Imbecilic. Just imbecilic.

So I watched two games this weekend: the Detroit-Calgary game yesterday and the Tampa-New Jersey game today.

The Detroit-Calgary game was a blow-out by Detroit, starting with the second period. But, the... exciting period, I guess you could say... was the third period.

It all started with Jamie McClennan whacking Johan Franzen in the stomach with his goalie stick. If you haven't seen it yet, go here.
A horrible, "imbecilic", low move by the backup goalie.

Sadly, this was only part of it. Then, Jarome Iginla the captain of the Calgary Flames just continues to cross-check/stab the Red Wings player who is nowhere near the puck as they're coming down the ice. (Sorry, no video for that one.)

This game actually made me feel sorry for the Red Wings. You know that the Flames played bad if I'm actually siding with a team from Detroit.

McClennan was suspended for five games, the Calgary coach was fined $25,000, and the organization was fined $100,000.

Anyways... the Tampa/Jersey game was a lot less vicious, but the outcome still wasn't the one that I wanted. Tampa lost 3-2, and they had absolutely no chances in the last three minutes of the game to even try to tie it up. Jeez, I've never seen such ineptitude when the goalie is pulled (I'm looking at you as well, Atlanta Game 2). At least the Canes manage to get it into the offensive zone...

*sigh*

Now I need to find a new foster team...

And the Canes-less postseason goes on...

I'm really going through Canes hockey withdrawal here... there's only so much you can post about other teams victories before you get incredibly bored with the proceedings...

Ex-Cane Sean Hill was suspended for 20 games after violating the league's performance enhancing substances program. He is the first player to be suspended.
Nice.

Buffalo won their series, Sharks won their series, and my foster team lost to the Devils.

Today Detroit plays Calgary in their tied series and Vancouver looks to win over Dallas.

And... that's it.

A rather blunt post...

The Canes who will be playing in the World Championships are: Mike Commodore, Eric Staal, Cam Ward, Justin Williams (for team Canada) and Chad LaRose, Andrew Hutchinson, John Grahame and the best power forward evah!

A rather blunt way to begin the post, but there's nothing else to really begin with...

Ottawa won last night, thereby winning in the Pittsburgh series 4-1.
Anaheim won last night, thereby winning in the Minnesota series 4-1.
Calgary won last night, tying their series with Detroit 2-2!
And, Dallas won in overtime, bringing that series to only a 3-2 Vancouver lead.

Tonight, Buffalo and San Jose could win, and either New Jersey or Tampa will take the lead in that series. Me hopes my foster team wins.

Assorted News and Thoughts and Stuff

Well, the Atlanta Thrashers were the first to fall out of the playoffs last night, after being swept in the series 4-0.

I did not watch that game last night, instead having the Buffalo-Islanders game on Quondam-OLN. It was a pleasent surprise to see that John Forslund was calling the game, and it kind of made me feel at home in this strange Canes-less playoff world.

I would have rather watched the Devils-Lightning overtime game, but, sadly, it was not to be. My foster team lost on a Scott Gomez goal. The series is tied 2-2.

For tonight, three teams can be knocked out of the playoffs: the Pittsburgh Penguins, Minnesota Wild, and Dallas Stars.

On a slightly delayed note, I totally burned everyone in my fantasy hockey league - the closest person being within a mere 286 points. The cool part? Take out the "8" and guess what number you get? Exactly. Details on Confessions of a Hockey Fanatic here.

Hmm... I think that's all I had to say... No Canes news to speak of...

Stuff in General

Hockey news today:

Canes signed their goaltending coach, Greg Stefan, to a contract and upgraded his status to Assistant Coach.

USA hockey named the first 18 players to it's World Championship roster. Erik Cole, Chad LaRose, and John Grahame made the team! YaY America!
Anyways... besides my 1st round predictions being viciously torn apart, there's not much else in sports-news-world...

My foster team plays tonight... although, if I end up watching a game, it'll be the Buffalo-Islanders one, because that's the one on the Quondam-OLN.

Speaking of which, I saw the Pittsburgh-Ottawa game last night. Pittsburgh just melted after the first period.

And, for those of you who care, my Atlanta trip recap is coming... it's halfway typed, but I have to finish my Chemistry homework first.

I'm back!

I'm back!

In the Canes news department, they resigned Ray Whitney to a 3.5 mil (ish), 3 year contract.
Good. Now all we need to do is sign Walker.

In the foster team department, Tampa Bay is tied 1-1 in their series with Jersey. Didn't see either of the games, but it's a good sign that Tampa won one.

In the I went to see playoff hockey department, I saw both Atlanta playoff games - they lost both.

I was going to do this whole highlight thing of my first trip into "Blueland", but I really don't feel like typing now, so it'll come later today or tomorrow.

Foster team playoff preview

So, now that I have officially adopted a foster team for the remainder of the playoffs, I guess I better look at the playoff matchup.

#2 New Jersey Devils v. #7 Tampa Bay Lightning
So, the two big people for Tampa Bay are Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier. They play an insane amount of minutes each game, and have an insane amount of points to show for it. Otherwise, there's Vaclav Prospal, Brad Richards, and Dan Boyle thrown in the mix.
Tampa's goaltending has been kind of sketchy this year, which is probably their weak point.

On the other side of the ice, goaltending is New Jersey's strong point with Martin Brodeur in net. But, if you can beat him, the team falls apart. (Anybody remember the 7-2 win the Canes had over Jersey? My point exactly. Chad LaRose 4-evah!) Jersey tends to play extremely defensively - they score, and then go on defense. Because of this, Jersey doesn't really have any high scoring people on their team - Patrik Elias leads the team with 69 points. That's against Lecavalier's 108.

So, offense against defense. Good goaltending against so-so goaltending. Who will prevail? I'm hoping for my foster team, the Tampa Bay Lightning!

Anyways... while crawling the web I found some blogs that actually follow these teams.
My foster team:
Bolts Blog
Boltsmag
Tampa Bay Lightning

The enemy:
2 Man Advantage
In Lou We Trust

Up next: Playoff Predictions for the whole league! Yeah, time for me to make a fool of myself! YaY!