Goodnight, Game Over, Drive Home Safely

Well, I was wrong. Detroit won the Cup in 6 games. Damn. I guess experience won out. Hats off to them for a strong showing in the playoffs and let's prey there's not a repeat next year. Until October, so long.

Damn

Two games down and Pittsburgh hasn't scored yet in the series. Looks like I might be wrong in picking them.

Also, Chris Osgood should try out for the Canadian diving team. He's doing a great job of it in this series anytime a Penguin comes near the crease...in fact, last night late in the game Petr Sykora was skating behind the net and Ozzie stuck his arm out as he went by, and then when Sykora skated into it, he went flying and laid on the ice like Sykora checked him and he was hurt, which started a scuffle and got Sykora a penalty. This was his second flop of the period, and this is all after he took a slash to his near-bullet proof chest protector in the last series and flopped around on the ice like he was just shot. Way to ruin the integrity of the game you f-ing prick. Nobody should knock Crosby anymore, but they will because NHL goalies are protected by the league like they're on the EPA's endangered species list, and it's jackasses like Osgood who abuse this power.

Coincidence?

Damien Cox, a great hockey writer out of Toronto, said in an article on espn.com that the NHL has been almost "self-destructive" over the past 15 years due to careless expansion into non-hockey markets, a deadly-boring style of play that became prevalent around 1996, and two lockouts (this wasn't in the article but countless rule changes and owners who care only about profit haven't helped much). Current comish Gary Bettman, who was a NBA man, came into office in 1992. That's 16 years ago, one year before the downfall began. Coincidence? You be the judge.

Finals Preview

Well, Detroit ended any speculation of a Dallas comeback last night with a convincing 4-1 win. It was 3-0 after the first period, so the game was pretty much put on ice early...terrible pun. Anyway, that set up a pretty sexy Stanley Cup Finals match-up between Detroit and Pittsburgh. Two teams who can score at will and are pretty good at preventing the puck from going into their net. Many people are saying that this is the series that hockey needs to start generating some interest in the sport. Sidney Crosby, often called "The next one" meaning that he is the next record-breaking player similar to Wayne Gretzky, who is "The great one" is making his first appearance in the finals...along with several other Penguin players who are either barely old enough or aren't old enough to legally drink the champagne from the Cup if they win. (Noelle, this is uncommon. The Penguins are probably the youngest team in the history of the league to make the finals.)

Because of their youth, some people think Pittsburgh will lose. Detroit has many older, experienced players who have been here before, including both of their goaltenders. The Pens' goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury, is barely older than me. I think Gary Roberts may be the only player on the team who has won the cup before.

Some experts are picking the Pens because of their youthfulness. It's one of those they might be too young to know better things, meaning that they may not cave in to the tremendous pressure because of youthful innocence.

Here's my take on the series. Detroit is the best puck possession team in the league. This begins from the breakout, is maintained through the neutral zone, and extends into the offensive zone, where they are very good at generating scoring chances. They also play in a conference where very few teams play an aggressive forecheck, if any forecheck at all, consistently. The Penguiuns consistently forecheck hard. For those who may not understand, I'll put it in basektball terms. Pittsburgh's forecheck is similar to a full court press. The Red Wings are used to (what appears to me to be) a more common basketball defense, which doesn't press as hard and allows the attacking team to come up the court easier and at their own pace. I think Pittsburgh can force enough turnovers to balance out the Detroit puck possession game, or at least force them to play a way they don't like to play.

On the other hand, Detroit also has some very big open ice hitters on their team. Pittsburgh hasn't seen a team like this yet. Their big guns like Malkin and Hossa are used to people checking and holding them up along the boards, but there's a big difference between being hit into the boards, where there's something to absorb the hit, and being hit in the open ice, where there's nothing to absorb the hit. Pittsburgh generates a lot of their chances by skating the puck hard up the middle of the ice and trying to beat the opposing defense into the zone. Knowing that there is a monster lurking in the neutral zone to hit them could cause the Pens to change their attacking style, which would be bad.

Detroit has the best defense in the league, but they also play in a defensive conference. The only team with a half decent offense that they've played yet, Nashville, gave them problems. I think an offensive team like Pittsburgh who tends to make the most of their chances can expose them. If Detroit doesn't dictate the tempo of the game, they usually lose. It's going to come down to goaltending (the two goalies in this series are the top two goalies in the playoffs), and secondary scoring, which Detroit has not consistently had yet. Their top line is dangerous but they get very few goals beyond there...Pittsburgh gets goals from all four lines.

ESPN's Scott Burnside picked Pittsburgh, ESPN's Barry Melrose picked Detroit, and LVC's Nate Yinger is going with Pittsburgh. Game 1 is Saturday night at 8 on Versus.

Good Riddance

The Flyers just joined my Avs on the golf course after being demoralized by Pittsburgh 6-0 in game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals. The Pens now await the winner of the Detroit - Dallas series, which is 3-2 Detroit. The Wings were up 3-0 before Dallas won the last 2 games. Game 6 is tomorrow night at 8 on Versus...can Dallas force a game 7? Part of me hopes so, but part of me wants Detroit to win just so they can ensure there are no sun belt teams in the Cup finals this year. I'm sick of warm climate teams who don't belong in the NHL winning a trophy that originated in Canada for a sport that, for awhile, couldn't be played anywhere that couldn't sustain natural ice in the winter. Anyway, more to come after the conclusion of the Western Conference series.

Third Round Thoughts

Each conference final is well under way, so I figured it's time for an update.

Detroit has a 2-0 lead over Dallas in the West, as they remained unbeaten at home in the postseason. They have been playing their traditional stifling defense and puck possession offense, winning game 1 4-1 and game 2 2-1. Things got chippy at the end of game 2, with Dallas' Steve Ott going after a Detroit player and earning himself a 10 minute misconduct, and then Detroit goalie Chris Osgood caught Stars forward Mike Ribiero with a sneaky butt-end to the face, which prompted Ribiero to turn around and slash Osgood across the chest. Osgood went down like he had been shot and rolled around on the ice. Umm...those chest protectors can take 100mph slapshots Ozzie...you're telling me you had to roll around on the ice for taking a little slash like that? I think he just eliminated any shot he ever had of being a big time actor.

In the East, Pittsburgh is also up 2-0, winning both games on home ice 4-2. The Flyers were in trouble on the blueline without Kimmo Timonen, who is lost for the series with a blood clot in his ankle, and then in the last game Brayden Coburn, their second best defenseman, was lost for the game when he was hit in the face by a slapshot. As a result, Jaroslov Modry, who normally doesn't dress when everyone is healthy, had to play 20 minutes, and Derien Hatcher, who can sometimes be confused for a pylon the way opposing forwards blow past him, had to play almost 30 minutes. This is a lot of ice time for those two guys. Hatcher was in the penalty box when the Pens scored their second goal (it was a weak call but going by what the rules say, the correct call) and was well out of position for the game winner. However, I don't want to hear anymore crying about the refs having it in for the Flyers, because they have had a fair share of calls go their way so far.

Game 3 of the Western series is tonight (Monday) at 8, and game 3 of the Eastern series is tomorrow night at 7:30 in what should be a raucous Wachovia Center. Both games are on Versus.

FYI

The Western Conference finals start tomorrow night (Thursday, 8 May) and the Eastern Conference finals start the following night. It looks like all of the games are televised on Versus.

So Freakin' Excited

The Penguins beat the Rangers 3-2 in OT today to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. Their opponent? The orange and black of Philadelphia, who surprised many people by easily ousting the top seeded bleu, blanc, et rogue (Montreal) in 5 games, a series in which they exposed a young, inexperienced Montreal team who many people thought overachieved during the regular season to get the top seed in the East. Holy shit am I excited for this series. Pittsburgh and Philly is the best rivalry in the NHL right now, which has been created by the renaissance that transformed Pittsburgh from perrenial cellar-dwellers to a team you don't want to face, a couple of lop-sided wins for both teams against each other, and some incredibly physical play that has resulted in more than one fight, including at least one line brawl (the term for when multiple players on the ice start fighting instead of the normal one on one fight). Will there be fights in this series? Maybe...fighting does not happen much in the playoffs, but with the hostility that exists between these two teams, dont be surprised if the gloves are thrown in this series. Hockey isn't about the fights though...this series will have everything that makes hockey beautiful: graceful skating, pinpoint passes, highlight reel goals, earth-shaking hits, and breath taking saves. I can't wait.

Time for Golf

Detroit took the liberty to end Colorado's misery last night courtesy of an 8-2 shellacking to complete the sweep. The injury riddled Avs just couldn't skate with Detroit. Even with a healthy roster, I'm not sure much could have been done...Johann Franzen scored 9 goals in the 4 game series, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk were on the score sheet quite a few times, and Colorado's piss poor offense couldn't generate much against a strong Detroit defense. I'm calling for a new coach in Denver...Quenneville's "try to play oppressive defense" system that worked in St. Louis prior to the lockout and crackdown on obstruction doesn't work anymore. I can see next year being the worst year in the Quebec/Colorado franchise since 1991/92 when they went 20-48-12. Some of their key offensive players are old and banged up (Sakic and Forsberg) and who knows which young free agents they will re-sign. It's going to be an interesting off season in Denver. For now, though, it's time for them to dust off the golf clubs and hit the links.

Switching Gears

I'm going to talk about something other than hockey for a minute because I feel like it. I'm reading about the media's reaction to the Watergate scandal in the 70's and it got me thinking...does it bother anybody else that ESPN named this whole Patriot's cheating thing "Spygate," which is a knockoff of one of the biggest government scandals in American history??? FOOTBALL IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT!!!!!! NEVER should something from a sport be named after something of such magnitude in this country's history.

Back to hockey...Montreal goalie Carey Price is showing that he really is 20 years old instead of the near-immortal he looked like during the season and Boston series. The Flyers won 3-2 last night to take a 2-1 series lead. Price was pulled from the game after giving up 3 goals on 12 shots. Two of the goals were weak and should have been stopped. This is deflating for a team. If Montreal is going to win, he's going to have to show some serious mettle and rebound in game four, or else the fat lady will sing in Montreal.

Some say he's in the wrong sport...

Sidney Crosby is a great player. One of the biggest complaints about him is that he dives to draw penalties. Diving is not something that great players do...honestly, I don't understand why anybody would be that cowardly, but maybe that's just me. I have to admit, he does go down rather easily sometimes. The Rangers have brought this complaint back to the surface after what they call a questionable penalty that was sparked by a Crosby "dive" (I did not see the play) in Game 1 lead to the game winning goal, and another incident in yesterday's game (he did appear to go down pretty easily here). His first year in the league, I think Sid dove a lot. Now, he still draws a lot of penalties, but I think because of his speed and talent level, he forces other players, especially big, slow defenseman, to clutch and grab and take penalties. This is an example of first impressions lasting a lifetime, and I don't think it's fair. Yes, there are times where he draws a penalty becuase of going down that probably wouldn't be called if a lesser known player had the same thing happen to them. That's not his fault, though, is it? There are players in the league who do dive, and the NHL needs to implement an automatic fine and suspension for a diving penalty to eliminate this problem. I don't think Sid is a problem diver anymore, though.

April 25 Recap

Hershey's season ended on a sour note last night, as they gave up four third period goals en route to a 7-3 shellacking in Wilkes Barre. The Bears actually scored the first goal of the game and had a 2-1 lead at one point, and were down 3-2 after two periods before the Baby Pens exploded for a four goal third to put the game out of question. After winning the Calder Cup two years ago and losing in the finals last year, a first round exit is a bit of a disappointment for the guys in Chocolate and White, but oh well, you can't make it that far every year. Just making the playoffs is a respectable season.

One of the bad things about the AHL is that there are a lot of roster changes from one year to the next as guys either move up to the NHL or switch teams because of either being involved in a trade or signed as a free agent to a minor league contract by another NHL club. My guess is Chris Bourque, Alexandre Giroux, and probably Sami Lepisto will be in Washington instead of Hershey next year, although Giroux and Lepisto could go elsewhere. Hopefully Hershey doesn't lose too many key players, or they are able to make good offseason signings.

In the NHL, the Penguins erased a 3-0 deficit early in the second period by scoring four unanswered goals, including the first two in a 14 second span, to open their series against the Rangers with a 5-4 win. Per usual, Sidney Crosby created controversy amongst the opposition, who claims that he took a dive to embellish the penalty that lead to the game winning goal. I think Sid does draw some BS penalties, but in this case, I'm not complaning as I want the Penguins to win the series.

Dallas beat San Jose 3-2 in OT to take a 1-0 lead in that series. Look for OT to be a constant theme there...if not OT, definitely tight, one goal games. I didn't watch the end of this game because of being exhausted from getting up at 5:30 to go to Penn Relays for the day, but the first two periods weren't terrible...not a lot of shots, since both teams are strong on D, but there wasn't a lack of opportunites or action.

Stayin Alive

Hershey staved off elimination last night with a 3-2 OT win at home against the Baby Pens. WB/S scored with 19 seconds left to tie the game, but Hershey ended the agony and avoided the sweep just 20 seconds into OT. Game 5 is tomorrow night (April 25) in Wilkes Barre, as Hershey looks to live another day. Eric Fehr's return from Washington should be a big offensive boost for the Bears, as well as a leadership boost. LET's GO BEARS!

Round Two

The Flyers (shit) and Sharks both won their decisive game seven's last night, officially ending an exciting first round. Here are the match-ups for round two.

Montreal vs Philadelphia
Pittsburgh vs New York Rangers

Detroit vs Colorado
San Jose vs Dallas

I'm really excited for these match-ups. Montreal and Philadelphia usually play entertaining games and they have a history of action packed playoff series. They both had seven game first round series, so neither team will be more well-rested than the other. They each have potent offenses and block a lot of shots on defense. I'd give Carey Price the edge over Marty Biron in goal based on his resume in playoffs in lower levels, and the fact that the last two Montreal rookies to start in the playoffs were these guys named Ken Dryedn (1971) and Patrick Roy (1986). Guess what? The Habs won the Stanley Cup both times, and both goaltenders went on to Hall of Fame careers. I hope history repeats itself here.

The Rangers and Penguins are Atlantic Division rivals, and it features a high powered Pens offense against a stingy Rangers defense; however, the Pens defense is the most underrated part of their game, and the Rangers offense came alive in the first round against New Jersey. This one could go either way.

Colorado and Detroit used to be THE rivalry in hockey, but it has gradually died down over the years as players have moved on from the clubs or retired from hockey all together. I don't like the odds for my boys from the Mile High City, as they only scored two or three goals against the Wings in four regular season games. Hopefully these games are more entertaining than they were during the season, as they were very one sided in Detroit's favor everywhere but the scoreboard, which had very low scores on it. Keep in mind, the Avs did not have Peter Forsberg, Ryan Smyth, Joe Sakic, and Paul Stastny for much of the regular season. They will be keys on offense if the Avs are going to put up a fight.

I don't have too many thoughts about the San Jose and Dallas series. Dallas looked very strong in their first round demolition of defending champs Anaheim, and San Jose was pushed to the brink against a Calgary squad who they were supposed to dispatch of easily. Many experts picked San Jose to win it all, but I think they will be lucky to make it out of this round alive.

The first games of the second round are Thursday night...not sure of the start times yet.

No creative title today

The Bears lost Sunday night. They're down 3-0 now. Hopefully they can salvage one Wednesday night and start working their way back into the series.

The Caps won in Philly last night, coming back from a 2-0 second period deficit to win 4-2 and force game seven tonight in DC. I have night class...out last one before the final. DAMN IT! Maybe I'll "have to write a paper" or something... The San Jose-Calgary series is also going to be decided by a game seven tonight. I'm gonna be up until all hours of the night and be a zombie for 8a.m. class tomorrow. It will be worth it though hopefully.

Trouble in Chocolatetown

Things aren't looking good for the Bears...they lost 6-2 in Wilkes Barre tonight to go down 2-0 in the best of seven first round. A pivotal game three is tomorrow afternoon in Wilkes Barre. It's pretty much a must-win for Hershey. A win would give them some momentum coming home and would make it easier to even up the series. If they go down 3-0, however, that's pretty much an automatic lights out. The game tonight was 3-2 going into the 3rd period, and then WB/S exploded for three goals in a span of a couple minutes to put the game well out of reach. Cassivi has been the goaltender for the first two games, which is understandable because of his playoff experience and two Calder Cup championships...I wonder if Bob Woods will look to rookie Darren Machesney, a fan favorite, before the end of the series if Hershey doesn't win tomorrow?

On a completely random aside, I forgot just how good of a song Summer of 69 is.

Insert Nelson Muntz laugh here

The Devils bailed out in the first round for the third time in the last four seasons, and the only time they made it past the first round, in 2006, they lost in the second round. Marty Brodeur, arguably the greatest goalie of all time, has looked mortal in every single playoff series the past four years becuase he plays anywhere from 70-77 out of the 82 games each year. The average starting goalie plays maybe 55-65 games. So, come playoffs, Marty is burned out. The Devils put so much emphesis on playing defense that they never load up a good offense and can't score. They brought in Kevin Weekes, an experienced goaltender, to be Brodeur's backup this year and ease his workload. He got at most two starts in the last three months of the season. Brent Sutter was brought in as the new coach and said he was going to implement a more offensive system. Two weeks into the season they were playing their same old boring, responsible hockey that GM Lou Lamouriello forces his coaches to play or else...Sweet Lou...in my eyes, you are the reason for your club's playoff demises. Let the coaches you hire run the team. You've tried your hand at coaching twice and failed twice. The Devils' Stanley Cup days where Brodeur could shoulder such a work load are well in the past.

I love seeing the Devils lose. HA HA!

Fourty pounds of holy grail

Here it is...the most majestic trophy in sports...the Stanley Cup.

For your entertainment...

Here's a quote from ESPN hockey analyst John Buccigross about the first round series between Nashville and Detroit...

I picked the Red Wings in seven because Nashville's fans just go bonkers when the Red Wings come to town. It's like they are at a Toby Keith concert with free Milwaukee's Best.

The part about the Toby Keith concert with free Beast made me laugh out loud.

Bitter

I hate the Flyers. I really do. Okay, maybe I don't hate the team itself. It's (most) Flyers fans that make me dislike them. They're ignorant and classless - I've heard them boo or jeer injured players from the opposing team. A referee makes a legitimate call and they start an ASSHOLE chant. No, douchebags, you aren't funny. Their announcers are extremely unprofessional. Sure, you should have a bias for your team if you work for a regional network. These guys take it to a new level. Any time something goes against the Flyers it's because there's a conspiracy against them. That leads to five minutes of complaining about how incompetent the officials are. They commit and obvious penalty and the refs don't know what they're talking about. The other team gets away with something and the refs have it in for them. They never acknolwedge something good that the other team does. If you watch Penguins games, their announcers will acknowledge things such as milestones players from the other team achieve, commend a good play, and if an unfavorable call goes against them, they may disagree, but instead of griping about it for five minutes they say "Well, they call it like they see it, and the Pens have to deal with it and move on" or something to that extent and continue on. Flyers games are so bad I frequently have to watch the game on mute. The sad thing about this is...they're better this year than they were in the past. Maybe I should stop complaining and just take it for what it is. I'm mostly bitter because they just won.