Yep. And that was without pulling him. That couldn't be a less enthusiastic arena though.

I like the move to pull Varlamov as a Bruins fan. If I were a Caps fan I'd think it's a little early.

bye bye ovechkin

If Halak plays this well in the next round, it'll be a Bruins/Flyers vs. Canadiens conference finals.

I don't understand why you guys wanted the Habs to win. Next round's gonna be a snooze.

Because Ovechkin's an asshole and I like an upset.

I wanted the Habs to win for the Bruins sake. If this was any other year and the Bruins were a higher seed I would've rooted for the Caps. This is just the freak year it didn't work out that way.

Three picks right on the money and six out of eight overall.

Semi's

Bruins in 6
Penguins in 6 - Though as I said, if Halak continues to play like he did against the Caps, the Habs might move on.

Red Wings in 7
Blackhawks in 7

If there is any sort of hockey god, the conference finals will be Bruins vs. Canadiens and Red Wings vs. Blackhawks. Holy hell that'd be fantastic.

Ha! he'll never win the Cup.

I'm completely stunned and in shock right now. I LOVE YOU HABS!!!

Peace,
Mike

Four on the money, one close enough, one near-miss, and two jokes.

5) Detroit over 1) San Jose in seven
2) Chicago over 3) Vancouver in seven

4) Pittsburgh over 8) Montreal in six
6) Boston over 7) Philadelphia in six

Ratings are already shitty in America. Fuck the Yanks.

That's because it's on a cable channel hardly anyone knows about, and airs on the weekends during the season, and weekdays during the finals on NBC, a network in which outside of Thursday and Saturday nights, hardly anyone gives a shit about anymore.

If the games aired on ESPN/ABC or FX/FOX, the ratings would be much better than they are right now since people actually watch those channels. Hell, exclusive coverage on ESPN 2 would be a better option than right now.

However, a Bruins/Red Wings, Bruins/Blackhawks, Flyers/Red Wings, Flyers/Blackhawks finals could draw some pretty decent numbers here. Versus and NBC would lose the ability to draw fans in using Sydney Crosby, but having hockey towns like Boston, Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia going at would draw decent numbers here in America. And if the Bruins made it to the finals, Boston, a city still pretty indifferent to hockey would get on board immediately and watch.

I think those ratings would be okay, but the Penguins have been there three years in a row. That's not great for ratings, especially since Pittsburgh isn't a very large market.

And as for ESPN treating hockey as the fourth sport, that's to be expected. They don't carry the games so why tout it any higher than fourth?

Fuck 'em too.

Seriously, this whole conversation is moot. Even if CBS showed hockey games in Thursday night primetime, Americans wouldn't watch. They just don't like the sport.

Yeah, okay.

I can't help but think of people (er...undercover racists) who used to say the same thing years ago about Tiger Woods whenever the Woods v. Nicklaus question came up.

Now, Tiger Woods is an asshole (!) but that's besides the point. I was in Pittsburgh a few weeks ago and talked hockey with a few people and found that they, surprisingly, like Ovechkin. They don't deny his talent and his passion and, if it had to be any other way last year, they would've wanted the Caps as the Eastern Conference choice. No joke.

There's no doubt that Ovechkin makes some polarizing choices on the ice and has some sportsmanship/interviewing issues, but he's the most exciting player in the NHL today...and, beyond that, I think he's well-intentioned.

It's not like Washington has dominated the league for years. They're not "old" vets who have more trophies than they can handle. They're a young team still working out the kinks (see: defense, goaltending) that happened to play very well this year.

I guess I don't see the point -- when you have no locational connection, that is -- in routing for a team like Montreal over a team like Washington that's expanded the sport's popularity, has made sizable improvements in its game every year, and, honestly, wanted to win more. Like...outside of Green and Semin, who were just plain retarded this series -- and Green, in general -- the team committed a lot of turnovers, but definitely put more effort into their game...they just cracked under the pressure. The Montreal series win was more a matter of Washington's play than Montreal's and it'll show next round. Think of what could've been...

Meh. Fucking Caps.

I don't see how you can say so assuredly that the Caps really wanted to win more. From what I saw, the Habs really persevered, pushed hard and decided they wanted to win more. They shut down an incredibly talented offensive team throughout much of the series. The Habs knew from the beginning there was no topping the Caps offensive ability, and they worked hard at playing their strengths against the Caps and shutting down that offensive talent. Hell, in this last game, they blocked 41 freakin' shots! (And that nearly minute-and-a-half 5-on-3 penalty kill in game 6 was phenomenal). They kept the league leading team on the powerplay to an abysmal 1-for-33 with the man advantage in the series.

It's not to say that the Habs played perfectly, but give them at least some credit.

It's also been said well elsewhere:

The Caps, meanwhile, lost because their best players lost their way and possibly their will. If there was a telling sequence in Game 7, it might have come late in the second period when the Capitals finally got a power-play opportunity and it seemed as though none of their best players — Alex Ovechkin, Nik Backstrom, Mike Green, Alex Semin — really wanted the puck very much.

Two players from the bottom half of the Montreal lineup, meanwhile, defenceman Marc-Andre Bergeron and Leafs castoff Dominic Moore, scored the two Canadiens goals, with Moore’s standing up as the winner.

Bergeron and Moore, two players unwanted by the entire league last fall, were able to do in the clutch what Ovechkin and his fellow millionaires couldn’t, leaving Montreal moving on to play the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins — first Ovechkin, now Sidney Crosby — and the Capitals likely in a month-long state of disbelief.

Peace,
Mike

I'm with trixster. Perhaps ratings would show some improvement if given better exposure , but ratings wouldn't suddenly "double overnight" if games were shown on better channels. One has to realize that the relationship goes both ways. The top networks don't bother showing NHL games because they won't make great ratings in the US regardless. It's not simply that poor exposure = poor ratings.

Peace,
Mike

Washington fucks up every year.

Just wasn't their (Ovechkin's) time. Another year, another Cup. You just don't go into the playoffs the top-seeded team and expect the Canadiens to volunteer to have their necks chopped off.

Anyway, go Pens!

Fuck you Washington!

San Jose over Detroit in 6
Chicago over Vancouver in 7

Pittsburgh over Montreal in 5
Philadelphia over Boston in 6

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dcspor ... re_af.html

Bwahahahahaha: "Semin also tried to change someone's tire...but he couldnt finish under the pressure so he drove off!"

Hi Mike,

I probably shouldn't be defending my whiny post, but...

I'm with you that total shots is not the end-all indicator of a team's effort...defense is as important. The defensive stats speak for themselves. Nonetheless, I always got the impression, from the games I watched at least, that the Habs were playing reactively and allowed the Caps to control the game's momentum (i.e., penetrate the Montreal zone). Montreal handled the Caps beautifully, I'm not going to knock that strategy because, well, it worked, but it never seemed like their players wanted the puck either.

There was one moment...I think in Game 4?...where, for an entire period, the Habs were controlling the momentum. Not just in shots, but in face-offs, checks, speed, passing, etc. That never happened in the other games.

Eh, I don't know. It's hard to really say which team wanted it more.

I definitely think the Caps had more to be frustrated about. A lot of players were not pulling their weight (Semin, Green, even Flash), the dependable players were making turnovers (I've never seen Ovechkin miss so many passes, btw), the Power Play was pathetic, and they couldn't crack Halak or the Montreal defense. It's definitely discouraging for a team like the Caps, used to scoring four goals per game, to be unable to get anything past Halak without interfering a la Knuble in some way. They weren't in their element and had lots of reasons to be discouraged, but they still seemed to be trying to muster strategies on the fly. Halak was horrible earlier in the series, so his decision to come back and make saves required the Caps to think on their feet...so I don't know.

IMO, it was a much better showing than in Game 7 of the Pitt series last year.

I wouldn't be opposed to firing BB. And...the goalie switching business is ridiculous. Theodore and Varly are pros. Don't humiliate them with these temperamental goalie changes. It's not the kind of spotlight the team needs, anyway.

Leonsis left this beefy quote on his blog:

...seems to be an attack on BB.

Look at Ovechkin's comments after the OT win in game 2. He was bragging that the Caps had gotten under Halak's skin, and it came back to bite him. In a big way.

He's exciting, but not a particularly humble or sportsmanlike player.