Euro2008

So who do we like for the footy tournament??

For no other reason than there's a guy at work I know that is Dutch, I'm going for the Dutch.

Also, I really enjoyed then completely dominating the Italians and the French.

And it's Edwin Van Der Sar's last international tournament.

Right now the Greeks are losing to the Russians and looking like pretty poor defending champs. They were absolutely booed off the pitch in their first game - and deservedly so - I haven't seen such dull, 'Be careful, we might lose!!' soccer since that great Simpson's episode.

I haven't seen Portugal yet, but they sound good. And Spain too.

On to the Finals

Good semi-final round - not as short as I predicted, though I got the teams right. We all did.

Now, to the finals.

I think this will be a complete home-advantage series. Detroit in 7.

But I'm cheering for the Penguins. I like the way they play. They'll be a top team for a long, long time.

I know that lots of people will pick Pittsburgh, if only to show that they know there's an "h" at the end. People think the Penguins have better goaltending. Also, that the Red Wings nearly let Dallas back in the series.

But I think Detroit was playing a much, much stronger team. I think Osgood will be Osgood-enough. I predict there will be lots of momentum-shifting (3 shifts, actually). Game 7 may go two or three overtime periods. In the end the team with the most depth and experience will win.

Final Four

OK - halfway there...

I know I'm cheating a bit because game one of the West final was last night, but I was picking Detroit anyway.

I didn't expect them to totally dominate the Stars though...

I say Motown in 5.

And I like Pittsburgh in 6.

I sure hope they win, because I'm starting to dislike the Flyers. And I wish we still had Lupul...

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Now playing: Tim Armstrong - Translator
via FoxyTunes

Sigh!

Too bad about the Montreal-Philly series. The Flyers were clearly the better team, from the Goaltender(s) to the Defense to the Offense to the Coaching to the Fans.

All three Freys went 2/4 in the second round. We each picked the Penguins and the Red Wings (which seems pretty obvious now), and flubbed the other two series (neither of which seems likely to me, even now).

So now Marc picks Pittsburgh in 6 and Detroit in 6. I'm going with Pittsburgh in 4, Detroit in 4. We could be done the Stanley Cup before the end of May!

Your turn, Adrian.

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Listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage - Awesome!

Surprises so far

Didn't think the Stars were that good.

Knew the Penguins were good, but didn't think they'd be perfect.

Knew that Carey Price would falter, but not three games in a row.

Didn't think that Biron was that good.

*************

nervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervous
nervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervousnervous

About the game tonight, that is.

Go Sixers!

Why am I cheering for the Philadelphia 76ers over Detroit in the NBA while simultaneously booing the Philadelphia Flyers in their NHL series with Montreal? It's all about Dr. J!

Holy damn!

Dallas takes the first two from San Jose in San Jose!!

Once again the Sharks just can't get to the finals, or can they come back??

I really like Det v. Dallas and Pitt v. Montreal as the conference finals....

Second Round

I am little surprised and dissapointed in myself for only going .500 in the first round.

But, to be honest, i didn't focus my entire weath of brain power on a few of the series - the Rangers and the Anaheim series in particular - so I guess I got what I deserved.

Speaking of - what happened to Calgary? I'll jump on the bandwagon and say shoddy coaching. I wasn't watching the game, but it sounds like a timeout would have been a good idea. And probably before SJ got the the goal to go up one. I didn't think that going with Iron Mike was a good choice in the first place.

Anyway, second round;

As the last few years have shown, once you get past the first round, you could march all the way to finals, whether you're supposed to be there or not, like Edmonton, Calgary, Carolina all had done. So picking from now on seems like more of a crap shoot.

Or it is for me anyway.

I'm sticking with the party line...

Detroit is too much for Colorado to handle.

Ditto for San Jose over Dallas.

I like Montreal over Philly - shades of 1993 in game one I'd say...

And Pittsburgh over the Rangers.

Marc's Picks for Series 2

First Round Champ Marc picks the same teams I did for Series 2. I'll need to wait for Round 3 to pick up the game I lost to him in the opening series.

Mtl/Phil - Mtl in 6
Pitt/NY - Pitt in 7
Det/Col - Det in 6
SJ/Dall - SJ in 5

My Second Round Picks

Detroit over Colorado in 5 - only because Detroit never wins series in 4 games.

San Jose over Dallas in 5 - because they showed how great they are last night against Calgary.

Detroit and San Jose will each flub a game because they're so anxious to play each other. I'm afraid these two soft series in Round 2 will leave the West in an even stronger position in the Finals.

Montreal over Philly in 7 - a battle of two very good goalies.

Pittsburgh over NYR in 6 - Crosby brings his "A" game to the Big Apple.

Start spreading the news
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it, New York, New York
These vagabond shoes
Are longing to stray
And make a brand new start of it
New York, New York
I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

I want to wake up in the city that never sleeps
To find I'm king of the hill, top of the heap
These little town blues
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you, New York, New York.

Lyrics by Fred Ebb - the music in your head right now is by John Kander

How Did We Do in the First Round?

Marc's picks were the most perspicacious (if that's the word I want). He picked every series right except Dallas-Anaheim (which we all flubbed). Congrats, Marc, on your 7-1 first round.

Dean was next at 6-2 - he missed the Philly and Dallas wins.

Adrian was 4-4: Detroit was his only correct pick in the West, and NJ his only miss in the East.

On watching Game 7 in Montreal

With apologies to Robert Browning:

THE year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's The series is at seven;
The hill-side's ice is dew-pearl'd;
The lark puck's on the wing;
The snail Zdeno Chara's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven—
All's right with the world!

Habs, Bruins, and History

Those who are fully aware of George Santayana's quote "those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it," are doomed to hear it quoted (and misquoted) over and over.

Montreal has led 3-1 an amazing 26 times over the years. Their record is 26-0.

Boston has been behind 3-1 20 times. Their record in those situtations is 0-20. This is the first time out of 21 that they've managed to get to a seventh game.

I'm sure someone will point this out to the Boston coaches and players.

At some point, though, we should consider that Montreal is a way better team, that they've played lousy since game 2 (they were lucky to win the fourth game), and that their power play is due to break out.

Still, I'm the tiniest-bit nervous about tonight's game.

Yay Dallas!

The Ducks and their beer league jerseys (shouldn't we have a logo? nah, too expensive - wait, if we get one less keg for the year end party, we can afford a small logo...) are going home!!

Now if Kevin Lowe can sign another Duck to an offer sheet this summer, Burke will have an aneurysm, and everything will be fine.

And go Flames!

Hopefully not a repeat of '04 when they couldn't take the cup on the road in game seven after taking game six at home...

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Now playing: Unkle - Celestial Annihilation
via FoxyTunes

More Story

I love that Flames comeback!

I'm watching The Return of the Jedi on Spike and I check CBC - because I have no idea when the games are (more on that later) and I see the puck drop. "Cool!" I think, "Something to watch when I get tired of the Ewoks..."

Next break in the Jedi action, I flip back to CBC and it's 3-0!?!

As the kids say; WTF!!

But they nail things down and play the game they probably would have played anyway. After Iron Mike yanks Kiprusoff.

Is Cujo going to win this series for them??

And what is with the goofy game spacing this year?

Boston/Montreal game three is the afternoon after game two??

Two travel days for Calgary/San Jose?

And the Flyers/Caps series is seemingly being played in another dimension.

Bring back the old-time classic schedule;

Mon - game one
Tue - game two
Wed - off
Thur - game three
Fri - game four
Sat - off
Sun - game five
Mon - off
Tue - game six
Wed - off
Thur - game seven

Ten days max for a seven game series.

I'll be keeping track this year and see how long it takes to get these games done.

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Now playing: Cannibal Ox - Ridiculoid ft. El-P
via FoxyTunes

The story so far...

Good first round so far, I think.

The Good
Penguins, Flames Comeback, Martin Biron (on + off), Alex Ovechkin (on + off), Carey Price, The Surprising Stars.

The Bad
The Senators, the Ducks (but see The Ugly below), Montreal's power-play, the Sharks' focus.

The Ugly
Sean Avery, the way the Red Wings are winning, the Ducks.

Coming from Behind

It occurs to me that the Habs and Rangers might possibly end up playing each other later this playoff season. So let's think back to this game...

Only one big surprise

The only thing that really surprised me last night was the Flames win. Everyone was saying watch out for Kiprusoff. SJ was so hot, but everyone has to lose occasionally, I guess.

4-0 in Pittsburgh, but in the part of the game I saw the Senators were playing pretty well.

Nice to see that Mike Komisarek will play in Montreal tonight.

And now the West

Here are my picks for the Western Conference;

The West

detroit v. nashville

detroit. stupid predators sweeping the oilers and taking away their right to show the wings just how old they are. actually, it's really only chelios that's old - i think his son will be draft eligible in 3 years! too many good swedes against, well, a typical 8th place team = detroit win.

sharks v. flames

calgary. this is my upset special lock of the week! maybe san jose is finally ready, but i don't think so. i don't think they really added much to last years roster, and i'll take kiprusoff (yes, even this year) over nabakov in the playoffs anyday.

wild v. avs

minnesota. defense wins championships right? the avalanche seem pretty ordinary this year - they certainly have talent, but they're still missing something. i'm sure these teams will beat each other up a ton, but the wild are stronger i feel.

ducks v. stars

the league decides that one of the best things to happen all year was the great run the oilers went on, and therefore disqualify both teams are they are the mortal enemies of the oilers. i can't think of any team i want to lose more than these two - except for the canucks - and the oilers took care of that! burn!! haha! it'll probably be the stupid ducks and their jerkface GM winning this one. everyone please join together and pray that Burke is never put in charge of the canadian olympic team - because i could never cheer for a team that he runs...

Welcome to the blog

Which, as you can tell from the title, is about the 2008 NHL Playoffs. Widely scattered fans from across the continent will add their views on who will win this year.

Something to say? Add a comment, add a post, or customize the blog with gadgets. Let Dean know if you'd like access.

Fearless Picks from the East

Come on! I always end up listening too much to the little reasonable-guy-dean sitting on my shoulder (who otherwise spends his time breaking up fights between little-devil-dean on the one side and little-angel-dean on the other). I should listen more to my real feelings when I pick playoff series (says little "listen to your heart"-guy-dean - it's getting crowded here).

So this is what I said, but really, this is what I we, in my our heart of hearts, believe will happen:

I said:
Mtl over Boston in 5
What I believe:
5 games? are you kidding? The Bruins will throw in the towel before they go back to Boston for game 3.

I said:
NYR over NJ in 6
What I believe:
Rangers in 5, but only because they fall asleep in one of the games in Jersey.

I said:
Pittsburgh over Ottawa in 7
What I believe:
Should only take 5 games. The Sens might surprise the Penguins in the first game, but then it's over.

I said:
Washington over Philly in 5
What I believe:
Pretty much.

Fearless West picks coming soon, once I can track down my little cowboy boots-wearing-dean-guy.

My picks

Hey kids!

I've taken some time out of my incredibly busy schedule to glance at the NHL's website, and I noticed that they are about to start playoffs in order to determine a champion and award that team a Stanley Cup.

I'm not sure what a lot of that means, but I decided to wade in and predict the winners anyway.

So here we go;

The East

habs v. bruins

montreal. because montreal always beats boston. the ghosts of ken dryden, guy lafleur, don cherry, and stephane richer weigh heavily on this series. even though none of those guys are dead yet. in the end, boston will always find a way to lose to montreal, and this year, you could very well say it was because they had to play philadelphia (see broad street bullies v2.0 below), and subsquently lost patrice bergeron.

pens v. sens

crosby. i wanted to pick ottawa to win everything before i started writing this. but i didn't even know the matchups yet, so i had to revise that. even though aflredsson is no reggie leach come playoff time, i think that's a big loss. i'd love to see heatley and spezza take over, but i think it's time for crosby to take the next step, and win a series.

caps v. flyers

philly. the broadstreet bullies v2.0 over ovechkin. who else is on that team anyway? does anybody watch eastern conference hockey west of thunder bay??

devils v. rangers

Me : And so it's obvious then that montreal moves on to the final. Thanks for reading!

Hockey fan : Wait! What about NJ and the rangers??

Me: Oh, right. I've looked over that series with great detail, [close-up of my notebook, which shows a stick figure drawing of me watching the NCAA basketball tournament] but I think this team clearly stands out above the rest. [as I slowly gesture in the general direction of NJ and NY, which is so vague that it leads both NJ and NY to believe that they will win the series]

NJ : Who? Me?

Me : Yeah. Sure.

NJ : "Woo- hoo!"

So there you go. From what i could see on the NHL's website, this seemed to be the consolation side of the playoff bracket. Next time, I'll post my picks for the important part of the competition; the Western conference.

NHL Room Service Commercial

2008 Playoffs - Who's gonna win?

Dean picks San Jose in 5 games over Washington.
Marc picks Montreal in 7 over San Jose.