Spen

After a rough start The Blackhawks continue to handle the Canucks. Lots of Canadians will be unhappy because on TSN and CBC a lot of analysts thought the Canucks could win it all. I want Luongo's publicist. For years he has been "the best goalie in the world" even though he had won nothing until the Olympics. Its not all his fault, and I actually like him, but he has gotten a free pass for years and hasnt been great in the playoffs. Nice effort in the win by Philly, but its probably too little too late.

No other thoughts besides "Yay!" as I only got to listen to the third period and only saw the last two minutes.

Dont worry, Crowley is on the case! he'll work with the boys and get them going.

BTW I am not blaming the loss on aynythign official related, I think they could have played 120 minutes and I am not sure if the Canadiens get anything past Fluery.

Good games last night. The Sharks come back from 3-1 to win in OT and take a commanding 3-0 lead. The Penguins win 2-0, one an empty netter, in what was probably the Canadiens best game of the series. Fluery really showed up. Only part I didnt like was the Penguins goal was scored when Gill and Gorges, the Habs two best defensemen were int he box. Gill grabbed hold of Crosby and should have been, but Crosby grabbed and turned him 15 seconds before with naturally no call. Then seconds later at the end of the second Crosby was on the ice bitching at the refs and Gorges skated by and probably said something. Crosby whacked him with his stick and a scrum ensues. Who goes to the box? Not the one who whacked another player. So that helped set up the winning goal. Gill and Gorges watching from the box. Not meaning to bitch but in the series Crosby has punched Cammalleri in the back, broke his stick over Halaks goal with him in net, then continued to skate with the broken stick, now this all with no call. 95% of the other players in the league get called for those things. Its not just Crosby, but the star players get treated differently than the others and thats not right IMO. Those players are great, they don't need a separate set of rules. Same thing with NFL QBs IMO. So the lesson for Gorges is if Crosby instigates anything, skate away like a sissy because you'll go to the box and he wont.

I dont think either team played very well. Overall both seemed a bit off. Luckily for the Habs Halak, Gionta, Gomez, and Cammalleri showed up. So I wouldnt worry much if I were you. It was big winning a game on the road. Since the Habs haven't been home since the game 7 in Washington, I expect the fans to have fun in Montreal Tuesday.

Why would you post that? You cheered for the Steelers so hard in the playoffs a few years ago you added Steelers pictures in your signature.....

This has the potential to the be the biggest man made disaster ever. At least one of them.

Staal is really good and valuable to the Penguins, he isnt your best player. Markov easily is the Habs. 14-20-3 without Markov 29-17-7 with Markov Really all you need to know.

Good game tonight. I dont feel so bad about this one because the Habs only had a day to prepare for this, and the Caps and Penguins play so differently. Penguins played very well. Besides the PK, I really didnt think the Habs played that poorly. I think they are a bit tired, and the 2pm Sunday game wont help either, but hopefully they can make some adjustments. Really though, without Markov they are done. I have no problem with that hit, I think it was clean.

Tons of thoughts about the game tonight, sorry I couldn't get here earlier. I was a bit drained from the nail biter of a game. So I may be all over the place. The Habs played well tonight and really did the whole series with the exception of a few periods here and there. In some places the reason for the loss is being attributed all to Halak, Halak was great and if he wasn't the Canadiens wouldn't have won, but I don't think the Capitals ever really got going in the series. What a shot by Moore. Nice pickup near the deadline, the kind no one notices but who really helps. He was strong down the stretch. It was a nice setup on the goal by Lapierre too. I hate him, but he does have decent hands and is really fast. Stop the yapping and diving and he would be OK. More PK less Ryan O'byrne please. I think Gill has always gotten a bad rap. He is slow so if he gets beat it looks awful, but overall he is a solid defensemen. Not great, but solid. Gorges played really well, what a stop near the end. I dont think the Habs can beat the Penguins, but I didnt think they would win this either. It may not make sense, but I felt they matched up better against the Capitals than a lot of other teams in the east. And it may not make sense but I do think the Capitals were the best team in the east, even better then the Penguins but I dont like the way these two teams match up. So I think it will be the Pens in 5 or so. Where was the high stick at 1:44? I watched it on my DVR over and over and I dont see anything close. I would have been livid if the game got tied on a phantom high stick. Maybe it happened before the replay they showed. Force, hang in there. If they beat the Canadiens I wanted to see the Capitals go far. I enjoyed the local excitement I saw for the team. I think Bruce needs to go. Either way, its a really talented core. They'll tweak a few things and be better. With all the upsets, I think the Penguins have an easy trip to the finals. I just dont see any of the remaining teams in the east being too tough for them. But we'll see. Anyone of the smurfs (Gomez, Gionta, Cammalleri) could play for me anytime. "You can be my wing man anytime Squid!" (gayest thing I ever posted) They may be small, but they compete and fight for the puck. The Habs have had a number of big guys who played small the last few years and I hated that. Still have a couple.

Watching the 1st Yapierre dive call again on youtube, and it does look like he tries to make it look like he was hit from behind when clearly he braces for the hit. Hard call for the ref to make on the fly but he probably got it right. Its Lapierre's reputation preceding him IMO, and thats his own fault.

PK on the PK! It was a great game for a Habs fan. I have followed the NHL for a dozen years or so and I am not sure I ever saw any goalie much better in a playoff game than Halak was tonight. He had one of those nights. The diving calls puzzled me. IMO if your going to call a dive you should be certain its a dive, and 2 out of the 3 calls tonight seemed iffy to me. Luckily they didn't affect the outcome. I didn't see the 2nd Lapierre one, how was it? CSN didn't show it again, or I missed it. I hate Lapierre but I am not sure he did too much on the first call. I wasn't happy with the Gionta call either, but they never showed a replay. I backed it up and the stick looked between his legs as he was breaking up the ice so I can see him going down. While there are numerous Habs players who dive or embellish at times (the brothers!), Gionta is not one of them IMO. I also would have liked some explanations for some of the misconducts/unsportsmanlike penalties in game 3, but again once called CSN never mentioned the reasons why. Refs talk and yell at the refs all the time, mostly to no calls. I'd like to hear what the Habs did in that game. Pleks got an extra two (and the original 2 for golaie int) and I bet he was pissed, after all the contact the Capitals were allowed to get on Halak early in the series. But I cannot complain. After being beaten easily in games 3 or 4 the Habs have found a way to take it to game 7.

What a huge goal by Sedin! Nice timing. Yay! The Habs call up PK Subban in case Spacek cannot play. I'd rather Subban play now over Spacek or Obyrne.

The Orioles won! The Orioles won. Oh my god the Orioles won!

All caught up now. Very enjoyable. Pestilence (max headroom) was pretty disgusting.

I wonder if we can pressure the Orioles to remove Baltimore from their road jerseys.....

It was too much for me.

Congrats man, great series!

Its really tough right now.....

Quite a barn burner in Ottawa!

LMAO. In some ways that's actually pretty impressive. Its better to laugh......

Its hard to clean house in season, but at this point fire everyone, have Joe Smith or Bill Jones manage and coach the team and take the time to interview and find replacements for the manager position and every other coaching position. Can they do worse? When you break it down it is the players making the mistakes and not playing well, not Trembley, but at some point a change has to be made. What the team projected as their best in years has the potential to be one of their worst ever.

I finally watched last weeks. Very good. I am glad Bobby is OK.

Whew....Yay! Entertaining game tonight that Halak held onto. Not a Jacques Martin fan but his line shuffling really worked. Moving Moen to Gomez and Gionta's line was a great move. A six game series sounds a lot more competitive than a 5 game series.