It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Last night, the first games of the first round were played — and that makes for my favorite time of the year. Playoff hockey is special, as shown by the Canucks-Stars game. Henrick Sedin scored the game-winner with less than 2 minutes remaining in the 4th overtime period. For those keeping time, that means that the game lasted almost 140 minutes; but it’s still only the 6th longest game in NHL history. Roberto Luongo made his first playoff start one he’ll never forget and what I saw of the game (I will admit, I didn’t make it through the whole game) he was amazing (although giving up 4 goals is a point of concern. He will need to get more consistent in the rest of this series or Dallas will own him).
In other OT games, San Jose overcame Nashville 5-4 in the second OT. This is another series that looks like it will have a lot of offense, but also looks like it will be entertaining.
Ottawa routed Pittsburgh 6-3. Don’t let this score fool you, it was never close, with Ottawa up 4-1 when I turned it off. I also heard a most disturbing fact yesterday — the Penguins have 2 players under 20. Which means they are making a whole lot more than I am.
Final game of the night was Minnesota at Anaheim, with Minnesota losing by 1 (2-1). I saw none of this game, I will admit (and by the by, Versus, can you shift around a bit more to show highlights and live snippets from the other game). This one remained pretty much tied until the 5 minute mark when Penner put the final goal of the game in the net.
Looking at all of these games, it seems clear that the West will be an exciting bracket this year. Tonight, 3 Eastern Conference series kick off, and let’s see what kind of excitement they bring us.
One final note about tonight, Devils, Isles and Rangers all kick off series tonight. This year is the first year that all three of those teams have been in the playoffs and had three different opening round opponents.
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