While it’s impossible to fault Barrasso for not scoring, the plain fact of the matter is that his play-at-the-edge-of-the-crease style cost Ottawa the game again last night.
And the season.
Anyone want to help me start the “Run Tom out of Town on a Rail” committee?
Reading this, I would agree wholeheartedly. But I can’t. Oh well. Must be that maple syrup running through my veins that makes me so incredibly crushed that my team is now out putting, chipping, and driving…
hope springs eternal, but you have to be careful when you play with springs…
(it’s my very own sig! look!)
Let me be the first to make a comment on this series. The Caps got screwed. First the scheduling debacle, then the fact that the referees had a double standard in the game for the caps and Jagr. I’m not denying that Jagr’s an amazing player. However, I do have doubts over whether on a fair field, the Penguins win it over the Caps. Oh well…another summer without hockey in the DC area.
Homepage: www.tiercel.com
Occupation: Culling slow moving vermin
Location: The wild blue yonder.
Interests: Thermals, updrafts, downdrafts, air currents in general.
(Profile by UncleBeer.)
Environment? Nah. Mood lighting and ambience is what counts.
I just had lunch. It was yummy. I usually have lunch at the Avalanche Grill. It’s this burger that I order there. I get it so frequently that they’ve informally named it after me. Mushrooms, bacon, and gorgonzola cheese. Yum.
My point? Well, for that I didn’t have one.
The point is that I eat right next to a window that overlooks the Avs’ practice ice. I spent a good 45 minutes there watching them practice today, while happily munching on my burger.
The Avs look good. They were smiling, and having fun like they seemed to forget how to do over the last year, till Ray Borque came along.
Call me crazy, but I think that they have a decent chance this year. I think they want it, and are really going to put forth the effort.
My predictions haven’t been too good in the East thus far. Who’d have thought a rookie goalie who only played the last third of the season would beat Hasek? Who’d have thought Pavel Bure and Conn Smythe winner Mike Vernon would go in the tank so completely in the first round? Who’d have thought, after the way they finished the regular season, the Capitals wouldn’t handle the Penguins?
(For all of you who actually did expect the above things, please, let me give you a preemptive “shut up.”)
Still thinking my beloved Wings will bring the Cup back where it belongs.
As for tonight’s Game 7, I think it would be great if the Sharks won, but they really had that deer-in-the-headlights look in Game 6, and you can see the Blues stockpiling momentum and confidence. Hoping for some lucky bounces for San Jose tonight …
Detroit News Sports Editor Joe Falls had an interesting point today. (That doesn’t happen all that often.) He’s rooting for the Blues to win, arguing that, for as good as St. Louis is this year, playing them and an inexperienced playoff goalie like Turek is still better than facing Patrick Roy, who, as much as I generally dislike the guy or anything Avalanche, can win a series almost single-handedly at this time of year.
Let Dallas and Colorado beat up on each other for a series before the Wings have to face either one, was Falls’ argument.
Osgood’s playing great; the planets are aligning. The third Cup in four years in Hockeytown is just around the corner …
Final Update from Round 1 (after which I will post my predictions for Round 2)
You know, I watched the game last night, and it was incredible that the Blues simply didn’t show up. A team with that little heart simply deserves not to be in the second round of the playoffs… but that San Jose won is a sign that Somebody out there didn’t want the Blues to win this year.
Looks like Milossarian got his wishes too.
So we have, for MysterEcks, a 5/8 or 62.5% prediction rate. Not bad.
Round two matchups:
Leafs vs Devils–
Leafs in 6. Devils play boring hockey, even worse so than the Sens, and the Leafs love firewagons.
Look for Thomas and Sundin to continue to be hot.
Pittsburgh vs Philadelphia
In this battle of Pennsylvania, look for the run-and-gun Penguins to find a way to win against the surprisingly strong Flyers. I’m guessing 7 games.
Western Conference
Dallas vs San Jose
I think SJ was lucky to make it this far. That being said, as an Ottawa fan, I know Shields is better than most give him credit for. It’ll be a good series, but Dallas in 5.
Detroit vs Colorado
I love the Nordiques, but the Red Things are just that notch above. This is probably the best matchup of the second round. Detroit in 6.
OK… let’s see how bad I’ll do!
hope springs eternal, but you have to be careful when you play with springs…
(it’s my very own sig! look!)
Even though I only did so thru orange-and-black colored glasses, me. I didn’t think they’d do it so convincingly, but then again I didn’t think Buffalo would play with such little enthusiasm other than Hasek.
I’m kinda glad now Buffalo tied Washington on the last day of the regular season to keep Montréal out. That would’ve broken my heart to see the Habs get manhandled by this rejuvenated Flyer team. I was pulling for them all year, only to see them wind up just falling short. Ah well.
Pittsburgh scares me. Tonight’s a good example of why. Tugnutt’s a stud, much to my surprise. Jagr defies explanation. Boucher obviously has to come up bigger, especially with a defense in front of him that rarely allows more than 20 shots. Fortunately the Pens love to carry the puck in, and we won’t have to see Boucher pulling Hextallesque blunders behind the net. But if we’re going anywhere this year other than the golf course, Brian’s going to be a huge part of it–this system of “score first then trap for 50 minutes” sorta requires it.
I like the future of this team in goal, with Oullette and Niitymaki (a Finnish goalie? Who’s actually good? Someone call Jarmo Myllys) coming up in a few short years. Hopefully Boucher gets the chance to act as the veteran for these kids down the road, instead of pulling another decrepit has-been out of the free agent pool and handing him the job.
The Pens going into Philly and shutting the Flyers down 2-0? I’m stunned–in a good way, but stunned. If Tugnutt keeps playing this way, who knows?
The Red Wings also stunned me tonight–they pretty much looked like crap, except for Osgood. Losing the first game on the Avs’ ice isn’t a disaster, but the Wings better get their act together shortly.
Toronto and New Jersey looked about as I expected. That should be a good series.
Should be interesting to see the Stars and Sharks tomorrow–potentially flat v. potentially tired.
Wow, I knew the Av’s were going to play a good series, but I was expecting the Red Wings to put up more of a fight than this! 1 goal in two games? And that 1 goal is a fluke off of the boards? Woo hoo Go Av’s!
The Red Wings played well enough tonight that writing them off may be premature (Avs fans should remember last year, when the Avs were being written off after two games). The Maple Leafs played poorly enough that writing them off may NOT be premature.
The current goals-per-game averages break down to this, not counting empty-netters:
There have only been two teams that have scored more than one goal in more than one game–the Pens and the Avs. There are some good goaltenders in these series, but it still seems to me that this is unusually low scoring.
Yes, the goaltending this cup is pretty phat. Makes got absolutely wonderful games. The points per game is a little low, but the defence on these teams are damn good too. All in all its going to be a good run to the cup
I think I’m willing to declare the Red Wings dead now. I don’t see them coming back from 3-1. So unless something odd happens, it should be an Avs/Stars Final in the West.
I don’t have the slightest idea about the East, though. The Devils have outplayed the Leafs in three games, but the series is tied 2-2 and Toronto has home ice for the last three. This looks like the best bet to go seven.
As for the Pens and Flyers, I think the winner of Game 4 tonight will take the series. I hope I’m wrong, but I suspect it’ll be the Flyers.
Those of you who are Detroit fans may begin making your appointments at the local golf courses, get out the summer clothes, and put the marine life away, you wont need it again.
Sigh. Looks like I’ll have a lot more time on my hands the next month-and-a-half.
Far be it for me to question Scotty Bowman - the hockey equivalent of Cecil Adams - but it got a bit frustrating watching the Avs playing 20-year-old rookies and young second-year players in key situations all the time, while Bowman kept his best young players up in the press box (until he finally got a clue and at least put Aaron Ward back in the lineup for some toughness at the blue line).
Go back to any highlight goal Colorado had in this series and, instead of focusing on the Avs player, look at whatever Wing was in the general vicinity, tepidly giving him an insigificant shove or doing nothing at all. You’ll be seeing a lot of Larry Murphy, Igor Larionov and many of the other Wings’ geriatrics.
Bowman’s so big on having experienced players out there, but the Wings were a skate stride slow to just about every loose puck in this entire series.
Fellow Wing nuts, I think we are looking at a major overhaul of this team. It’s high-salary, veteran-loaded and designed to win the Cup, and they haven’t made the conference finals two straight years.
I almost never try to predict the number of games a series will take–too many variables. Good call.
Good thing for the Stars, too. I expect them to win the series with Colorado, but the last thing they needed was the Sharks forcing a Game 6…or, worse, a Game 7.
I have to favor New Jersey to finish off Toronto tomorrow…but then I didn’t expect the Leafs to win Game 4 in Jersey, either.
As for the Penguins, they are kaput–I predicted in another thread that they would fold up like a card table after losing that 5-OT game, and I wasn’t wrong. I expect Philly to finish them on Tuesday–the Pens don’t have the character it takes to come back after losing three straight, and the fact Luke Richardson isn’t in traction right now proves it.
OK
I’m a loser.
And a hoser.
It looks for sure that I’m at a 25% prediction clip for this round. But whoda thunk the Leafs would have stunk so bad this round?
