I think there are a few hockey fans on the board, so I'll throw this out (thus
completely undermining my attempt at sophisticated learning in the previous
item [which I think was undermined anyway by my silly proposition that a
question about such stories be considered "sophisticated."])

It's among the best times of the year:  Playoff season.  We had a rather
successful item on it last season, which died a bit when the
"I'd-rather-have-my-kidneys-carved-out-of-my-living-body-and-my-eyes-poked-out
-with-a-rusty-fork" matchup between New Jersey and the Evilanche became a
reality.  Perhaps we'll be lucky and it will go longer this season, implying
that some cheerable teams make it.

141 responses total.

It just occured to me that there are other avenues for hockey discussion as
well, so they are welcome.

It's the first day of the playoffs, and the Red Wings are underperforming
already, falling 4-3 to the Canucks in OT in game 1.  How depressing.  Now,
intellectually, I'm not at all surprised that we lost, but we blew three leads
and had the better of the play in the overtime period before the fluky winner.
It feels rather annoying now.  Still, this is a good indicator for the Wings
that nothing is going to come easy, and I'm hoping that they'll get the
message.  Remember, we had tough early-round matchups in '97 and '98, too.

Carolina beat jersey in regulation, Philly beat Ottawa 1-0 on a nice
backhander in OT, and San Jose is winning 2-1 in the 2nd period against
Phoenix.

To those who quickly forget this item, thank you for excercizing your rights
to personally filter what you read.  :)  Can't say I blame you.

Ok i am responding to this item because i am a very big red wings fan and i
have been loyal to them for many years. Although i was disappointed that they
lost last night,they still have a chance in my book. Now that they know what
they are facing, maybe they will be stronger defensively and hopefully they
will succeed in winning game 2 tomorrow night. My mother agrees with me.

Well, that's a relief.

Ok - so the Caps sucked some major ass this year.  Didn't make the play-offs.
So, I am now pulling for the Flyers and the Wings.

thanks for supporting the red wings edina. it really means alot to me.

What on earth for?  They were my team in the beginning.

The Flyers can suck an egg, in my book.  No offense. :)

The Wings had better have more than a chance.  It takes 4 games to win a
series, not one.  Should be a good series, though.

I didn't think the Wings played particularly well in OT last night, but they
did play reasonably well through the rest of the game.  Several of the goals
were, ah, a little on the lucky side, and we were pinging shots off the posts
all night long.  Our big players were skating well and looking dangerous, and
Hasek didn't appear to suck.  I'm somewhat optimistic, going forward.  

i am a hockey lover, and only discovered this a year ago. i used to be a
penguins fan, but this year i'm rooting for the rangers. last night i was
rooting for detroit just cuz of grex. :)

Actually, I thought Detroit looked dangerous and solid in OT, except for that
last play (I knew that was a bad giveaway even before it wound up in the net).
Shows how these things go, I guess.  Detroit isn't alone in the upset loss
department; Boston, our #1 seed counterpart in the East, lost to Montreal 5-2
and looked dreadful.  I mean, the talent's there, but the things you need to
win the playoffs weren't.  The Leafs came from behind in the third to win 3-1
over the Isles in a game that was, frankly, unpleasant to watch for most of
it.

And the Blackhawks upset the Blues.  Home Ice?  What's that?  The Avs will
be lucky to escape tonight (I'm raucously enjoying the game at the moment,
2-2 in the second intermission).

Wow, the avs were up 2-0 when I caught a glimpse on a TV at the bar as I
passed by.  

This may have just been a week for upsets.  Consider:  The Tigers won, the
Redwings lost, and my own crappy hockey team actually managed to win a game.
This can't be coincidence.  :)

Well the red wings lost again tonight. I was hoping that they would win, but
i guess i jinxed it by hoping to hard.

I jinxed it by being there.  Very frustrating hockey game, with Detroit
solidly outshooting Vancouver (all this amidst the amusing crowd chant of
"shoot the puck.." this crowd knows what constitutes good playoff shooting
and bad) and still falling 5-2.  Reactions to Detroit's play by analysts is
mixed; Many think Detroit played fairly well and got stoned and got the bad
breaks.  Fans certainly aren't happy, though, and any team down 2-0 is going
to get that.  Hasek certainly was *not* impressive.  I'm naturally an
apologist for the "team that's out there," but we know he's capable of better.
If the Wings somehow, miraculously, manage to pull this series out, though,
I think he'll be fine.  Patrick Roy looked miserable against the Canucks last
year, and utterly dominated everyone else.  Once Hasek gets into rhythm, he'll
be fine... but he may not have time.  

What can you do?  Detroit got 36 shots, a healthy total, and when you get the
1 goal or so for every ten shots, that should theoretically be enough. 
Vancouver got chances and made them count, though, and the entire team shares
responsibility.  Naslund with an open look?  Bertuzzi untouched on his way
into the net?  Easy, uncontested deflections?  For the scarcity of shots
Vancouver managed, I was nervous every time they looked like they'd get one.
It wasn't just that Hasek wasn't stopping everything (he had some solid saves
down the stretch before that Naslund rocket), but that they were having their
way with the puck around net whenever they wanted.

I found this article to be interesting/amusing analysis of what
is going on.  Time to hope for a win tonight.

http://www.freep.com/sports/albom/mitch20_20020420.htm

The Red Wings have the best shirts. 

The Wings finally won one, tonight.  Unfortunately, it's only one game, but
it's a whole lot better than a loss.  Hasek answered all questions with a
brilliant performance, solidly outplaying the shakey Dan Cloutier (on awful
goal and one shaky one are the difference in the 3-1 game) and keeping the
Wings in it during an extended period of penalty killing in the second and
tremendous pressure and a penalty shot by Vancouver late in the third.  The
team played much smarter hockey tonight, limiting giveaways and rushes and
only really breaking down once on the Bertuzzi goal.  Steve Yzerman was
brilliant, as always, and it continually baffles me how guys elsewhere in the
league get so my excess hype, while Yzerman puts them all to shame quietly
in Detroit.  He doesn't even get enough attention here.

Anyway, it was a tense, tense game, and it could easily have gone the other
way with a bounce or two here and there.  Still, that's how you win hockey
games, and this has turned into a terrific series.

Yes!!! they finally won a game! The red wings definately played smarter and
they were definately more effective defensively.

Great game last night.  One question:  wtf was up with the officiating?  I
don't remember the last time I saw a game so unevenly called under any
conditions, let alone in the NHL playoffs.  

I actually saw a game reffed worse just three hours prior.  I'm not really
sure what the deal was, but it was pretty atrocious.  Fortunately enough, it
screwed both teams.

Steve ... think "Wilkins at the Ice Breaker" last year.

Wilkins, period.  We're talking about lower levels, though.

Well, it was another big day in the playoffs, with six games taking us from
the early evening into the late night.  Not bad action, either.  While there
were some duds (6-1 Isles over the Leafs?  Too bad for NY it's only one game),
there were some barnburners, too.  Montreal came back from 3-1 down with 12
minutes left in the third to beat the Bruins 5-3 (empty-net goal) on the
strength of Saku Koivu's terrific slot move past Dafoe for the winner.  Koivu,
some might recall, just returned from stomach cancer at the end of the regular
season, and he's been huge in the playoffs.  Best game of the playoffs so far.

The Wings gutted out another victory in Vancouver, a 4-2 barnburner that was
never over until Kris Draper landed an empty-netter in the last minute.  Who
got the winner?  Steve YzerMAN, again, on one leg, the best player on the ice.
It was tough, with the Wings losing a 2-goal lead in the second (the tying
goal with less than 30 second left in the period) before Shanahan and Fedorov
combined to set Steve up for his dirt-style tally early in the third.

I am sooooo happy that the red wings won another game! It was really hard for
me to fall asleep because i was so excited, but eventually i did. Maybe it
helped a little bit last night because through the whole game i was wearing
my red mardi gras beads to show my support for the team.Steve Yzerman was
great last night. And as i usually say, "Yzerman is the man!"

Another wings game, another pile of complaints about the refs.  

That's pretty much been true for all of the playoff series this year. 
Vancouver's GM is flagrantly crazy, though, complaining about his own goalie
getting brushed on one night, and Hasek's dives when *he* gets brushed the
next.  And Hasek got seriously run several times later in the game on uncalled
plays that you're not hearing whining about.  Oh well.

Philly still can't score. 12 minutes to go in the third of game 4 and it's
3-0 Ottawa.

Well the red wings were victorious again and now they lead the series 3 games
to 2. Sergei Federov was really great tonight. He scored 2 of the 4 goals in
tonights game. Dominick Hasek was also great tonight. He did a total shut out
tonight. Hopefully the red wings will be as successful in game 6 as they were
tonight. We'll just have to wait and see...

But how do you respond to Vancouver's coach saying that the calls have been
unfair?

Brian Burke made a mistake in running his mouth, complaining about the 
officiating.  All it does is serve as inspiration for the Wings.  Scotty 
Bowman is the king of mind games, and Burke is way out of his league.  
(Apologies to whoever posted this on USCHO ... possibly Senna ... I'm 
basically repeating your argument)

#26> Sour grapes. As someone on WDIV put it (maybe Devon Scillion), "That
sounds like someone whose team lost three games after winning the first two"
(which Bernie Smilovitz corrected, since the comments they ran were after the
fourth game).

The calls have been unfair to both teams.  Todd Bertuzzi got away with a
flagrant board on Chris Chelios in the middle of Vancouver's long stretch of
second-period power plays in game three, for example.  Goaltending issues?
Yzerman coasted in front of Dan Cloutier, well outside of teh crease, causing
Cloutier to mysteriously lose his footing, setting up Yzerman's game three
goal that got the Wings off the schnide.  Very legit play.  In the second
intermission, Burke complained that his goaltender had been run, so his
comments about Hasek's blatant dives (he had a couple) sound a bit hollow,
particularly when you consider the very real runs taken at Hasek that weren't
called.

The big news is Kyle Mclaren's vicious elbow to Richard Zednik (respective
teams are Boston and Montreal) that broke Zednik's nose and jaw and gave him
a nasty concussion with a shade more than a minute to go in a game that was
beyond reach.  There's major uproar, and comparisons are already being made
to the Tie Domi "The Idiot's Elbow" wrestling move against Scott Niedermyer
last year and the immortal Claude Lemieux mugging of Kris Draper in '96.  ESPN
showed a clip package of cheap hits, including that fiasco, and I again
realized why I'm rooting for San Jose and Los Angeles so much this week.

It's always a frustration when hockey gets major press only when something
ugly like this or the McSorley slash or the fan death occurs.  The League
appears to be cracking down a bit more, which is encouraging.  I hope3 that
Mclaren gets tossed for the playoffs at least--you have to know that stupid
plays like that will kill your team.

I don't think that Mclaren was necessarily gunning specifically for Zednik
(though Montreal does, and they have a point) or even that he was trying to
cause injury, but elbowing an unsuspecting player in the face as he skates
toward you is inexcusable under any circumstance.  

Well the Detroit red wings beat the Vancouver canucks 6-4 in game 6 so the
red wings will go on to round 2. Player of the game was Brett Hull and he
truly deserved it because he scored the last 3 goals for detroit. Well i guess
that's all i have to say...

Montreal defeated Boston in Boston, 2-1.  They take a 3-2 lead in the series
and actually have a chance to finish the upset at home.  It will be
educational to see if Boston comes out with appropriate intensity, but they're
going to have to put two games together and I question whether they'll be able
to do it.  Good showing by Montreal regardless, and with Zednik out Theodore
finally produced the huge game he needed to, turning away nearly every
opportunity for a more talented Boston team.  If boston *does* escape, this
series may wind up being a solid building excersize, a demonstration of the
intensity and consistency (particularly on defense) that they'll need to win.

Of course, if they don't escape, the Eastern Champion is anybody's guess. 
Both Toronto and New York have now lost their captains for the playoffs (The
Isle's Mike Peca tearing an ACL in Toronto last night), so the winner there
will be severely shorthanded against a field of misfits that nobody could have
predicted would stand following the first round.  Already in is Ottawa, a team
few gave a chance to do anything against that highly-paid, talented group of
players that Philadelphia fields.

Fielded.  Two goals in five games.  Amazing.  And Carolina?  Most hockey fans
probably couldn't name three guys on their lineup before the playoffs, but
they ousted the Devils, even after being left for dead both at the beginning
of the series and after game four when the Devils had won two easy home games
to tie it.  That one is over in 6.  Boston fans will be kicking themselves
if they don't escape, because they can easily make the finals with their
roster.  Also kicking themselves (and you can chime in on this, edina) are
Washington Fans, who have the talent and the goaltending to destroy what's
left of this field.  They never even made the playoffs.  Ric's own Carolina
squad has as good a chance as anybody to make the final.


And the Wings won a wild one.  It was 2-2 after the first, and that doesn't
really describe how it got there... if the Kings can ride their momentum on
Monday and beat the Avs in Denver, it's the Wings and Kings part deux.  If
the Avs repeat last season's game seven win over LA, it's the Wings and Blues
part MCMXVIII.

No, I have no idea what the correct roman numeral is.

Wings and Blues part 1918?  That certainly sounds good ... but I have no 
clue how many times these two teams have met.  I think 1918 is probably 
high ...

Re 31  Rod Brind'Amour  Ron Francis  Sami Kappanen  Arturs Irbe  Kevin Weekes
Bret Hedican  Kevin Stevens (wuss wuss wuss!!!!)

I just wanted to prove that I could name some Canes.  (Of course, this comes
from actually traveling to Raleigh for away games.  Nice chance to eat, drink,
be merry and see Ric.

When a lot of attention is focused on hockey for "bad" reasons (ie, the
violence factor), a lot of people, knowing I love the game, always look at
me, like, "how could you like this game?"  True fans don't see the violence
- they see the speed, the skill, the dedication.  That's how you separate it
out.  But you know - a good, clean hit is a thing of true beauty.

Go Habs!!!

I haven't been following Agora this season, but edina mentioned this item to
me so of course I had to join in.

As many of you know.. I live in North Carolina.  I am a Carolina Hurricanes
fan.  So is my daughter for that matter.  She is 3 months old.  Look at this
picture:

http://www.rickroot.com/gallery.cfm?GALLERY_ID=19

Carolina is mostly a fairly young team, getting a lot of production in the
playoffs from youngsters like Eric Cole, Jaroslav Svoboda, and Josef Vasicek.
Eric Cole is a rookie of the year candidate I think.

Now that we've ousted the Devils, Carolina can beat ANYONE in the east.  We've
got home ice advantage in round 2.  And if Montreal beats Boston in game 6
or game 7 of their series, Carolina would also haveh ome ice advantage in
round 3 if they made it that far.

GO 'CANES!

I have great tickets to the games too :)

Heh.  lucky.  Are the next two games sold out yet?

No, but I'm sure they will be.  Alas, we only sold out one of the three home
games in round 1... game 2, which was a Friday night.  Game 1 missed a sellout
by a good 3000 tickets... Game 5 missed a sellout by only about 500 tickets.
Both games 1 and 5 were Wednesday nights.

Raleigh/Durham is definately not what you could call "Hockey Town".

Dammit.  Wish I'd found this item way back when it was started...Any bets on
the Leafs-Isles game in about an hour?  I'm cheering for the Leafs (but only
since the Wings aren't playing them, of course :))  Does anyone know when 
round 2 will start?

Tomorrow.  The Wings play Thursday and Saturday, if I recall.  The Avs and
the Sharks get the CBC treatment at 10pm Eastern, and that will be a terrific
series.

Mmmm, I'd love to see the Sharks beat the Avs.  Or at least take them to 7 
games and hopefully knock out Forsberg.  The guy bugs me.
For those who aren't rabid enough to already know this:  there's good 
coverage of the Wings at www.freep.com/index/redwings.htm and 
detnews.com/wings  this time of year.  there's an amusing article at the
free press site on chelifish :)

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