Gino!

This was Malkin's best playoff goal...

Until he did this;

I fear the Canadians will need some serious home ice mojo to win the gold in Vancouver next year.

The Final Four

There's an old saying in hockey: a day without a Boston Bruins overtime loss is a day without sunshine.

Last night's game seven overtime game between the Bruins and the Hurricanes was exciting. I just watched the highlights this morning, and there sure was lots of action. There were a couple of spectacular saves by Tim Thomas - the best of the losing goalies in the playoffs, I thought, though Luongo was consistently excellent - right Lane?. Samsonov's goal was amazing. The overtime was really exciting, though the goal to end the game wasn't a classic.

I was cheering for the Ducks in their series against Detroit - probably the only person outside of Southern California. Again, the winning goal was a bit garbagy, but it was a good game and a good series. The Red Wings have to be prohibitive favourites to repeat now.

Looks like Marc has pretty much swept things in our pool. He was the only one of us to pick two of the Final Four: Chicago & Detroit. Sylvianne, Dean, and Bert & Ev all picked Pittsburgh, while Jesse and Sarah picked Detroit. None of us saw the Hurricanes coming. I pick Carolina now to face Detroit in the final, but to no avail. The Red Wings will only get stronger now.

Comments?

Round 1 all done!

The last two Game 7s are done, and we're all finished with Round 1. So far this is how we're doing:

Adam: 3 wins + 5 losses
Adrian: 7 wins + 1 loss (!)
Bert & Ev: 5 wins + 3 losses
Dean: 5 wins + 3 losses
Jesse: 7 wins + 1 loss (!)
Jordan: 2 win + 6 losses
Lane: 5 wins + 3 losses
Lee: 3 wins + 5 losses
Marc: 7 wins + 1 loss (!)
Sarah: 5 wins + 3 losses
Sylvianne: 4 wins + 4 losses

So the three winners of the first round are Adrian, Marc, and Jesse. But Marc looks like he has the advantage with his picks in the next two rounds. What will you spend your $55 on, Marc?

The series that seemed to give us the most trouble were the two that finished last night. Too many of us assumed San Jose would roll over Anaheim, and that Calgary would mop up Chicago. But both of last night's winners look awfully good: strong power-plays, strong goal-tending, tough, fast, talented. Both Detroit and Vancouver better take care in the next round!

Meanwhile, what a great finish in the Carolina-New Jersey series. Lots of action in the last minutes of these games!

Our totals so far: 53 wins + 35 losses (60%)

Looking good!

i'm not one to brag, but things are going pretty good in my bracket; i could go 8 for 8!

so far i have pittsburgh and boston in the east, and detroit and vancouver in the west.

if the rangers continue their destiny to pull a choke job worthy of their city mates the NY Mets, then i'm 3 out of 4 in the east.

i suppose NJ will win, but i don't know. i sort of don't care. both those teams are in my Top 5 Teams That Should Not Have Won the Stanley Cup anyway

in the west i have the canucks and detroit. and if the hawks come through - and i think they will, though it may take 7 - i'll have 3 of 4 there too.

about the hawks; did you see the beating they laid on phaneuf last night? i enjoyed that. and that dustin byfuglien is a fantastic hockey player! and so is patrick sharp, and ben eager. i predict in two years they sign luongo as a UFA and that team will rule the league.

so that just leaves those pesky ducks - see my Top 5 above...

go sharks!

How We Doin'?

I'm feeling pretty good about my picks in the first round. Only Anaheim has screwed up my picks, but that's happening for lots of us. I don't think San Jose will come back against the Ducks, so I've nearly written off this one. Montreal might win their next game and salvage some self-respect, so my Boston in 5 pick looks good. Washington will take the next 3 games easily (unless more bad things happen for them with their goalie or the Rangers'). NJ might not take 7 games, but they should win. Pittsburgh might take 6 or 7 in their series, but they'll win too.

St. Louis has been in close for every game, so I think they might win tonight, but will lose the series in 5, as I predicted. The Canucks are looking really, really good. Detroit in 4 looks pretty reasonable as well.

That just leaves Calgary-Chicago - perhaps the best series so far. I picked Calgary in 6, and I think if they play the way they did last night, they could win the next 3 games. But more likely it will come down to game 7 in Chicago. I'm worried that Chicago has too much talent, and that Calgary is missing too much of their's to injuries.

How's everyone else doing?

Adrian, are you at all worried about having picked San Jose to win the Cup this year? Adam, you must be feeling good about Vancouver. They're playing a good team right now, and they look awesome. Maybe they'll make it to the finals again, like that year against the Rangers. They're fast and strong, and their goaltending is awesome.

Mom & Dad, you must be feeling good about your Anaheim pick, which is looking extremely perspicacious right now. Jesse, your picks seem very balanced and reasonable right down the line (though I don't think Carolina will come through unless they push things up a notch against Jersey). Lane, your picks are looking good as well. Get some earplugs for the car horns - the Canucks will win lots of games this year. Lee, I thought your Montreal pick was just the tiniest bit optimistic. Still, don't give up hope!

Marc, I guess you'll be cheering on Carolina as well. I think they'll need top drawer games in goal for the rest of the series. Sarah, your only weak pick is San Jose, but then lots of us missed out on that one. Sylvianne, if the Rangers can come back to the form of their first two games, you'll be ahead on your pick from that series. I believe everyone else picked Washington. If Lundquist stands on his head, that could happen.

Flames in Overtime

Here are the TSN highlights from last night's Calgary-Chicago Game 1. The 12-second overtime period begins at about the 1:45 mark:



Remind you of anything? I couldn't find any video out there, but here's what happened in Game 2 of the 1986 Stanley Cup finals (Montreal vs. Calgary).

From the faceoff, McPhee brings it in with Skrudland. HE SCORES!!
—Don Whitman calling Brian Skrudland's overtime goal in game two.

It took 9 seconds. Looks like the Flames don't like to draw out these overtime periods.

Day 1

Went according to plan, more or less. The Rangers win was an upset, but from what I hear (I only had a chance to watch the first period of the Vancouver-St. Louis game) it was a goaltending problem for the Capitals. As long as the Caps don't panic, they should be o.k. in this series.

What I saw of the Vancouver game was excellent - very entertaining hockey! Up + down the ice action, and some amazing goaltending at both ends.

Now the real important games start in Boston and Chicago.

Hey, it's great to have 5 of the (Almost) Original Six teams in the playoffs: Boston, Chicago, Detroit, New York Rangers, Montreal. For the life of me, I can't remember what the sixth team was! Montreal Maroons? New York Americans? Pittsburgh Pirates? Portland Rosebuds?

Vancouver Millionaires?

Everyone is in!

So, we're all in. There are 11 of us, so there's $55 up for grabs. The big payday! One last score, then I can retire.

The bottom line? Here are the Stanley Cup winning choices:

Adam: Vancouver
Adrian: San Jose
Bert+Ev: Pittsburgh
Dean: Pittsburgh
Jesse: Washington
Jordan: New Jersey
Lane: Boston
Lee: Montreal
Marc: Boston
Sarah: Boston
Sylvianne: Boston

Lots of diversity in these choices. I'm a bit surprised that no one chose Detroit. Great going, Lee, to choose Montreal in this their Annointed Centennial Year. Except that it won't happen (sigh).

HNIC Mashup

Last week I created a mashup on the Hockey Night in Canada site - I thought this was a bit of a goofy thing when they advertised it during the games, but it's pretty fun if you have the time.

I didn't get the music I wanted, as the choices are limited, and I'm sure you can't just go uploading your favorite Cancer Bats song what with all the copyrights business out there, but I was pretty happy with the result.

It's called VANCOUVER FAIL

Enjoy!

http://hockeynightmashup.cbc.ca/mashupdetail/893780?gotComment=1#comments

It's on like Michelle Kwan!!

Well, I'm hoping for some really good hockey this year, as once again, my team is not participating. But I recall some great games last year, particularly Dallas and Detroit, so hopefully we'll see some more this year.

I'm particularly excited about Chicago - my second team.

Anyway, I've entered my pics in the supercool Google chart that I assume Dean made, but I'll chat about them here for a bit;

I'm calling no upsets in the West - there are some hot teams and goaltenders in the bottom four seeds, but Luongo will probably carry the Canucks, as much as I can't stand that team. I think 6 games, maybe 7 if Luongo falters.

The Flames - though supposedly now heathy - are going to get clobbered. A promising season cut short by injuries. And what was the deal with only icing 9 forwards in the last two regular season games? They were over the cap supposedly - poor management. Probably 5 games max.

The Sharks are just too much, maybe 6 games

Detroit has been very poor lately, and the Jackets have the super rookie Mason - this series is as close to an upset as I see in the West. But you have a team that doesn't know what the playoffs are against a team with at least 27 total Stanley Cup rings. Do the math, and it's Wings in 7.

In the East I have Pittsburgh and Carolina with upsets.

Sorry, but I don't see the 77% all-time winning percentage in playoff series against Boston continuing for the Habs. That magic, and history, probably counts for a couple games, so I think Boston will need 7, but they're too strong. I hope I'm wrong though!

Carolina is super hot - once they got Cole back from the Oilers - and New Jersey, once Brodeur became the all-time guy, got cold. I'll take 'Which team is on a roll for 7 games? Alex...'

I like Pittsburgh just because I don't like Philly for some reason. In 6 or maybe 7.

And the Rangers, again an early exit - Washington is too much this year. In 6 or maybe 5 games.

So, Go Hawks, and I've got my fingers crossed for you St Louis!

Welcome again to the Fearful Porpentine

Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their spheres,
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,
And each particular hair to stand an end,
Like quills upon the fearful porpentine.

This is from Act 1 of Hamlet, but it's pretty much how I feel about Boston's powerplay. Best not take any penalties.

So, we're nearly ready to get started. Games start on Wednesday night, so everyone needs to get their picks in by 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time on April 15th. You should be able to enter your own data in your spreadsheet, but you can always email Dean with your picks.

Here's a plan for how we choose the winner: everyone gets a point for picking a winner in the first round, two points for the second round, three points for the third round, and four points for correctly choosing the Stanley Cup winner. So perfect picks give you 8 points in round 1, 8 points in the quarter-finals, 6 points in the semi-finals, and 4 points in the finals = 26 points. If there's a tie, we'll add up the # of games picks. Losers won't go home empty-handed; they'll get The Fearful Porpentine home edition, which will provide hours of amusement in the dark hours ahead.

Everyone, feel free to add posts to this blog, or comments to any post. Contact Dean if you want write access to the blog itself; you'll need a gmail account.

P.S. Remember, you can change your picks any time up to Wednesday night. Note that a bunch of Flames are just now coming off the injury list; this will have an impact on the Calgary-Chicago series!

P.P.S. Note that the NHL re-seeds for each round, so the highest seed left plays the lowest seed. So this isn't a true bracket like the NCAA Basketball tournament. You may need to move teams around in the second round, like Marc did with Pittsburgh and Carolina.

Montreal needs at least 50 of these...

Crazy Goal

This should get us in the crazy mood we need to make just the right picks for the big playoff pool.

Too bad that Ribeiro doesn't still play for the Habs. Gainey should have traded for him this season like he did with Schneider.

Welcome to The FearfulPorp 2.0!

Unless the Habs don't make the playoffs, in which case I'll walk away muttering...

In the meantime, let me see if I've got this right.

The first tie-breaker is # of wins.

Montreal has 92 points, 41 wins
NYRangers has 91 points, 41 wins
Florida has 89 points, 39 wins

In lots of tie situations, we could be looking at tied # of wins. Let's say Montreal loses its last two games. Impossible, you say? But just for the sake of argument. Then let's say the Rangers get a single point from their last two games. Both still have 41 wins.

How about this: Florida wins its last two games - 93 points, 41 wins. If Montreal gets a single point in their last two games: 93 points, 41 wins. If NYR gets two points from two losses: 93 points, 41 wins.

So here's the second tie-breaker:

2. The greater number of points earned in games between the tied clubs. If two clubs are tied, and have not played an equal number of home games against each other, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game shall not be included. If more than two clubs are tied, the higher percentage of available points earned in games among those clubs, and not including any "odd" games, shall be used to determine the standing.

Luckily, this is completely and absolutely straight-forward. Except that the only "odd" games I saw this year involved the Colorado Avalanche and the Toronto Maple Leafs.

A win by Montreal or a loss by Florida makes this moot for Montreal fans.

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...

----------------
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.

***********

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!