two series are over, will there be a third tonight?

The Boston Bruins and Amy's Vancouver Canucks are through to the second round with pretty tidy sweeps (no pun intended) of their first round opponents. I think the Blues just had to push so hard to get in, they were worn to the quick (and I think their injuries throughout the season finally caught up with them). I'm not gonna lie (Amy, cover your ears and eyes), I was rooting for the Blues. Not only because their captain is a favorite of CaP, but darn it all, they are/were a scrappy team fighting when no one game them an ounce of credit.

And as for the Habs...did anyone really think they'd win 4 against Boston?

I wish the things I said about the Blues could apply to the Blue Jackets. Even if they manage to get a win tonight, I think, as they say, you can put a fork in them. I just can't see them winning four straight right now. Not with Nash not scoring (or anyone not scoring for that matter) and Mason looking very much like the rookie he is (which on a side note, he was nominated for Rookie of the Year and if there is any justice he will get it).

That leaves us with some interesting series. Chicago and Calgary. Man, that one is getting down right dirty. I LOVE IT! It's great playoff hockey and I hope it goes 7 games. Not in the way I hope the Craps and the Ranger$ go seven games. I'm actually enjoying the Calgary/Chicago series. I could give a rat's ass about the Craps or Ranger$ and hope for bloody long triple overtime games to wear them out for round two.

But since I opened that door, I might as well walk through it. Henrik has been stellar, no surprise there. He seems to play better in the playoffs. Granted, I have no stats to back that up with... it's just a hunch. Avery took a stupid penalty? I'm shocked! SHOCKED. Ok, not really, but I am sorta surprised that combined, Ovechkin and Green have one goal. I mean come on, OV has 209,732 shots. Well fine, 35 but still, since he's the greatest player EVAR, I'd figure he'd have more to show for all that. In comparison, Malkin has 4 goals on 13 shots.

More open doors: Pittsburgh has looked really strong in most of their games against the Flyers. I think Sunday's game was an exception really and they'll get back on track tonight to hopefully close out the series. Philly could surprise me, but I'm hoping not.

I'll save the California series for Amy to chat up (since I've been bang on with my prediction of "too bad I will miss most of it being in the Eastern time zone"; she at least can stay awake to see the end of the games). And hopefully she'll have some fun new clips to share too (she's so much better at finding that stuff than I am!)

Oh, did you know we (Amy and I) are both on Facebook? She's been there a while and I'm just joining the cool kids and started yesterday. Hit us up!

Until next time, happy hockey!

Is it 4 o'clock yet?

Happy Friday everyone! Lisa is entertaining one of our good pals this weekend; so I'm rolling solo today. Be kind and don't throw rotten produce!

So, we're done with game 1 of all 8 series and things are par for the course for the most part; but there have been two surprises so far.

The Rangers eeking out a win against the Craps was definitely not something I expected; and last night with the Ducks and Sharks was also one that I thought would turn out so different. That was one that I knew would be good, especially being at the Tank in San Jose; but I can tell you as a Duck fan and having been on the other end of the SJ attack, this shutout was a bit of a surprise.

The rest of the games from the last two days were won by the teams that were supposed to win, and that is good I suppose; but I am hoping for a few more upsets. I'm the girl who always seems to lost the basketball pools because I will choose the higher double digit seeds just in case they might squeak it out. lol But I can't wait for the rest of this round because it's gonna be good no matter who wins.

But anyway... for your viewing pleasure tonight:

Pens vs. Flyers, 7pm EDT/4pm PDT, showing on Versus and the Ceeb
Devils vs. Canes, 7:30 EDT/4:30 PDT, showing on Center Ice and TSN
and the night cap, Nucks vs. Boos, 10pm EDT/7pm PDT, showing on Versus and the Ceeb

And for a little viewing right now are a few little tidbits I've gleaned in the last few days.

A very happy Chris Kunitz after the game Wednesday night talking about his new baby Zachary James, who was born that morning...

http://penguins.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=19&id=39940

Bill Patrick calling the goal scorer for the Hawks/Flames before it happens...



and the best of all...Calgary TV doofus Roger Million drops a naughty phrase on live TV and I think the editor of this clip is going to be looking for work...



That's about it from me today... Oh, I do have one thing more. Mike Keenan? You evil piece of shit? Karma is coming to collect, it's from Trevor Linden and it's COD, bitch! Oh, and that goalie interference? Jordan Leopold bumped Ladd into Kipper... suck it!

Have a great day kids!

Have another donut, you fat pig!

Lisa is in a training class all day so I am flying solo here today at CaP.

Well, the dirty dirty Rangers have finally canned Tom Renney and one of his assistant coaches. I'm not shocked about it, just that it took this long for them to do it. Over at TSN, they say that John Tortorella could likely take over as the new coach and the New York Post is speculating that Jim Schoenfeld, who works in the Rangers' front office, could be the choice. Personally either would be quite funny to watch up there going head to head with Glen Sather. I love Slats, but you don't fuck with him.

Penguins lost to the Craps yesterday and I don't know why Bylsma started Fleury. He was kind of shaky against Philly the day before and as much as the media blow Richards, Carter and company, they're nothing compared to the firepower of Ovie, Semin and Feds. I do have to say that it was interesting and quite refreshing to see Bing get in Ovie's face; because as much as I love him, Mr. Crosby is way too wooden for his own good sometimes.

Only one NHL game tonight and not only is it an early game, but it's on Versucks. Meh... hopefully there is something on.

But before I sign off for today... there is a nice article over at the AHL site about one of my former Tips boys, Leland Irving, who plays with the QuadCity Flames. He is second among all AHL rookies with a 2.35 GAA, he's a sweet kid from a wonderful family and I know he's gonna make it to the Show some day.

Hopefully y'all get through the day!

It's really Tuesday

I had yesterday off as I am a government lackey and yesterday was a federal holiday (don't believe me? Did you get mail yesterday? No?) and I'm sorta fubar today thinking that it is Monday again but it's not. It's Tuesday. I'd like to be able to say oooh, it's Tuesday, that means it's _______ around here but honestly, we're sorta new to this blogging thing and haven't thought up any clever du jour things to do (well ok, I haven't, I think Amy has). We're open to suggestions.

The rangers lost to the Blues last night. While I like some of the players on the Blues, lets face it, a good solid high school team against them on any given night could make a game of it. I personally LOVE that they beat the rangers. But I'm like that (Amy is the nice one, trust me).

Welcome to the bigs Dan Bylsma. Getting a point in your first game isn't so bad - it's the same thing your predecessor did....oh, well maybe that's not such a good thing after all. Keep that head up, you've got another chance Thursday against the free-falling Habs.

Yahoo tells me that Paul Stastny could return to the ice soon. This, however, could be a little too late for the Av. Too many injuries, inconsistent goal tending, not enough scoring generally lead to an early summer. Speaking of injuries, who was the mental giant behind this little gem: the Avalanche had their annual brunch fundraiser fashion show and guess who is behind the carving station holding a big knife? Captain Joe. Oh har har. Lets see if he can really lose a finger this time. [and I know that the Avalanche are more of a Western thing but since Amy loathes them, I figured I was save discussing them here]

The Buffaslugs play tonight against Toronto (on versus - blech) and lord knows who Lindy is gonna put in net. My guess is Miller as Lalime had his 40 minutes of play for the month (and actually did really well) Maybe this time they can actually show up and not sleep through the game a la Sunday.

Not much else to talk about so I will bid you a farewell. Skate on kids!

PSA: This post was spell checked and is glitch free for your convenience and protection.