NHL: The Stretch Drive (March/April 2010)

The Game Room
101

So I went and saw the Kings vs Ducks game. The game kind of sucked but it was a lot of fun. The Kings got a 1-0 lead at the end of the first period and held on to it until the very end of the 3rd when the Ducks scored and forced them to overtime. Koivu got the one and only goal in the shootout and won the game. The Kings were playing really bad all throughout the game. Lots of risky cross ice passes in their own zone, two of which got intercepted. Plenty of other passes that wouldn’t connect, players falling down for no reason, mishandling or overlooking the puck, etc.

I’ve been to about 5 games this year and I finally saw a fight. Ivanans was involved I think and he kicked the Ducks ass. :slight_smile:

Oh, also, of those 5 games I’ve been too, I think 4 of them have gone to overtime. 3 of those to shootout.

Since Anaheim is only about an hour away, there’s a huge rivalry going and that made it a bit fun. The Ducks had two penalties during the game and as they were sitting down in the penalty box, we got to see some videos of them doing stupid things. The first one was of the player putting on lipstick with a mirror, and the second one was of the player reading a Dr. Suess book.

Another video involved Eric Cartman in a “Kick A Duck” clip.

In a grand gesture of friendship, our mascot took the Duck’s mascot to a tanning salon and paid for his tan. Once in there, he flipped the tanning booths dial to “fry.” Four hours later, out came a fried chicken (looked smaller than a duck). Right after that, our mascot was in the stands with an actual cooked chicken and people were tearing chunks out of it.

Lots of funny signs were brought in by the fans too. My favorite was of two friends, one wearing a Ducks shirt, and the other with an “I’m with stupid,” sign.

A drunk guy almost made me spill two plates of nachos and a beer.

After the game, a group of guys were yelling at Ducks fans.

That’s all. How much do playoff tickets usually end up getting inflated? I wouldn’t mind seeing another game this year.

102

Congratulations to the Washington Capitals, who have clinched the President’s Trophy as the team with the best record in the regular season for the first time in their history.

And also a tip of the hat to the Los Angeles Kings. With Calgary’s loss to Chicago, the Kings have clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2001-02, when they came back from a 3-1 deficit against Colorado in the first round to force a seventh game, although they came up short.

103

Habs didn’t quite lock up a playoff spot, losing to the Isles in a shootout. We’ve got Carolina and Toronto to wrap it up, all we need is one point; or for the Rangers to not win the rest of their games.

104

If Toronto beats the Rangers tonight, in regulation or OT/SO, the Habs are in. If the Rangers lose in regulation, the Flyers are in as well. I am having so much trouble convincing myself to cheer for the Laffs. I kind of like Gustavsson, though, because he’s had a tough time of it, so maybe I’ll just cheer for him, and not the rest of the team? Problem is, I also like Lundqvist…

And as I type this, 21 seconds into the game, the Rangers score.

105

Ugh. I cheered for the Leafs all last week, because they played the Bruins, Flyers and Rangers consecutively. Of course, they lost all of 'em. Do they really want Boston to get the second overall pick?

Oh well. All we need is one point against Carolina tonight.

106

Toronto wants Boston to get the second pick so they can hope Hall/Seguin is a bust and therefore claim their multi-year rebuilding plan is a success and have another rebuilding year next year! Their current streak of missing the playoffs is a franchise record, and since it’s the only record they’re setting at the moment, they figure they might as well keep at it.

107

One of the great “power forwads” in NHL history, Keith Tkachuk, has announced that he will retire at the end of the year.

108

This story is just… odd.

109

Goodnight, Sweet Igloo :frowning:

Penguins close out regular season at Mellon Arena

110

Double ugh. The Habs lose 5-2 to Carolina when all they needed to do to make the playoffs was take the game into overtime. The Sabres didn’t help our cause by losing to Boston 3-1.

Still, thanks to the quirk of the Rangers and Philly closing out their seasons with a home-and-home against one another, a perfect shitstorm has to happen for Montreal not to make it. It has to happen like this:

  1. The Habs lose to Toronto in regulation.
  2. The Bruins have to get one point from either Carolina on Saturday, or Washington on Sunday.
  3. The Rangers have to beat the Flyers in both ends of their home-and-home, on Friday and Sunday.
    3a. One of the Rangers wins has to come in overtime or the shootout.
111

The Sharks beat the tar out of the Canuks last night, looking pretty sharp while doing so.

Then the third period started and the “fun” began. At one point there were six Sharks in the penalty box (two players, lower on the seniority list, had to stand) and one more sent to the locker room with a misconduct. It reminded me of the season-closing game at Dallas a few years ago when Joe Thornton pummeled Steve Ott into being humble.
Still, as fun as the chaos was to watch, the loss of composure cost them two goals and Nabby’s shutout. He’s regained his form, and things look good heading into the playoffs.

112

Well after the crappy start, the late streak by Detroit has them still with a good chance for 100 points. Yeah it means a lot less these days with the point for overtime loss and all the three point games that result, but its still good to keep it up.

113

Mnemosyne and I can exhale now. The Habs and Leafs are about to go to overtime, which means that Montreal is in, no matter what.

Should be a most excellent Flyers/Rangers game tomorrow in Philly. The winner is in, the loser is out, and the OT loss point won’t help either team.

114

Giguère was insane - that should have been a blowout by the Habs. I’ll probably catch the game tomorrow; I’ll be rooting for New York because the Flyers are hicks with mullets.

115

You should be rooting for New York because if Philly wins, then you draw Washington.

116

Oddly, of the three teams we can possibly meet (Wsh, NJ and Pit), we were most successful against Washington, with two wins (one of them in overtime) and a shootout loss in four meetings. We were 1-3 against the Penguins and 1-2-1 against New Jersey.

I don’t place a great deal of stock in season series results; the ebb and flow of a season being what it is, the Caps could have won (or lost) all four games if they were played at different times of the year.

Still, it’s not as though Montreal hasn’t shown that they can’t play even up against the President’s Trophy winners.

117

You can’t possibly meet Pittsburgh; they’re locked into the 4th seed. You could play Buffalo.

118

Yes, that’s right :smack:

I realized that not long after I typed that; I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, because I listened to the HNIC guys talking about Ottawa playing Pittsburgh again for the third time in four years.

Against Buffalo we were 2-3-1.

119

I hope Henrik Sedin wins the scoring title… he is up on Ovechkin by 3 points as of tonight (that pass to Daniel for the hatrick was amazing, only eclipsed by Daniels goal itself) but Ovie plays Sunday morning vs. Boston and a 3 point lead can’t be considered safe against # 8. H. Sedin deserves the Hart in my opinion, but only by the standards the Hart is given out usually… the actual MVP, the player judged to be “most valuable” to his team, i’d give to either Bryzgalov or Anderson… maybe Miller, hell even Kipprusoff who has had a great year despite the Flames lack of scoring. Goalies all and I usually don’t like goalies getting it.

120

The Sharks barely beat out the impressive Coyotes in a shootout for their last game of the regular season, leaving their playoff seeding and opponent to Sunday’s games.
I hope the Blackhawks lose to the Redwings, leaving the Sharks as Western champs, but regardless of seeding, I think my boys will do well. I predict strong playoff performances from Ryan Clowe, Joe Pavelski, and rookie Logan Couture.