Off Wing Opinion

I just watched Tim Connolly score the opening goal against Philly in Buffalo, and I can't quite believe what I just saw.

On a Buffalo power play, Connolly took a breakout pass in the slot in the Sabres defensive zone. Then, skating at about three-quarters speed, Connolly casually made his way up the ice, with the Flyers backing up all the way, essentially leaving Connolly completely untouched.

Connolly, not looking a gift horse in the mouth, just kept skating straight up the center of the ice. Just inside the blue line, Sami Kapanen tried a weak stick check, which forced Connolly to do some nice stickhandling, but nothing that would ever make a highlight video.

Eventually getting around Kapanen, Connolly eventually got below the face off dots without before lifting a wrister over Robert Esche's glove hand. 1-0 Sabres.

Not. Touched. Once. Ken Hitchcock must be throwing a clot right now.

UPDATE: With it being 3-0 in Buffalo with the Sabres leading, NBC has switched to Dallas-Colorado, now tied 2-2 midway through the 3rd period.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Say good-bye to Dallas, the third team to exit this year's playoff. And after another playoff disappointment, how long will Dallas hang onto Marty Turco?

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: Carolina takes a 3-2 lead in the series with a 3-2 victory at home. Boy, has this turned around right quick.

BTW -- I wasn't paying very close attention to the commercials during the Carolina-Montreal game, that was until this ad came on.

It looks like I'm about a month behind the curve, and a lot of folks simply can't stand this ad:

While I

Earlier this season, we saw Jeremy Roenick gets his groove on. But today, we give you Calgary's Darren McCarty:

It's all a little unfair, isn't it?

Here's a nice clip of what happened when Detroit's Dan Cleary left his feet in an attempt to check Edmonton's Chris Pronger in Edmonton the other night:

Not the best idea Cleary has ever had.

Sorry for missing the NHL Playoff Roundup for the last two days. For reasons beyond my control, I just didn't have the time yesterday, and recording the latest edition of Bleacher Guy Radio had to take priority this morning.

In any case, there isn't whole lot of excitement this afternoon, as the two teams that NBC, OLN and the NHL would like to see get deepest into the playoffs, Detroit and New York, have dug themselves pretty significant holes.

Right now, Detroit is down 3-0 to Edmonton, and while Dwayne Roloson is playing very well, Manny Legace has been let down by his defense more than once. That was no more evident than on the last goal, when Red Wings defenseman Nik Kronwall failed to erase Shawn Horcoff before a puck caromed in off Horcoff's skate to give the Oilers a 3-0 lead.

Though the situation might not seem as dire in New York with the Rangers down only 2-1 against the Devils, we all know what New Jersey is like playing with a lead. Besides Martin Brodeur, the critical factor in this series has been the play of Patrick Elias, who has four goals and six assists in the series so far.

UPDATE: Oops, it's 3-1 Edmonton now, as Brendan Shanahan scored on a breakaway. Of course, the critics of the officiating will have another talking point, as Edmonton's Michael Peca was clearly tripped in the slot by Detroit's Kris Draper immediately before the sequence that led to Shanahan's goal.

UPDATE: After today's 4-2 loss, the Rangers are the first team to head home. Not a real surprise, but still...

And here's the enduring memory of this postseason for the Rangers.

The Oilers will have a chance to knock Detroit out of the playoffs on Monday after today's 3-2 victory at Joe Louis. For all the talk about how Tomas Holmstrom does such a god job of screening the net, it was the Oilers who did the job today, simply throwing the puck on net from the left wing or the left point three times and coming away with three goals.

How many other fans in Boston feel the same way about the Bruins and the NHL that Bill Simmons does?

I stopped following the B's in the mid-'90s (slowing down for a few years, then quitting cold turkey after the Jason Allison trade, which I wrote about here) for precisely this reason: They always did just enough not to win. And even though I loved hockey once upon a time, and even though the Bruins were involved in one of the two games that ever made me cry (Game 7, 1979, Montreal), and even though I have all these NHL memories from 1976-94 that have been rendered pretty much useless, there came a point in my life where I had to make a decision: Is it worth spending 400-500 hours every year caring about a franchise that doesn't care about me, playing in a league that was becoming less interesting by the year? The answer was no.

I'm sure some folks would say good riddance, but I'm thinking there are plenty of fans like Simmons who could be won back. I'm just not sure how.

The Caps owner's latest message to fans can be found here.

Some highlights:

We

Colorado 4 Dallas 3, OT: First comes denial, then anger, then bargaining and then acceptance. From Texas, here's Bob Sturm:

I hate to belabor this point, but I just can

Kudos to the Buffalo fan who created this highlight reel:

There's a goal he scores against Tampa Bay a little more than half way through the reel that's as good as any I saw this season. Dan Boyle probably won't like reliving it, but that's life in the big leagues.

The one and only time I scored an empty net goal, I did everything in my power to make sure the puck wound up in the net. One of our defenseman coming off the ice on a line change had caused a turnover, and I already had one leg over the boards when he saw me.

One moment later I picked up the puck a few strides short of the red line, and had absolutely nobody between me and the net. Still, I didn't take any chances, as I skated to within a few feet of the crease before tapping it in.

Why did I got to all that trouble? This is why.

Be sure to watch for the head fake:

You never know who might be watching. And recording.

After reviewing lots of heavy breathing about the refereeing (including from yours truly), Jamie Fitzpatrick thinks there's plenty of smoke, but no fire:

But as controversies go, this one is barely breathing. I searched over an hour before finding the above complaints, and for the most part they're no different from what we hear every spring. "Kill the ref!" is among the oldest phrases in the hockey handbook, right up there with "Shoot!" and "Hit him!"

So why is opposition to the current crackdown so tepid? Probably because most folks understand that, for all its maddeningly imperfect execution, better rules enforcement is a sound idea. What's surprising about the current rash of penalties is how obvious most of them look when you see the replay. And habits have already changed: players on the rush have more freedom of movement than they had two years ago.

This law-and-order campaign is slippery as an eel. There

Thoughts from Tom Benjamin, Jim Mirtle and JJ.

Vancouver Canucks Op Ed wrote something, but the laptop gods vented their wrath first.

With Crawford's track record in Vancouver and Colorado, I'm not sure he'll be waiting long to find a new job. But what I couldn't help but wonder was how different things might look had Todd Bertuzzi not gone after Steve Moore in March 2004. Something tells me that playoff would have looked a lot different with him in the Vancouver lineup.

UPDATE: Chuq Von Rospach is shedding no tears for Crawford.

Think owning an NHL team is all fun and games? If you do, you might want to give Bill and Nancy Lurie a call. Here's Christopher Tritto from the St. Louis Business Journal:

The Lauries bought the Blues in 1999 for $100 million. They will receive about $150 million from Checketts, but will spend $60 million of that to pay off the arena bonds, another $50 million out of their own pocket to pay off outstanding team debt plus an additional $15 million to $25 million to cover this season's losses. They also incurred annual losses totaling about $200 million from 1999 through 2005. All told, it appears the Lauries will leave with $285 million less than before they purchased the Blues.

....The case of the Blues, though, is extreme. The team lost nearly $48 million in the season before the lockout, beset by low attendance and a high payroll. Local attendance continued to lag this year, even as the league set new attendance records. Through April 10, the Blues ranked 28th out of the NHL's 30 clubs in total attendance. Average game attendance slipped 23 percent, from 18,560 last season to 14,240 this season. That marks the worst decline in the league.

Granted, this is a pretty extreme case, as the Blues not only had the worst record in the NHL this season, it was pretty clear well ahead of time that this season was going to be a first rate disaster.

Thanks to Skip Sauer for the link.

To the Dallas Stars for folding early enough in OT that I can still get a good night's sleep.

Here's some video of a massive brawl between the Wilkes-Barre Penguins and the Syracuse Crunch. Turn down the volume as there's nothing but white noise on the audio track.

For background, click here for more on 2001's St. Patrick's Day Massacre.

Edmonton 4 Detroit 3: After blowing a two-goal lead in the third period, Edmonton got the game winner in the second OT from Jarret Stoll to take a 2-1 series lead. Dwayne Roloson continued to outplay Manny Legace, stopping 44 of 47 Detroit shots, including 18 in the two OTs.

Initially, it looked like Jason Williams had won the game in the first extra session, but the video said otherwise:

However, video replay showed that the puck slid under the side of the goal after Oilers netminder Dwayne Roloson bumped into it and caused it to lift up slightly.

"It is tough when you think you win," said Detroit's Kirk Maltby, who scored at 2:39 of the second overtime in the opening game of the series. "We were hoping if we got off the ice soon enough, they wouldn't review it."

With all the guff the league has gotten since Brett Hull's OT goal that won the 1999 Finals deep into the night in Buffalo, there isn't a chance in Hell that the league will ever let that happen again.

Here's Colby Cosh, who thinks the Oilers are getting it done with an awfully tiny margin of error:

Until the Oilers caught a break in front of Manny Legace, Detroit had all the good chances in the 5th period tonight. And even leaving age aside, Chris Chelios, who once played the "rover" position for the Ottawa Silver Seven, arguably appears better-conditioned than some of the younger Edmontonians.

Of course, this isn't good news for the Wings or their fans. If they were buffaloed after the two games in Detroit, when the Oilers formed a hoplite phalanx in the neutral zone and were accused of playing "Minnesota Wild hockey," what would you call them now, after losing a relatively open game on a proper surface? (Maybe you guys were hoping we'd play "Columbus Blue Jackets hockey"?)

Here's Covered in Oil:

[S]eeing Williams celebrate with some bewilderment, with a lip-read "I'm not sure how it went in," coupled with Roloson looking more confused than utterly crushed, the video review offered some hope. Seeing the puck nowhere near the red line has to be one the great moments of the season, single-handedly offering the Oilers a chance to change the storyline of the series, and more importantly, as MacT put it, forcing Manny Legace to "skate 100 feet back to his net" after dancing "a jig" on the redline.

Eeek. Premature jocularity is never a good thing. Of course, with what happened last night in the O.C...

Edmonton leads series, 2-1:

Calgary 5 Anaheim 2:...We're two games closer to seeing the Canadian prairie catch fire again after Calgary's workmanlike victory over Anaheim.

Then again, you need to keep in mind where all the work was done:

Five players scored for Calgary, and coach Darryl Sutter, asked who played especially well, said, "I don't think you can single out anybody. You can single out 27 minutes of special teams, and that's where it paid off."

Toss in Anaheim's seven power plays, and that's more than half the game played with at least a man advantage. What does it all mean? For more, click here.

More bonus video: Here's the montage the Flames play at home to get the fans riled before the opening faceoff. Lots of blow torches and melted steel:

Calgary leads series, 2-1:

Ottawa 8 Tampa Bay 4: It was 5-0 before John Tortorella mercifully lifted John Grahame in favor of Sean Burke. The rest might as well have been windown dressing, as Martin Havlat surged into the spotlight with a pair of early goals, looking all the more like his long layoff in the regular season left him without much rust at all.

Here's Chris McMurtry:

A point was made by someone who I

New Jersey 4 New York 1: No Jagr, no Kaspar, no Lundqvist.

And not a chance in Hell.

As soon as I heard that Kevin Weekes was starting for the Rangers, I knew the postseason was over for the Broadway Blues. There were two reasons that the Rangers excelled this season: Reason #1 was Jaromir Jagr, but rookie goalie Henrik Lundqvist was definitely Reason #1a.

Without one, they were already doomed. Without both, John Madden of New Jersey potted a hat trick. And Jay Pandolfo, relieved from shadowing Jagr, managed three assists.

Here's Jim@Hockeybird:

Unlike Saturday, this was much closer than the score indicated. The Blueshirts out-shot New Jersey 26-25, but the Devs blocked 18 shots. How many times did the Rangers miss the net looking for a high corner? And how many times did they pass the puck off instead of hammering away at Brodeur? Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot the puck on Martin. Did you see what happened on Betts' goal? Did you see what happened when Moore put the puck on net from a wide angle? If Hossa had just a little better body position, he gets a shorthanded tally.

This series ain't over. I am not trying to be a cheerleader or a homer. I think they have the chance to travel back to the swamp next Sunday 2 games all, but we have a long way to go before we can talk about that.

For more whistling past the graveyard, click here.

I'll give today's last word on this series to Steve Ovadia's wife:

Why do you need [Jaromir] Jagr to score on a five-on-three? I could score on a five-on-three.

Indeed.

Devils lead series, 2-0.

Buffalo 8 Philly 2: This game was 5-0 before the end of the first period, and was effectively over way before that. How shell shocked must Flyers fans be this morning? My guess is a lot of them are feeling like poor R.J. Umberger.

There was some good news: Buffalo's number one scoring threat, Daniel Briere, who had 14 shots in Game One, didn't score. Unfortunately, both Jason Pominville and Islanders castoff JP Dumont posted hat tricks against the dazed Flyers defense.

Boy, is that Derian Hatcher signing looking brilliant now.

After his players were unable to fight back against the Sabres on the ice, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock jumped to their defense after Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff referred to them as idiots.

Click here (not safe for virgin ears) for Hitchcock's classy reply (thanks to iN Da bUff for that pointer). Or just watch the video:

Here's a triumphal Mark@BFLOBLOG:

The Sabres are obviously not being intimidated by the old-school, goon style of hockey that Philly is trying to play right now. If Philly keeps it up, Friday night might be their last game of the season. Even if the Flyers change their style of play I can

Thanks again to David Singer for digging up this great Best Buy ad from Quebec:

Enjoy it in any language.

It's one thing to get crushed into the glass while fighting for the puck in OT. It's quite another to have a fan checking you from the other side.

This comes from Friday night's OT in Calgary:

I wonder if he got away...

Last night's trend saw teams climbing back into series to tie all four at one game a piece. But tonight is turning out very differently, as Montreal has jumped all over Carolina, 3-0; New Jersey leads the Rangers, 2-0; and Buffalo seems determined to bury Phily, piling up a 4-0 lead before the end of the first period.

I'm surprised there are any fans left in Raleigh right now.

UPDATE: Stick a fork in Philly and New York. Carolina fights back to tie it 5-5 in regulation -- credit Don Cherry for saying Carolina should have pulled Gerber for Ward after two, and not three goals -- while Colorado keeps rolling along going into the first intermission with a 3-0 lead.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What a fun OT in Raleigh. And doesn't it look like Peter Laviolette is growing a playoff beard? And whoa, did Dallas wake up right quick, it's 3-3!

DEVESTATION UPDATE: That noise you just heard was Michael Ryder driving a stake into Carolina's collective chest, as he scored early in the second OT to give the Canadiens a 6-5 win. Ouch!

UPDATE FROM DALLAS: Just when I thought I might get to bed before Midnight, Milan Hedjuk scores an shorthanded goal to tie that game, 4-4. Get the coffee brewing.

BEDTIME!: Only a few seconds after Jason Arnott rang a slapper off the post, Joe Sakic tipped a John-Michael Liles slapper past Marty Turco. 5-4 Avalanche, and there are many stunned faces in Dallas. Whew!

Reader Jeff Z. asks a reasonable question of the NHL and its broadcast television, cable and satellite partners:

Was wondering if you have any idea what's up with the blackouts I've been experiencing.

Right now I have satellite through Dish. First off, only 2 of the 4 games per night are showing up on my Center Ice package. I upgraded to the Multi-Sports package so I get all the regional FSNs and MSG, etc.

But yesterday's Ottawa-Tampa game, though on my schedule, was blacked out for me. But I'm in Los Angeles! I called and asked what's up, and they said the game is only available to people in the Tampa region. Huh?

I have tonight's NY-NJ game on two different channels, MSG and something else (FSN?). Both of those are blacked out!

I was told by Dish that those networks are only letting the games be seen regionally. How is the NHL allowing this? And why is the Center Ice package screwing over fans of half the playoff teams?

The crux of the problem here is between Dish Network and OLN. Like it or not, those two companies haven't been able to work out an agreement up to this point, so Dish customers are up the creek when it comes to NHL games airing on OLN.

This is going to be more than a tad confusing, so please follow along carefully.

Game One of the Ottawa-Tampa Bay series was on NHL Center Ice as the service picked up Saturday's CBC feed. Game Two was on OLN, that's why the game was blacked out outside of the Tampa region on NHL Center Ice and on the Dish regional sports tier.

As for the Rangers-Devils series, Game One aired Saturday afternoon on NBC. Game Two will air tonight on OLN -- which again explains the blackout on NHL Center Ice and the Dish regional sports tier.

In other words, OLN has the sole rights to a national telecast of those games. The Detroit Free Press had a pretty good explanation last week that laid it all out.

So, at this point, Jeff's only option would be to call Dish, and tell them to get cracking with their negotiations with OLN, which, truth be told, have been rather protracted.

But, as it turns out, there is another option. Make way for Vito Forlenza, sports editor over at Comcast.net:

I wanted to tell you that your readers can see live, out-of-market playoffs games free on our site. During the season, the video streams were only open to Comcast subscribers, but playoff games are free to anyone in the U.S.

Again, just figured I

Edmonton 4 Detroit 2: This afternoon in Hockeytown, the Detroit faithful discovered that you can't count on Kirk Maltby scoring twice every game. Dwayne Roloson kept up his superior play by stopping 33 Detroit shots, while the Oilers got goals from four different players, including Chris Pronger, who is simply the most intimidating presence on the ice in this series.

Here's a thumbnail from Matt Saler:

The Wings were solidly in control until a couple lousy turnovers killed them in the second and they couldn't recover. They were much more physical than we've seen them for most of the year and actually ended up out-hitting Edmonton. Scary thing: Edmonton opened the game up a little to make their comeback and then went back to the trap. Either way, the Wings' offense was muted. No one really stood out offensively, though guys like Schneider and Chelios did defensively. Schneider's shot is not a given goal any more. Datsyuk not a positive factor, looked tentative, still somewhat in pain. Legace looked bad on the third Edmonton goal.

Yes, the questions will be coming fast and furious about Mr. Legace once again. Is it fair? No, not at all. But this is playoff time, and fair doesn't have much to do with anything at all these days.

Hey Wings fans, Covered in Oil is calling you out:

Looking at the half-hearted crowds in Game One and Two, Detroit fans look like they're a little too used to having a winning team in the playoffs, with even the ubiquitous tradition of throwing octopi on the ice looking staid and routine.

Granted, this is coming from a fan of team that once won five Stanley Cups in a seven-year stretch. But please forgive me for interrupting:

Luckily, some brave Oil fans upstaged this farce of fan-ery and added a new twist: Grade A Alberta beef thrown over the boards in an attempt to please the hockey gods. The deities must have been pleased with our fandom, as our other sacrificial offering, playoff virgin Brad Winchester, ended up with the game winner and his first NHL goal.

Colby Cosh is feeling a little empathy for the Detroit faithful:

At the end of the second period in Game One, the crowd at the Joe Louis Arena was lustily booing the Wings' power play. At the disastrous tail end of the second period in Game Two, they didn't even bother--you could have heard a jock clatter to the floor of the locker room. Right now the Red Wings and their fans around the world are tallying the toll from back-to-back home games, and they can't like the math: one exhausting win backed into on fluke goals, one loss as sharp and sudden and deflating as a pistol shot, a crucial home-ice advantage scattered to the wind, and the ghosts of first-round defeats to low seeds swarming all over the Motor City like hornets. I still wouldn't bet real money against the Wings, but I wouldn't trade places with any of their supporters right now either.

This series provides a great example of why I don't like to make predictions. You see, if I had actually picked Detroit to defeat Edmonton, I'd be more concerned with being right than seeing a humdinger of a series. So when you take off the analyst hat, you get to be a fan. And I'd rather be a fan than an analyst anytime.

We got a series my friends. And boy does it feel good.

Series tied, 1-1.

San Jose 3 Nashville 0: San Jose shook off the rust and a loss in Game One and shutout the Predators in Nashville. Most significant score: Jonathan Cheechoo breaking the seal on this playoff campaign with his first goal. All three San Jose goals came on the power play, something that didn't surprise Sharks head coach Ron Wilson:

"Hey, they're calling penalties as advertised," San Jose coach Ron Wilson said. "Everyone's still shocked, `Why are they calling penalties in the playoffs?' They're supposed to because they want to work, and Gary Bettman was here so, hello!

"I mean it doesn't take a rocket scientist or even a sports writer to figure that one out."

Here's one Predators fan who didn't like what he saw:

Ref 57 (McCreary?) was calling the game like he had Cheechoo on his fantasy team...

While we pretty much dug our own hole by not being able to convert opportunities, that may have been the worst, most one-sided refereed game I've ever seen...

It kills me that with 4 zebras on the ice...not one of them seems to ever be looking at the guy with the puck.

I don't think this issue about the reffing is going to go away anytime soon. Like I said on Sunday night, when the guy who is anchoring coverage on the playoffs calls out your refs on the air, things are so running off the rails they can't be ignored.

To relive the game blow by blow, click here to see some liveblogging from Sharkspage.

Series tied, 1-1.

Tampa Bay 4 Ottawa 3: Back in 1995, I distinctly remember watching a first round series between the Rangers and the Quebec Nordiques. As many probably recall, the Nordiques moved to Colorado at the end of the season and won the Cup the very next year. But despite all the talent they had, they couldn't vanquish a Rangers squad that had sputtered its way through the lockout-shortened season.

Lesson: Never take the defending Stanley Cup Champs lightly. Which is the lesson the Ottawa Senators and their fans are learning tonight after Tampa Bay's 4-3 win in Kanata. Let's talk to Jon Fontana:

If anything can be said about Sunday Evening

...And to Colin Campbell and Stephen Walkom too: When a hockey broadcast veteran like Al Trautwig calls out the refs for making phantom calls, your league is going to have some questions to answer in the morning.

Here's what Al had to say just a few moments ago on OLN going into a break between periods of the Calgary-Anaheim game:

We know this: Hockey TV crews across North America rewind the tape forward, backward and they're having a tough time seeing some of these penalties.

Well, Gary, Colin and Stephen, what do you have to say?

BTW -- Kudos to OLN for their coverage so far, they've given me a reason to keep coming back night after night.

UPDATE: One odd item about tonight's OLN telecast of CAL-ANA: A number of graphics are being cut off at the edge of the screen. I guess that means that OLN is picking up an HD feed from the CBC, and simply cutting off the edges. While it's not preventing me from enjoying the game, it is a tad annoying.

If I'm wrong on the technical details, somebody feel free to let me know.