Leafs over Flyers in 6 Lightning over the Habs in 6 Flames over the Wings in 6 Sharks over the Avalanche in 6 Simple predictions yes, but hot goalies beat good scoring.
Philadelphia over Toronto in 6 Tampa Bay over Montreal in 7 Detroit over Calgary in 7 Colorado over San Jose in 6
TO over Philthy in 7 TB over Habs in 5 Sharks over Avs in 6 Wings over Flameouts in 5 This is the year the Sharks finally get past the Avalanche in a playoff series...(Avs won in '02, 4-3, and in '00, 4-2). The Sharks were by far the NHL's highest scoring first period team, and the Avs weren't so hot at the comebacks, so if SJ can take the game to Colorado early, they should do alright. However, the Sharks also have a lot of youngsters who sometimes play against the Avs like they want Sakic's autograph, so we'll have to see what happens.
Leafs in 7. Lightning in 6. Wings in 5. Avalanche in 6. My predictions. I'm going by the formbook as I'm relatively new to Hockey.
The quick run-down from the night's action: Flames beat Wings in OT in Game 1 at the Joe - Holy Cow(town)! Flyers drub TO... Rest was the factor for Philly? Sharks rout the Avs... Rough stuff at the end - but a definite message sent.
Missed that game. Is Nolan back for Toronto yet? How 'bout Sundin? Yep, the message being: Matt Barnaby's a ****** punk. First helping Boughner double-team Brad Stuart, then jumping on Mark Smith's back. Great to see Smitty tag him a few times. I really doubt the Avs intimidated the Sharks with that display. Another message: Aebischer ain't Roy. Oh, and great to see the floater Selanne continue his nothing season. Considering he's the prime reason SJ didn't get past the Avs a couple years ago (missing an empty-netter in a 1-0 game 7 loss), I hope he continues that tradition for Colorado.
Nope neither played last night. Yeah, I guess that was probably one of the key factors also... Absolutely. I'd love to see the Finnish Flash-in-the-pan never get his name on the Cup.
Not that it will matter much since they'll be done by game 5. The only way I see them having a chance is if Ed gets crazy hot and we lose another couple of def. players.
I don't disagree. Especially now that the T.O papers are saying that Sundin is out for the series. All these injuries at the worst time of the season...It's just like 2001 all over again. I can't say that I couldn't see it coming though...What is the Buds average age? 55? 60? That said...If Eddie steals game two....
The star-studded Colorado Avalanche down 3-0 to the San Jose Sharks? Yeah right. And monkeys might fly out of my butt. AGHHHH!!! What the hell was that?!!!!
RE: Colorado Too many changes, too late in the season. Oh, and that Roy guy is gone now too. That probably is a factor in the team's poor play as compared to past years. So far, the second round is a bust. Toronto/Philly game two and Calgary/Detroit game one have been the only decent games. If T.O can win game three that series could get real good. If not... Montreal looks lost. I can't see the Habs coming back. Colorado....well when was the last time a team can back from 0-3? Exactly (although, with the parity that exists right now, I think it will happen again sooner rather than later). I think Calgary stole their game already. On the up note, if all these series end quickly, it should make for a he!! of a third round.
Tampa might be stronger, faster and more talented than Montreal, but can they swear in French? Non tabarnac.
Well, the Habs are at another make-or-break point in the cauldron that is the Bell Centre. Here's to 25 Cups!
Aebischer's no Roy, and never will be, but he's still a pretty good NHL goalie. The Avs are just getting older, plain and simple. Everyone was handing them the freaking cup "on paper" before the season started, and who could've expected they'd not really get anything from Kariya and Selanne? Forsberg's also a shadow of his former self, at least in this series. And he's acting like Tkachuk did last series, letting his little meltdowns get to his head. It's happened twice, most recently in 1975 when the Islanders came back against the Penguins. The only other time was 1942, when the Leafs came back on the Wings. (source: today's SJ Mercury News) Another interesting tidbit (this from yesterday's Merc) is that SJ-COL is only the third playoff series in NHL history that matches up two American coaches. The others were 1991 (Bob Johnson's Pittsburgh v. Mike Milbury's Boston) and 1999 (Robbie Ftorek's Devils v. Kevin Constantine's Penguins). This year's finals could potentially be the fourth series, if SJ and TB wind up making it all the way. I really hope that's what happens, for two reasons. First, the Sharks are really banged up and need the rest (hopefully, Detroit-Calgary will go seven). SJ went into the playoffs knowing Sturm was out for the year, but Thornton, Ricci, Ekman and McCauley have all been injured to various degrees in the playoffs. Second, the Quakes have a 1 PM game on national TV Saturday live from Spartan, and they will likely get more of a walkup crowd for the match if people don't have to debate whether to stay home and watch the Sharks (game 5 would be Sat. at noon also in SJ).
God love the Calgary Flames! At the start of the round, I doubt that anyone would have predicted that the Canadian teams would only have two wins in eight games; and that the Flames would have both!! He!!, maybe they can pull it off.... Imagine a Tampa, Philly, Calgary, San Jose final four. You probably could have gotten some good odds on that at the start of the season. That said, Detroit ain't dead yet methinks. I'd like to think that the Leafs aren't either, but I'm reserving judgement on that until tomorrow night.
Well the Avs live to fight another day... but not for lack of effort on San Jose's part. Still if the Sharks can't close out this thing Saturday, it might be time to sweat a bit in Sanazay... And I was hoping to follow up that big USA-Mexico match with a Sharks win...
Whereas only two teams have ever come back from 0-3, quite a few have done so from 1-3 (especially in the last ten years). A whole lot have come back from 2-3. You have to put a team down when you have the chance. I'm sure the Sharks will be sweating (and remembering the last time they played the Avs)if they let Colorado win another. On another note...The more I watch Toronto/Philly the more I realize just how good Ottawa was. Toronto looked like a pee wee team (with a very, very good goalie) for most of the first round; the Leafs have arguably outplayed the Flyers in round two. Getting rid of Martin and his negative style might just be what the doctor ordered in Ottawa. he was the right coach for the Sens when the Sens were horrible, I don't know if he is the right guy to take them to the championship level. If the right guy is behind the bench and Lalime meets a really good psychologist (or leaves town) the Sens could go all thew way next year. If there is a next year (which is a whole other conversation).
I'll worry a lot more if the Sharks blow it Saturday. I was cracking up listening to Drew Remenda (former Sharks asst. coach, current TV color guy) on KNBR the other day. He was going ballistic about how the hockey media kept acting surprised the Sharks were up 3-0, and calling it an "upset", yada, yada, yada. FWiW, the Avs winning the series from down 3-0 when they're the lower seeded team would actually be the "upset." Here's a pretty funny rundown of the Sharks/Avs series from the Divealanche site (parody site obviously done by Wings fans): http://www.divealanche.com/04_dives_sharks.html I love the catch phrase for that site: "Avs fans...born on third base, but they act like they hit a triple." So true.
Well they outplayed the Flyers in the last game but it would be hard to argue that they should have won the first two. The first was really a bit of a romp and the second was close but still the Flyers controlled much of the play and were unfortunate to have it stay so close. That third game however was awful. We'll just have to see how the next one goes.
i can't believe i'm saying this and i don't know why i'm compelled to share it, but i kinda hope the sharks go on to win this thing - i could take philly as champs as well, be nice to see handzus get a ring