Ugh. Sorry, we beat you all in a Cup. That'd be like me rooting for the Phillies now that they have Roy Halladay. I can't do it.

:)

I might go with the Preds. They'll probably lose in the first round and that's familiar and plus, I hate the southern expansion but if Bettman didn't give them a team they'd have taken mine, so...I sort of hate them and glad they're not the Nashville Devils all at the same time.

I'd go with the Thunderleafs, but...I try not to root in-conference.

1st ROUND WEST
Vancouver vs Chicago >>> Vancover
San Jose vs Los Angeles >>> San Jose
Detroit vs Phoenix >>> 3. Detroit
Anaheim vs Nashville >>> 5. Anaheim

1st ROUND EAST
Washington vs New York >>> Washington
Philadelphia vs Buffalo >>> Philly
Boston vs Montreal >>> Boston
Pittsburgh vs Tampa Bay >>> Tamp Bay

2nd ROUND WEST
Vancouver vs Anaheim >>> Vancouver:
San Jose vs Detroit >>> San Jose

2nd ROUND EAST
Washington vs Tampa >>> Washington
Boston vs Philly >>> Boston

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Vancouver vs San Jose >>> San Jose

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS
Washington vs Boston >>> Washington

STANLEY CUP FINALS
San Jose vs Washington >>> San Jose

I hope the Penguins lose quickly. All of the fairweather bandwagon jumpers are coming out of the woodwork. Nope, you're not going to convince me to like hockey.

So this year the Pens are making their fans pay for their "official" white out shirt. Since I doubt most won't go and but them. It prompted my friend to say today..."Isn't it going to be cool to see all the white in the crowd sprinkled with some black jerseys and the blue jerseys...it's going to be just like a Tampa Bay home game since those are their colors"

F Stamkos, TB 11.5
F H. Sedin, VAN 11.6
F D. Sedin, VAN 11.8
F Lecavalier, TB 8.4
F Hartnell, PHI 6.5
F Bergeron, BOS 7.1
F van Riemsdyk, PHI 6.1
F Dupuis, PIT 5.9
F Recchi, BOS 7.2
F Stafford, BUF 8.7
---------------------------
84.8 points

D Gragnani, BUF 4.5
D Campbell, CHI 6.2
D Timonen, PHI 6.1
D Clark, TB 6.0
----------------------------
22.8 points

G Luongo, VAN 16.9
G Miller, BUF 15.5
----------------------------
32.4 points

I think you are to take one player from each team...you have teams in there more than once.

If Stamkos was hurt coming into the playoffs...having Brooks Orpik destroy him on the first shift certainly didn't help matters.

Why is the ice in Detroit yellow?

He was welcoming him.

Dude I had a chuckle at Errey calling Talbot going down easy a "veteran move"...yet if someone were to do that on the other team, he'd be whining for a dive.

Is it that bad?

You are forgetting the gold Steelers t-shirts. By law, at least 20% of Pittsburghers in any one location must wear Steelers gear.

I love Errey. He's a goof...but he's our goof damn it!

Steigy...not so much

Stupid penalty by Malone. Too bad Pens PP sucks

Probably will not work, trying to embed from my phone.

Just got home and haven't looked up any of the scores... hope I'm still good for this

F Tomas Plekanec, MTL 8.6
F Vincent Lecavalier, TB 8.4
F Ben Smith, Chi 5.0
F Tomas Holmstrom, Det 6.0
F Jeff Carter, Phi 10.5
F Joe Thornton, SJ 8.8
F Jason Pominville, Buf 7.1
F Chris Kunitz, Pit 8.5
F Alex Ovechkin, WSH 10.9
F Dustin Brown, LA 7.0
Forwards total: 80.8

D Tomas Kaberle, Bos 7.5
D Michal Rozsival, PHX 5.7
D Francois Beauchemin,ANA 5.4
D Shea Weber, Nsh 7.7
Defense Total: 26.3

G Roberto Luongo, Van 16.9
G Antti Niemi, SJ 16.0
Goalies Total: 32.9

Team Total: 140
Remaining 0

DOLA - looks like none of my players have any points so far, so that's good

Whoa, dude, it's just one year.

I miss seeing Marty giving up beach ball goals like last year ;)

Penguins score twice in 18 seconds - Kovalev and Asham

Western PA is a ignorant fan fair-weather Wagon jumping paradise. I need to move the fuck away again. You should listen to the sports radio.

I wonder how many teeth St. Louis lost when he took that slash to the mouth.

To answer my own question, St Louis had two fractured teeth and had to have a double root canal last night.

It's his own fault for being so short!

Additional view of Orpik on Stamkos, with slow motion.

Last night was tough.

Slight problem, as you have two SJ players and 0 NYR players

I'll still include you, but I switched Joe Thornton to Logan Couture and added Lundqvist as your goaile.

However, if you'd rather have Niemi and maybe Dubinsky as your forward, let me know. Thanks!

LETS GO SABRES!!!!!

During the Pens Cup run 2 years ago, a hotel bar across the street from the arena was making Angry Malkins = Pepper Vodka and hot sauce.

During the intermission, TSN had Kerry Fraser on to explain that the referee should have called a major penalty, that intent isn't a factor in stick fouls, and that there was no excuse more missing a play that happened right in front of you even if it's the playoffs.

I mean, I don't want to sound paranoid, but it's fair to assume that entire segment was done just to piss me off, right?

I have created a Google Docs spreadsheet for the Fantasy Hockey Scoring:

Fantasy Hockey Standings

Thanks to Mike Fisher's 3 point night and Fleury's shutout, HB has the early lead with 10 points.

Nice work on the spreadsheet, thanks.

Anyone down for making this a little interesting? I know it's after the fact so no obligation...but if I come in last, I'll buy the winner a team-specific tshirt of their choice.

Thought this was a great X's and O's breakdown of what Pittsburgh does, Tampa's counter, and Pittsburgh's re-counter (?)

Pittsburgh-Tampa Preview: Penguins have utilized rule tweak to terrorize Lightning defense | The Hockey Writers

That's from Bryzgalov wetting himself in the second period.

Doh... that's what I get for rushing. Yes please, if it's not too late I'll stick with Niemi and take Dubinsky instead. Otherwise the first way is fine too.

No problem, I've changed it in the spreadsheet above.

I like how it's called the "AGH Cam", very appropriate as that is exactly what Stamkos was saying as it happened. "AAAAAGGHHHH!"

Excellent

Looks like its time for us Winnipegers to put up or shut up: True North expected to trigger campaign for NHL season tickets - Winnipeg Free Press

I know I'm in.

I don't see the NHL coming back to Winnipeg. Never mind the arena needs an extra 2,500-3,500 more seats.

Dear NHL, why have a rulebook if you don't use it? Or if you do use it, make sure the actions warrants the call. Thanks.

Nice of the Bruins to show up tonight.

Bruins game tonight made no sense... you have this huge size advantage, so you should definitely spend the whole game not going to the net and trying to finesse the perfect shot.

Also what a stupid, selfish penalty by Chara. 2 goals down with 3 minutes left in the first game of the series, the perfect time to take a pointless roughing minor for absolutely no reason and make sure you don't get any shot at getting back into it.

Sharks - Kings game getting interesting, going to be a great series.

I am quickly reminded of why I love this time of year. I don't really have a preference between the Kings and Sharks, but it's a playoff game in overtime. I'm all in. I'm in the Eastern time zone, and I'll still watch a west coast overtime game until it's over. They could play 4 overtimes and keep me awake until 3:00am, and I won't complain. I love the playoffs.

I fell asleep during OT...I suck.

The Pacioretty incident, last night, and a handful of other incidents. It seems like when the game is pretty much decided, Chara can't control his emotions. I understand guys get frustrated, but he rarely does these things in-game.

At least with someone like Matt Cooke, he's an idiot all the time. You know what you are getting.



It's early, but I'll admit I was wrong on this one. I thought the Sharks would roll in this series.

I'm annoyed that it looks like Tortorella won't make any lineup changes for game 2 besides some possible shuffling of the lines. Avery needs to play and Zuccarello should be out.

Apologies to Torts...Avery in for Zucc.

Aside from the arena (which I feel is fine as configured, frankly, but rumours do exist that engineers are exploring expansion possibilities), what are your other reasons for Winnipeg not getting a team? Are they all out-dated preconceptions of an environment that has changed dramatically since 1996?

Also, as of today the TSN Jets Meter has crossed into "Drop the Puck" territory for the first time: http://tsn.ca/nhl/jetsmeter/

This is happening.

Go Jets Go!

I'm just not buying the hoopla over Phoenix moving back. The NHL brass will do all they can to keep them in Phoenix.

I haven't believed it in the past either, and certainly Bettman can still pull a rabbit out of his hat, but I think this is about as close as it can get without actually happening.

Keep in mind there is the Atlanta situation as well. One of our local journalists has speculated that the NHL would really like to keep the coyotes in Phoenix mostly because they want to have Winnipeg as the Atlanta fallback. If Phoenix comes to Winnipeg and no one steps up in Atlanta, the NHL is a bit stuck trying to find a situation they can drop the Thrashers into immediately.