Edmonton #1, Vancouver #2, Montreal #3.

Fucking Boston.

Holy shit. That third period showed the best and the worst in both teams. A Montreal flop leads to Kelly breaking in and scoring and another Bruins penalty leads to another Montreal power play goal. Once PK scored I thought that that might as well have been the game winner. The Bruins have faltered again and again in clutch situations and finally they got one to go their way.

And now the Flyers.

Of course...

Washington over Tampa Bay in 5
Boston over Philly in 7

Vancouver over Nashville in 6
Detroit over San Jose in 6

Washington over Boston in 6
Vancouver over Detroit in 7

Vancouver over Washington in 7

Caps in 7
Bruins in 6

Canucks in 5
Sharks in 7

He's the best announcer out there.

Vancouver over Nashville in 7
Detroit over San Jose in 7

Tampa Bay over Washington in 5
Philadelphia over Boston in 6

What do you guys think is the biggest storyline of round 1?

- Canucks exorcising their past demons
- Nashville winning a playoff series
- Detroit possibly putting an end to a franchise/Last game for the Coyotes?
- San Jose escapes from repeating the past
- Washington exorcising their past demons
- Battle of the goaltenders: The better goalie lost
- Team minus a goalie wins over team with just a goalie
- Tampa Bay makes playoffs and wins after horrendous season 2 years ago

Pretty much all redemption storylines. You can make your own.

My top 3:

Nashville
Detroit/Phoenix
Montreal/Boston

Hey chief, you screwed up: the game I watched had the Pens LOSE. I'm pretty sure I made it clear that I wanted a live internet stream of last night's WINNING Pens game.

But in all seriousness, I thank you for the link. Not the best game to watch, but glad I saw it.

Vancouver/Chicago was easily the best series. Then Montreal/Boston.

That too.

The Pens came a long way considering that for three months they've been without two of the best players in the NHL, even if Malkin is wildly inconsistent. To post their second best season record ever, as well as pushing their first round playoff series to seven games (well... the Lightning pushed it to seven I suppose), that's pretty good.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go hang myself now!

The Boston/Montreal series was AWFUL. Felt like I was watching two high school teams.

FUCK San Jose.

Good start. It's unbelievable that the Bruins can't score on the powerplay though they scored a few seconds after their last was over, so maybe that's a good sign. And I'm very happy they were able to get a couple against Bobrovsky once Boucher was pulled. The Flyers can't trust anyone in net right now and the Bruins need to be able to keep that going. A goal on the powerplay would help.

Disgusting play by the Sedins tonight. They look terrible. AV is getting outcoached.

__________

Rinne and Luongo both played excellent. Bieksa should have had that goal. Still a long way to go for the Canucks. It looks like fatigue set in for them by the 2nd overtime. They just looked like a step behind their usual pace.

Sigh. So many missed opportunities.

Detroit sucks.

terrible game

'we're not equipped to beat a team like _____' is not an excuse

nor is 'ovechkin doesn't want to win and our team isn't skilled enough w/o him'

false. this team is pretty special. everyone (but schultz, of course) has the skill/heart to have stood out on another team's stanley cup run

i think it's totally mental but idk why they look so 'off' other than that they seem to be overthinking every shift

Washington's talent level is overrated. I don't think they have a better roster than Tampa, the difference between the two teams at this point are Tampa's guys are coming up big finishing

And Roloson is much better than any of the Caps' goalies.

VANCOUVER SUCKS!

Jimmy Howard is playing out of his mind... and Detroit can't score more than one damn goal. It's pathetic. Niemi SUCKS.

Higgins-Kesler-Raymond was a good line tonight. Sedins sucked balls. Really telling how much character they have when D.Sedin didn't even bother to chase for the iced puck even though he was within striking distance.

Game went back and forth in terms of momentum.

Luongo had an ok game. He made some good saves but he didn't even move to get across on the first goal. I don't know why he was still hugging the post after the pass was made. Oh, and Lu? Stop embellishing. You're not supposed to be Marty Turco or Dwayne Roloson. One more thing about Luongo, on one play, he went behind the net and passed the puck toward our guy who had a Predator forechecking instead of leaving it for the man behind with no pressure. Maybe the guy really thinks he's Turco. He really sucks at stickhandling.

I can't believe Vigneault scratched Ballard in favor of Rome and then put him with our best defender. I mean, I understood why he put Hamhuis with Bieksa and not Bieksa with Rome but damn, Rome is no Bieksa. And what is Glass still doing there? He's invisible.

Edit: I just remembered that the first goal started when Luongo touched the puck to negate the icing call. I think Bieksa could have gotten there first ahead of the Predator guy. Awful on Luongo's part and Bieksa for going wide and not chasing the puck.

I also noticed that Canucks do not enough support in their own zone. I saw a Sedin shift tonight where Henrik (I think) was up along the blueline while the Nashville forward on the half-boards. They barely won that battle and got the puck out but there have been times where the forwards don't do enough/anything and end up giving Nashville more time in the zone. Nucks need to help out their D if they want to get the puck out.

Backstrom and Semin have disappeared. Ovie can't do it all himself.

Although I guess the Sedins have also disappeared, and the Canucks are doing alright. For now. So far, Kesler is their MVP.

STEVE YZERMAN!!!

This is foolish. At Boudreau's level, I don't think the coach makes the difference when it comes to rallying the team between periods. Let's be serious...particularly when you're a top-ranked team three years in a row that can't get it done.

It's a cop-out excuse -- and it'll just mean we'll be waiting another year to judge Boudreau's worth (since the regular season isn't a good point of comparison -- and they can't top 2009-10 anyway).

And, trix: the Caps aren't the LeBron-led Cavs (the other team that, y'know, got me excited for April/May...only to disappoint every year!). They have a decent squad and can win without Ovechkin. Some even argue that Ovechkin's killing the team (a stupid argument, but he does have a dissonant playing style -- and if you let Ovechkin be Ovechkin, you're dragging the team into Ovechkin's style...so if he's off, as he has been this season, the offense is off).

And this is, truly, where Boudreau may not be the right guy. I don't understand how the Caps go from amazing offense/lousy defense one year to sub-par offense/good defense the next. Why can't they piece it together? Maybe Boudreau.

Wow, Boston finally scored a PPG. Now, can they prevent a repeat of history?