First Round Recap

Well, that was certainly the first round, wasn't it?

For those of you living under a rock, you pretty much missed the best opening round of hockey playoffs in an extremely long time. Two game sevens, a score of overtimes, excellent goaltending, upsets galore!

Let's start with the East, shall we? The Montreal Canadiens upset the Washington C[r]apitals in seven games after it looked like Washington had wrapped the series up at 3-1. Considering this was the only series I was able to watch, let me tell you - Jaroslav Halak was a beast. I believe in Game 7 he stopped something like 46 shots, and he had a similar performance in the previous games. He absolutely, completely stonewalled what everyone had thought was the best team in the East.

Of course, the C[r]apitals 1-for-33 powerplay didn't help matters, either...

The Flyers upset the Devils in a series that made Martin Brodeur look old compared to... Brian Boucher? Holy crap, no wonder Jacques Lemaire retired from behind the bench after this series.

To finish the East: Buffalo lost to the Bruins and the Pens managed to beat the Senators. The Boston-Buffalo series looked like a fun one to watch - tons of fights and an epic goaltending battle between Ryan Miller and Tuukka Rask. Makes my day to see the Sabres go home early, though. And, yes for those of you keeping track, the only upper seed to advance in the East was #4 Pittsburgh. So much for the top of the conference being elite, eh?

Out in the West things were slightly more predictable - the only "upset" was the Red Wings over the Coyotes, although they had to push the series to a game seven to beat the Phoenix team. And, no, I'm not counting the Sharks advancing in the first round as an upset.

So, for the second round, the Sharks are already up by one game over the Wings, and the Pens defeated Montreal earlier tonight 6-3. And, no, I'm not doing predictions because with the way this playoffs season is going, they'll all be wrong. Although, I think I'm still rooting for the B's because I pretty much dislike every other team.

Don't expect any wonderfully coherent playoff posts anytime soon - lack of VS has me cut off from most of the hockey experience now that the C[r]apitals are out (and with them the homerific Comcast coverage) - and not to mention finals for this college student are approaching fast. So, I guess expect the normal kind of post eventually.