Just some assorted ruminations:

Now that the NHL playoffs are down to two series, Jim Hughson is no longer calling the games, and that's too bad. In Canada, CBC is using their usual team of Bob Cole and Harry Neale, and TSN has moved back to Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire, as Chris Cuthbert's services will no longer be necessary for The Sports Network this season. Now, I do enjoy listening to Gord Miller, but Pierre McGuire makes me want to beat my head off things; on the CBC side, I used to love hearing Bob Cole every Saturday night, but bless his heart, he just doesn't have it anymore. Miller and Neale would be a decent tandem, but that just won't happen. This is rather inconsequential in terms of the game of hockey itself; it just irks me that I need to tune out half of the commentary in order to keep my sanity.

Update (2006-05-24): It turns out that CBC is indeed carrying some of the Eastern Conference Final, so the duo of Hughson and Greg Millen is still getting some work.

At the World Championships in Riga, Latvia, Canada skated to another fourth-place finish. Is it just me, or are Canadian men just not fans of bronze-medal games? They were slaughtered 5-0 by the Finns, and if you'll remember all the way back to 1998 in Nagano, they put in another lacklustre performance - again, against Finland. Now, maybe these seem like very separate occurrences, or maybe you could even say that Team Finland really shows up to battle for that third spot, but it seems like after the Canadians are out of gold medal contention, they always roll over and die. Just my two cents.

Back to the NHL, it's really been a strange second season so far, one made possible by the salary cap. Rather than the usual formula of at least one top team in the Cup finals, it's entirely possible that there could be two Cinderellas at the ball. Sure, the Hurricanes played a very good season and finished second in the Eastern Conference, but I'm not sure anyone's ever seen them as a juggernaut. Maybe that's because not many people have ever taken the 'Canes seriously anyway, or because they played 32 of their 82 games against the East's weakest division, but
the bottom line is that none of the remaining four teams were on anybody's list as a surefire Cup bet at the season's beginning. But of those four, my money's on Edmonton. The Oil is on fire, and I'm not sure anyone's going to be able to put it out.

First off, congratulations to the fans in Edmonton for the super-classy way they conducted themselves during the anthems of Game 6. If you haven't already heard, not only did they loudly cheer the American anthem, but everyone sang "O Canada," and I'm fairly sure I saw tears in the eyes of a couple Oilers on the bench.

Now then. Predictions. (And quickly, before I turn on the Western Conference Final.)

WEST

(6) Anaheim vs (8) Edmonton - Edmonton in 6
-The Oilers have the strong defence to counter Anaheim's hard forecheck, and will go to the net with more gusto than Calgary or Colorado did. Plus, they win every series in six. What's left to tell?

EAST

(2) Carolina vs (4) Buffalo - Carolina in 7
-Two teams who can score and play defence, with hot goalies at either end of the ice. Buffalo will fight to the death, but the 'Canes will ultimately prevail.


So last round my predictions were 2 for 4 in terms of who would win the series...and the only one I got on the number of games was the Sharks/Oilers series. So I'm not sure if that counts. Overall, that puts me up to 8 for 12, so you've gotta like that.

By the way, that series between Edmonton and San Jose was some of the best hockey I've ever seen, if you ignore some of the refs' decisions. The players were all in for that one, so a salute to them. Hopefully the Conference Finals bring more of the same.

At the beginning of Game 5 between San Jose and Edmonton, which was played in California, the Sharks' fans loudly booed the Canadian national anthem. Sure, before it ended, they toned it down a bit, and some even sang along, but come on. It may not be the first time such a thing has happened, and it won't be the last, but where are these people's heads? I'm not sure there's such a huge difference between booing an anthem and burning a flag, and while flag-burning may be seen by many as a perfectly legitimate form of free speech, it's still completely disrespectful, unsportsmanlike, and generally in extremely poor taste...not to mention stupid, if half of your team (and particularly its best players) are from the country that you're booing.

So if you're a San Jose fan who either booed "O Canada" tonight or cheered the fact that it happened, just think: do Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo really think they're playing a "home" game if they hear their country being disrespected by the people who are supposed to support them? Did Scott Hannan and Patrick Marleau smile inside and think, "I'm so proud of our fans"?

Congratulations! You're idiots.



Oh, and if Oiler fans decide to reciprocate on Wednesday night, or if any team's fans ever do it again at any point, just read this message again. The parts that apply, anyway. For a sport that's lauded for it's encouragement of sportsmanship - see, for example, the handshakes that follow a hard-fought playoff series - this kind of crap is just an embarrassment.

There's nothing I could say about yet another early postseason exit by the Ottawa Senators that hasn't already been said by one of the talking heads on television, but TSN's Bob McKenzie might have put it best with the quote, "Let's call this what it is: epic failure." Many Ottawa fans (the ones left on the bandwagon, anyway) will be quick to blame Ray Emery, who wasn't anywhere near as good as Ryan Miller was in the Buffalo nets. Put it in perspective, though - Miller was amazing, and it wasn't Emery's fault that Sens captain (and perennial playoff phantom) Daniel Alfredsson scored only two goals in the postseason - an empty-netter against the lightning, and a powerplay goal to tie Game 5 at 1-1. Not only that, but it was Alfredsson who Sabres grinder Jason Pominville walked around to score the shorthanded game-winning OT goal (his fifth marker of the playoffs).

Alfredsson wasn't the only Senator playing shoddy defence, though; witness Chris Drury's powerplay goal in the second period of Game 5. After getting the puck between the right faceoff dot and the bottom of the circle, he walked right in on goal as all four Ottawa penalty killers watched, dumbfounded. This was the story of the series to be sure, as many of the goal scored against Ray Emery were garnered off odd-man rushes, surrendered by sloppy pinching and worsened by the remaining defenseman's inability to decide whether to take away the passing or the shooting lane.

Would things have been better for Ottawa if they'd had Dominik Hasek between the pipes? Maybe, but who are you going to blame for that one? Management for signing a 40-year-old goalie with groin problems who'd played a handful of games over the last three years? Or the team, for becoming so dependent on that ticking time-bomb?

One thing's for sure: heads will roll in Ottawa before the next training camp begins. Let's see if the bandwagon-jumpers will hop back on board.

I'm sure everyone's heard by now about the wonderful jobs that the NHL's referees are doing of maintaining their high standards on what constitutes clean play; for the most part, the parade to the penalty box has continued straight on from the regular season. But every so often, you'll see refs let some glaring penalties go, and what do the commentators tell you? "Oh, they're letting them play! It's good old-fashioned hockey!"

Well, that's good old-fashioned BS.

I'm not saying that I like seeing 57 penalties each game, but I would like to see a little more consistency out of the refs. If they want to let a few more hits go, whatever, but let them go for everyone, not jsut when you feel like taking a night off. And there are some disgusting examples of penalties that should be called no matter what the situation - take tonight's San Jose / Edmonton tilt. Late in the second overtime, Shark defenceman Scott Hannan put Oiler forward Shawn Horcoff in a headlock from behind and put him down to his knees, then practically sat on Horcoff's head. The ref was standing fifteen feet away, looking straight at them, with no call. I don't care if it's the second overtime of Game 7 in the Finals, you call that penalty. Granted, the Oilers got away with a few bad ones too, but that's no excuse; all the glaring ones should have been called. Now, a penalty was assessed to Jarret Stoll in the dying minutes of that period after he took down Jonathan Cheechoo (robbing him of a gimme of a scoring chance), but one has to wonder if the referees weren't just showing Gary Bettman that they still know how to blow a whistle; after all, the commish did say that if they didn't call the penalties, they wouldn't be reffing any more of these playoffs.

It all makes you wonder: what's the use of a two-referee system if the only guys blowing the whistles are the linesmen?

I know, I know, I said "before the games start" for my predictions, but things happen. Really, if you have a chance to hear Romeo Dallaire speak, you're not going to go home and blog instead. Anyway, here they are:

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Ottawa vs (4) Buffalo - Buffalo in 6
-It'll be a high-scoring series, and I don't think the Senators will be able to keep up with the Sabres' speed either. The Ottawa papers have been singing Ray Emery's praises and gushing about how he can take the Senators all the way, but he hasn't seen nearly as much puck as he will in this series.

(2) Carolina vs (3) New Jersey - New Jersey in 6
-Both teams can score, and they have good goaltending on both ends of the rink, but the Devils are on fire right now. Their more stable defence should win out.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(5) San Jose vs (8) Edmonton - San Jose in 6
-Edmonton did an amazing thing in upsetting Detroit, but the Sharks should be ready for them. The Oilers need to beware of San Jose's depth up the middle; unless they're planning on cloning Mike Peca, they'll be in tough.

(6) Anaheim vs (7) Colorado - Anaheim in 6
-What? Another series in six games? Well, yeah. The Ducks forechecked very aggressively against the Flames and got the job done; if they can rattle Theodore a bit by making him lose confidence in his defence's ability to clear the zone, he could slip back into the poor form that he displayed earlier in the season.

The updated series listings will be up shortly; I'm having some issues with my Internet access, but hopefully they're resolved soon.

As for my first round predictions, I didn't do too badly, if I do say so myself. Six for eight in terms of the winning team, and for two of those I was right on the money with the number of games...and let's face it, I resisted the urge to change my prediction to Devils in 4 after Jagr got hurt, so come on folks; just give me that one.

The second-round predictions will go up tomorrow afternoon, before the games start.

Shot Down in Flames

If you watched Game 7 between Calgary and Anaheim, you probably didn't see what you expected...great if you're a Ducks fan, but not so much if you cheer for the Flames. Anaheim played an amazing series, and were even tougher and grittier than Calgary was; Jarome Iginla tried to wake his team up by fighting Francois Beauchemin, but Beauchemin was pretty much the clear winner of that bout.

Why did Calgary lose? Well, it was a combination of things. Their defence that was so, so good during the regular season just wasn't that great in the seventh game, and at times they looked a little bit lost. They also had trouble with their outlet passing - which isn't to say that anyone on the team could complete a pass, because their puck control and movement was brutal. But to give the Ducks credit, they forechecked hard, and stayed with their men on defence; Anaheim was all over the ice, breaking up passes and winning puck races while Calgary's players seemed to be skating with the weight of the title "Favourite" heavy on their shoulders. Simply put, Anaheim played a solid game, while the Flames, as they say, "crapped the bed."

If there's any consolation for their fans, it's that none of the top four seeds in the West made it to the second round...and then, straight to the mantra of Leafs fans: "There's always next year."