Or so it seems... I'm still feeling my Rangers pick.

Philly shouldn't be slept on either IMO... I think they look better than Montreal, they have more playoff grit and big guns rising to the occasions (Mike Richards is born for the playoffs, Kovalev... not so much). I think it's pretty much of a toss-up in both conferences right now, I could see Detroit, San Jose, Dallas, or Anaheim(if only because they're the champs) in the West and Pitt, Philly, and NY (or Montreal if they prove me wrong) in the East. Might as well pick the two out of a hat.

Devils are done, and Brodeur refused to shake Avery's hand. Avery ripped him apart after the game, calling him "Fatso". What a classy guy.

Koivu returns tonight for Montreal. Bruins, Caps, and Wild can all be eliminated today.

WE'RE GOING 7!!!!

That was the best hockey game played in Boston in the last 20 years. That game had everything.

Yeah, that was probably my favorite game so far in these playoffs. Crazy 3rd period.

This series is definitley in dhun dhun dhun mode now. I have to say that even though I'm a Canadian with half French blood and is envious at Boston hogging all the sports success, I'm kind of rooting for the Bruins here. They're that fun bruiser type of team, plus I always like seeing upsets. And for the sake of my bandwagon team for these playoffs (the RANGERS baby), I'd rather see Washington or Philly in round 2 over Pittsburgh. Preferably Washington, I have a feeling Avery won't work on the Flyers, heh. Though the Flyers are my 2nd bandwagon team this year(I especially love Mike Richards) so I wouldn't be THAT upset with them advancing to the ECF.

Oh, and with this and the San Antonio game/start of the NBA playoffs, this has been a greattt day for sports. My head hurts from 10 hours in front of the tv.

Oh and I just wanted to mention how godly Theodore has been... on paper it looked like the Wild just folded in the last two games, but they actually outshot Colorado, Theodore was just out of this world. Right now the most likely candidate to be the "goalie who loses in the finals but wins Conn Smythe", assuming Dan Ellis and Nashville don't win their series.

Preds, Flames, and Ducks can all be eliminated today.

Can't believe Montreal. Can they really blow this? It's be a nice reversal of what happened in '04, especially with Julien coaching the Bruins now.

And yeah, Theodore has been insane. The West seems pretty wide open now, with Detroit, San Jose, and Anaheim all having trouble getting to the second round, that Colorado could sneak in there. Seems so unlikely though, their team is so circa-2001.

Calgary-San Jose going to Game 7. Ron Wilson changed all his lines going into this game, I don't know what he was thinking really after winning the last two, the Sharks looked lost. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I'm thinking the Habs and Flames both win their games (Canadian optimist )

It's interesting that both the Montreal and San Jose series have now been pushed to the 7th game. Both Montreal and San Jose were projected by the simulator (using historical data) to be in the Stanley Cup finals (and many "experts" predicted that as well), and now both could effectively be knocked out in the first round! Haha. Pretty funny! (Well, and sad for me, but meh, what can I do. If the Habs play like shit, they don't deserve to make it on in the playoffs.)

Hopefully at least one of the Canadian teams win though, so I have either my Habs or Calgary to cheer for.

Peace,
Mike

Preds and Ducks gone, so yay for that. Two more southern teams with crappy fanbases are out.

If Calgary wins against San Jose, then only one of the eight remaining teams will be from the southern U.S., and that's Dallas, who actually have decent fan support. This is good news.

Vezina nominees: Nabokov, Brodeur, Lundquist. Sounds about right to me.

Oh well. It was a very good series and I think the Bruins exceeded most people's expectations this year. We gave it a good ride. It just goes to show you that you need to win a couple of games in the regular season so if you do get to a Game 7 it can be at home.

We're a young team and we will be getting our top goal scorer back next year. Hopefully he won't go down again. But we'll be back next year, and we won't be an eighth seed.

Tonight was the Habs I know and love!

Price played TERRIFIC. He was wonderful. Koivu, Kovalev, the Kostitsyn brothers, and heck, even Streit with his insanely beautiful 2nd goal.

Peace,
Mike

Great night for hockey. Two exciting, high-scoring games. Even though Boston got blown out, they were right in it for most of the game. And yeah, Ovechkin has figured out how to play in the playoffs.

Tomorrow night should be just as awesome.

I'd like to agree with you but I can't. They were in it for the first period and they just simply got unlucky with that one goal. They got some shots on net, and they had every opportunity to get on the board and take the lead. In the second they were just out hit and out played. As soon as they were down 2-0 it was like they got punched in the stomach and just became desperate to do something. It also doesn't help when you go 0-6 on the power play. If you have six opportunities on a power play in a game 7 and don't score once, you deserve to lose that game.

Montreal just wanted it more tonight and they had a little bit of luck going for them at the beginning. Btw, congrats Mike. It was a very good series.

I hope they get demolished in the next round though.

Aww. That's too bad, because I honestly would have been cheering for the B's to win the Eastern conference title if they had beat the Habs. The other teams left are meh. As long as Claude Julien is behind the bench, I will always like those B's.

But thanks. It was a great series, indeed.

Peace,
Mike

Norris nominees: Lidstrom, Chara, Phaneuf. Don't see how Lidstrom won't win it again.

Halfway through the game, I was going to say Price is bailing out the Habs BIG TIME. Boston was outplaying them for sure. But then after the second goal the dam just broke for Boston.

If Calgary and Philly win tonight, the 2nd round will be perfect!

But most important is Calgary winning. GO FLAMES GO!

Peace,
Mike

I'm bitter. Give it a day.

That saying I am rooting for Pittsburgh to win it all. Not because of my dislike for the Habs or anything, but because I like Crosby and I picked them to win it all in Trixster's game.

I'm rooting for the Caps tonight, if only because that'll set up an AMAZING Pittsburgh/Washington second round. That could be one of the best series in recent memory.

Speaking of which...

If Washington wins tonight, the second round in the east will be Montreal/New York and Pittsburgh/Washington.
If Philly wins, it'll be Montreal/Philly and Pittsburgh/New York.

In the west....

If San Jose wins tonight, it'll be Detroit/Colorado (sweet) and San Jose/Dallas.
If Calgary wins, it'll be Detroit/Calgary and Dallas/Colorado (both kinda boring, in all honesty).