Around the League

Got a chance to watch most of the Flyers/Sabres game. I was impressed, if disappointed, by how Philly was able to come back repeatedly, and even more disappointed by the final score in OT. But it does mean that whoever wins will be even more battered and bruised, so it's not all bad. And if Buffalo ends up winning game seven, then I will end up being happy with the result.

The Predators managed to knock off the Ducks today as well, although I didn't see any of that game. Congratulations to David Poile (former, and long-time, Caps GM) on finally winning a playoff series down there. I hope you all at least make some noise in the second round.

And I watched the first two periods of the Vancouver/Chicago tilt. I was certainly ready to write off the BLackhawks after two bad losses followed by another loss where, I heard, they outplayed Vancouver. They certainly came back strong, winning the next two by a combined 12-2 margin. Today's game was much closer, as they fell behind by a goal twice in the first two periods. But each time, they managed to tie it up again. Apparently, they traded goals again in the final period of regulation before winning in OT.

I think Vancouver had to end up regretting their replacement of Luongo with Schneider. He had been pulled in each of the previous two games, so it made some sense. In fact, if I were the coach, I might have been tempted to do the same just to give him a rest, even if he hadn't had two disastrous starts. But the talking heads on TV were making a big deal of it. Who knows? Maybe it really was a big deal. In any event, I'm pretty happy; neither team would be my first choice for coming out of the Campbell Conference, so making it tougher on whoever ends up as the winner is great. And really, now that it's going the distance, I don't even really care who does end up winning.

As a side note, I still can't figure out how Chicago ended up with such a low seed (and yes, I am aware they only managed to back into that seed with a final-game loss by Dallas). They certainly aren't as deep as they were last year, but they still seem much too good for that seed.