Lakers are not nearly as worthy of mine, and other NBA fans' collective scorn as some of the offenders who shall be featured below. However, the Lakers play in this series is feeding into a very popular stereotype regarding the NBA, players don't always go full throttle. The Lakers are clearly the better team in this series. It has way more talent, experience and the significant coaching edge. However, the Lakers, after winning its first two games, has laid two eggs in Oklahoma. It looked disinterested, uninspired and not prepared for the challenge of winning in a hostile road environment. Of course, that makes no sense because its coach is Phil Jackson right? Well, it seems as though the Lakers just are taking for granted that it will win its next two home games and take a game Thunder squad in 7. This series reminds me an awful lot of that Boston vs. Atlanta series in 2008 where you simply knew the home team would win every game after watching games 1-4.  LA would show me and NBA fans a lot if it played hard tonight, respected its opponents and actually beat a team it is far superior to.

Read my other 4 rants after the jump