Jacques Martin is outcoaching Boudreau in the series. It's a shame thought, I still don't believe that the Habs can win it, they let 54 shots against, that's not right.
To be fair, anyone who says that they thought Montreal would pull it to game 7, let alone win it, and didn't write it out beforehand is a dirty liar. I had Caps in 5 and I thought I was giving the Habs too much credit.
So, I'm scrambling to buy tickets to game 3 of Pens Canadiens. Any suggestions of a place to look other than ebay? EDIT: Preferably single seat too, I'm up and going on my own. Everything on ebay is a pair.
I'd rep this, but figured it'd serve other people well too. I bought two tickets for a Kiss concert off ClickItTicket.com and had no trouble at all. I was e-mailed the page Ticketmaster gives you to print off, so I got the tickets within a few hours of buying them. This enables you to buy tickets for same-day events. I'd assume they'd be just as easy to deal with for sporting events. Edit: They don't have any tickets for Game 3 yet, but they've got plenty for Game 4.
Game 3 tickets are selling online on Saturday May 1st. I'm in disbelief that the Canadiens won. Suck it Ovechkin, you cocky son of a bitch. Suck it Boudreau for calling out Lapierre as a diver, he maybe a yapper, he doesn't dive though. Suck it Green for being cocky enough to predict how you'll play "against Pittsburgh in the playoffs". Bring on the depthless Penguins. BTW, I predicted Habs in 6.
After the series I just saw out of Montreal, Pens in 5. DON'T FORGET TO UPDATE YOUR POOL PICKS BY TOMORROW
Hahahaha. I have never been so excited to see a team win that wasn't my own. It was even sweeter listening to DC sports talk radio on my drive to Pittsburgh. There's a lot to say about why Washington lost, but I think right now a lot of it is reactionary. For example, Mike Green is poor on defense and I enjoyed texting my friend the word "Norris" after both goals tonight. But I wouldn't trade him. They need an offensive defenseman, especially to run the point during the powerplay. I feel they need a lockdown D-man though. He doesn't have to be as marquee as Chara or Pronger, but someone like Rob Scudieri. Beyond that, none of their role players showed up. Backstrom and Ovechkin can't do everything. They had 7 guys with 20 goals in the regular season. Part of it has to be coaching though. Boudreau and the Capitals have had 4 straight playoff series go to 7 games now, winning only 1. Also, props to Hal Gill. I'm actually a pretty big critic of his, but he play incredibly well against Washington. Tons of blocked shots, disrupting the shooting lanes, blocking passes, and even snagging himself an assist. He was only +1 for the series, but considering that's tied for highest of anyone on the Canadians' roster, I'd say that's pretty good. So my first round picks I was off on 2 series, both of which being the 1 vs 8. New predictions for round 2: Pittsburgh over Montreal Philly over Boston Detroit over San Jose Vancouver over Chicago (least confident about this one) And as for our fantasy league, I'm actually pretty happy to be in the middle of the pack at this point. The Capitals anemic offense and Duncan Keith having his head up his ass really hurt me.
All I can say is that after cheering against Montreal for the whole series, I will now be cheering for them to do the same thing they did to the Caps, except in less time and with much more humiliation. If Halak can continue his complete ownership of the net and they play with the same intensity and intelligence they hit Washington with, I think they'll surprise the hell out of the Pens. Here's hoping, anyway. PS: President's Trophy< Stanley Cup. You hear that, Caps?! PPS: Mike Green, I will fucking stab you.
After 20 years, you kinda just get used to it. DC sports fuckin sucks. This loss just caps off the WORST year in HISTORY.
Well I was bang on in the west, so I'm sticking with my original predictions for the second round. 1. San Jose vs. 5. Detroit 2. Chicago vs. 3. Vancouver This is where the Sharks will falter. Better than previous years, but not as good as they should be doing. Last year Chicago took out Vancouver in the second round, but this year the Canucks have 3 lines scoring, and Chicago doesn't have a proven, consistent goalie anymore. Woops. I guess the reason I missed this so badly was not watching enough east coast hockey this year. I still don't watch enough out of market hockey and gotta get on that next year. Just seeing the standings, and watching Montreal, Philly and Boston all get into the playoffs essentially because they sucked less than the others didn't inspire much confidence in upsets to me. 4. Pittsburgh vs. 8. Montreal 6. Boston vs 7. Philadelphia Savard is back, so that'll help Boston's cause, but NJ's offense couldn't get anything going against Philly. I know that's saying more about Jersey's offense, but I just don't see Savard and Bergeron doing more damage than Kovalchuk, Parise and Zajac. I'd love to see Montreal take out Pittsburgh, but I don't see Halak keeping up this insane pace for much longer. He might steal a game or two but there's no chance of them taking the whole series.
West 1. San Jose vs. 5. Detroit (7) Well my office pool picks originally had this as San Jose over Phoenix, but though the team's are different I think San Jose picks up their game and takes Detroit. Yes, I honestly thought Phoenix was going to take Detroit in 7. 2. Chicago vs. 3. Vancouver (5) As long as the Canucks come out to play 60 minutes every game I think they're the better team this year. You can get away with sitting out 20-30 against the Kings but if (if?) Chicago parks Byfuglien (yes I had to look up the spelling, so did you you liars) in front of the net for the series, playing 1/2 a game isn't going to cut it. I think this is going to be the most fun series to watch. After last year these teams will be coming hard at each other. This one is likely to come down to special teams seeing as there's going to be at least one player in the box at all times for most of this series. Side note, the worst part of this series is going to be anytime the Hawks score at home. I hate that shitty song they play. That song alone is enough for me to hate the franchise. East 4. Pittsburgh vs. 8. Montreal (5) Shot blocking and goaltending, oh my. Montreal has a better team than I gave them credit for in the first round, but they still spent the majority of that series on the ropes. Even while they were a goal or 2 up it always seemed like it was just a matter of time. Rope-a-dope only works in boxing. In hockey the offensive team starts getting some of the lucky bounces. 6. Boston vs 7. Philadelphia (6) Haven't seen a lot of these teams this year and never expected either of them to be here right now. Hooray for guessing. In the end I still think we see a Sharks-Pens Final. Went 1 for 4 in the east this year. Need to pay more attention next year, though I think I would've made the same picks if I had.
I'm not exactly sure how to articulate. It goes against my usual logic of looking at the results of the regular season head-to-head (tied 2-2 with Boston losing one on a shootout and winning one in OT). I just feel that Philly controlled the series against New Jersey and I like the way they're playing. Boston looked rather ho-hum to me, and I thought they played mediocre with Buffalo playing just worse than them in order for Boston to win. Even with their injuries, I still think Philly's playing a level above Boston.
SJ over Detroit in 6 Vancouver over Chicago in 7 Pittsburgh over Montreal in 5 Boston over Philly in 6