- Jarome Iginla (pictured), as you heard (and he heard, did he ever) has been getting a lot of chirping in the Calgary-Chicago matchup, which will become a main storyline if Mike Keenan has his way.
It comes with the territory for Iginla. TSN's Pierre McGuire said during Game 3 he'd never seen a veteran player take such a "verbal abusing." Hockey Night in Canada's Scott Morrison, a notorious lapdog, raised the spectre of racial abuse, although to be fair, people probably were wondering. Meanwhile, stuff happening after the whistle (the Adam Burish cross-check on Rene Bourque; no suspension) is more of a story than what's happened between whistles, c'est la vie. - Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, think they do a NBA-style leap at centre ice if Washington ties their series vs. the New York Rangers?
- Just for fun, tell the Senators fans in your life that they lost that Swede, Karlsson. It's technically true. Mattias Karlsson (not Erik, the first-round draft choice who will be awesome some day), a farmhand, has apparently signed with Timra in the Swedish Elite League. Your guess is good as any if that's a big loss. The Sens needed D like a hole in the head this season, but the call never went out for him.
Series going tonight:
Boston leads Montreal 3-0 — The upshot of Canadiens fans booing The Star-Spangled Banner is that Bruins fans won't have a chance to reciprocate, since there will be no Game 5.
It's a what-are-you-gonna-do. The sports-industrial complex will never give up playing the national anthems before games. This world has more than a few morons.
The sooner the Habs are gone, the better, really. It's too late to go Taibbi on the insufferable Canadiens fanbase, so let's leave it there. A four-game sweep vs. a historic rival is a nice epilogue for their gong show of a centennial season. The Bruins look like a Cup favourite.
New York leads Washington 2-1 — A gut feeling says the Caps come back.
Chicago leads Calgary 2-1 — The Blackhawks have put out a Canada-wide warrant for their offensive defenceman, Brian Campbell (one assist so far in the series).
Who what all played yesterday:
Vancouver sweeps St. Louis 4-0 — Captain Lou, Roberto Luongo, had a great answer when CBC's Scott Oake asked him if this was the best he had ever played: "I'll have an answer for you in a few weeks," the Canucks goaltender said.
The Canucks, whom Gabriel Desjardins deemed to have a reasonable shot at going to the finals, TCB'd pretty well by sweeping St. Louis. The Blues looked like they were just happy to keep it close in each game
Anaheim leads San Jose 2-1 — The floor is open to any theories that the Ducks might be fading. Goalie Jonas Hiller didn't have the same rebound control in last night's 4-3 Sharks win, while the Corey Perry-Ryan Getzlaf line was sucking wind pretty hard by the endgame.
Perry has no goals in the series so far.
Just as the best trades are the ones you don't make, the best posts are the ones you slough off writing because you're so self-hating (a bit of a projection). San Jose's defensive anchors, Rob Blake and Dan Boyle looked kind of rough during the first two games in San Jose, which the Sharks lost. Blake scored the first Sharks goal last night, Boyle got the next two and both had assists on captain Patrick Marleau's game-winner. In the words of Kitty Forman, "Oh, you've got to shut up."
Pittsburgh leads Philadelphia 3-1 — That 45-save effort by Marc-Andre Fleury in the Penguins' win last night might embody the best hope of blocking Boston's route to the final. The proud fans of Bruins Nation are not to be denied.
Detroit leads Columbus 3-0 — Paraphrasing Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny, "I got no more use for this series." The Red Wings have experience, offensive firepower, and a lot of other stuff.
Apologies for not being more regular with playoff posts, it's kind of been a rough week.
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2 comments:
St. Louis would look like a cup contender against the Habs. And this comes from a life-long Habs fan. It's time to put my head back in that paper bag.
One theory about the Habs demise is the huge number of pending free agents they have. Ten players, half the team, are slated to be UFAs on July 1, and of course most know they won't be back. It must be hard to build a cohesive dressing room under those circumstances.
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