Friday, April 30, 2010

Eastern Conference Semis

Montreal v. Pittsburgh

The worst part of the Montreal win over Washington is that it makes it more likely the Penguins will make it back to the finals for the 3rd straight year.

I didn't give the Canadiens nny chance against the Caps an look how well that worked out. That said, I still think the Penguins have too much talent for the Habs.

Obviously Halak has to play out of his mind again. I doubt he he'll be able to play as well, nor will they be able to strangle the Pittsburgh power play the way they did to the Caps. Penguins in 5.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Why I Can't Stand Todd Bertuzzi

It's one of the worst moments in hockey. Not only does Bertuzzi sucker punch Moore, he drives his face into the ice. Moore never palyed in the NHL again.



Hockey is a violent, contact sport but that was not hockey. It was an assault.

Yes, I know about Moore and Naslund but there was no penalty or sublimental discipline handed down for it.

The reenstatement of Todd Bertuzzi is one of the blackest marks against Gary Bettman and his stewardship of the game.

I respect the Wings as a team and an organizatin but I can't root for them with Bertuzzi on their roster.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Western Conference preview...

Well, all the drama seemed to happen in the East. I remain convinced that lack of good goaltending is going to cost someone a Cup in the West as well, so let's do a rundown...

#1 San Jose vs #5 Detroit

San Jose let Colorado hang around much longer than was acceptable. Evgeni Nabokov did improve as the series went on, and the Sharks did get their offense together. Nonetheless, Colorado was minutes away from a 2-0 lead going home to Pepsi Center (or "The Can" if you're a Denverian). Joe Pavelski has more or less carried the Sharks thus far, and to his defense, Nabokov really only had one bad game.

Detroit are certainly not the Detroit of yesteryear, but when the chips were down in Game 7 versus Phoenix, the usual suspects stepped up. Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Nicklas Lidstrom... just sort of seemed to say "hey, wait, we're the Red Wings" and crushed the life out of the Desert Dogs with startling ease. Jimmy Howard has been everything the Wings could hope for in net, and the league's hottest team down the stretch seems to be awakening in a new fashion in the playoffs.

San Jose has more firepower, at least on paper, and seems at first blush to have better depth.

Irrelevant. Wings in six.

#2 Chicago vs #3 Vancouver

The story of the playoffs for Vancouver has without question been Mikael Samuelsson... the Sedin twins have been impressive thus far, but the clutch, key goals have been Samuelsson's. Roberto Luongo has been steady, but against a Los Angeles team that held on for dear life to make the playoffs, steady may not hold up against the firepower-heavy Blackhawks.

The Blackhawks, on the other hand, have benefited from timely scoring (particularly Patrick Kane) and a relatively punchless Nashville squad being unable to organize on the power play. Defensively, the shutouts seemed less a function of Antti Niemi and a star-heavy Blackhawk defensive corps and more a function of Nashville ineptitude offensively (boy, it pains me to say that).

In any event, Chicago has better firepower and more depth defensively. Niemi has had a couple of shutouts in these playoffs, and Chicago seems eager to repeat last year's annihilation of Roberto Luongo.

Luongo will have one of his classic meltdowns, which will propel Chicago to the conference finals in five games.

Montreal Beats Washington, 1st Round Is Over

So, I didn’t see that coming. In fact, I predicted a Washington sweep. The Canadiens winning in 7 wasn’t even a remote thought for me. Oops.

tim3rd were talking about a week ago about the lack of a standout goalie during the first round. Needless to say that was before Jaroslav Halak decided to go Dominik Hasek on us.

What do the Caps do from here? This isn’t their first playoff flop but the reality is sometimes in hockey you just run into the hot goalie that steals a series. It’s one of the charms of the sport, so long as it’s not your team getting hitting the wall.

Right now you look at the Capitals and you see the start of an Atlanta Braves run…awesome regular seasons followed by playoff flops. A one seed (the President’s Trophy winner) losing to an eight seed after taking a 3-1 series lead? That’s an epic FAIL.

Do they rip the team apart? Find a new coach? It’s a lot easier when you are a bad team, at least you know what to fix. What do you with a team that wins a lot of games in the regular season (dominates it really) only to flop like this? The moves aren’t so obvious.

Tonight’s game marks the end of the first round that has seen some great hockey. Other than the NJ-Philly matchup, every other series featured great play, dramatic finishes and entertaining hockey. It’s time like this I feel a certain moral superiority for being a hockey fan. Most sports fans in the US don’t watch hockey and it’s there loss.

Quick look ahead to Round 2-
Red Wings v. San Jose: San Jose nearly choked up their opening round series against a very young but talented Colorado team. Have they overcome their jinx or did they just delay it? I say they delayed it. Red Wings looked good in closing out a pesky Phoenix team. Howard should settle down now in goal with a series in his pocket. I think the Red Wings will be too much for Nabakov. Wings in 6

Vancouver v. Chicago: I predict lots of scoring in this series. Vancouver is such an odd team. Louongo keeps winning but you feel it’s a high wire act about to go all wrong at every turn. Chicago also has a lot of premiere talent up front and while Antti Niemi was played reasonably well in the first round it was agains defensively a solid but not scary Predators team (with apologies to tmi3rd). The Sedin twins along with Mikael Samulesson are going to scorch the Hawks. Luongo will do what he always does…just enough not to lose. Blackhawks in 6


I was going to do the east but it’s late and I have a few days until it starts.

The complete Round 2 schedule is here.