NHL Playoff Notebook

The first round pretenders continued to fall over the weekend, with the Islanders walking the plank first on Friday in Tampa. For the first time since Game Two of the series the Islanders put in an honest effort, but it was all for naught when Isles defenseman Kenny Jonsson turned the puck over the Fredrik Modin at the Islanders blue line in OT. A few seconds later it was all over, courtesy of a Martin St. Louis rising cannon shot that rocketed over Rick DiPietro's shoulder and into the net for a 3-2 Tampa Bay win, and a 4-1 series victory. While the Lightning advance to the second round, the Islanders now face an offseason where nearly all of their players are no longer under contract, save for the highly paid but low-producing Alexi Yashin and Michael Peca.

Joining the Islanders on the first tee at Bethpage Black this week are their neighbors in New Jersey, who meekly laid down their defense of the Cup with a 3-1 loss to Philly on Saturday. It was only a day later that the Devils announced that head coach Pat Burns has Colon Cancer -- leading the Devils into a postseason with more questions than any in their recent history.

Elswhere on Saturday, Detroit finally rid us of the meddlesome Predators, downing them 2-0 on Saturday afternoon, and securing a 4-2 series win. I had planned to watch the game at home here in Northern Virginia, but the local ABC affiliate decided to switch coverage to the Flyers-Devils at the last minute. Unfortunately, nobody was home at Comcast Cable, and they continued the blackout the NHL Center Ice feed of the Detroit-Nashville game. The result: two channels airing the Devils-Flyers game, just the situation the anachronistic television blackout rules were devised to avoid.

Note to the NHL: If I pay to see all of the games, you shouldn't be blacking out any broadcast. Besides, are your ratings so high these days that it even matters?

That same afternoon, the Avalanche finished off the Stars, 5-1, taking their series 4-1, and blasting my own Stanley Cup prediction out of the water. It's hard to believe that the Stars went into the third period tied, 1-1. It was then that the wheels came off, and another Pierre Lacroix hidden treasure, Marek Svatos, got a chance to prove that the presence of Paul Kariya and Teemue Selanne in the Colorado lineup are rather superfluous.

Fortunately, we still have three series left alive, and a trio of Game Seven showdowns over the next two nights. On Saturday, Les Habintants held off Boston once more, 5-2, to force a Game Seven back in Boston on Monday night. With the back to back wins, and the realization that two of Boston's victories came in OT, the series has taken on a whole new complexion. Off Wing reader Jerry from Drummondville, Quebec, says that Montreal's Claude Julien is cleary outcoaching Boston's Mike Sullivan, nullifying Boston's top line, and freeing Alex Kovalev to become a playoff monster.

Later that night, completing a beautiful Hockey Night In Canada, the Flames stormed back from a 4-0 deficit to tie the Canucks in regulation, only to eventually lose in the third OT courtesy of Brendan Morrisson, 5-4.

I know the hockey gods are smiling upon us. Why? Because they let the Battle of Ontario get to a seventh game. First, Ed Belfour authored another 2-0 shutout of the Senators on Friday, and then we were treated to another multiple OT game, with Mike Fisher finally ending the pain in the third OT, giving Ottawa a 2-1 win.

But the mighty city of Toronto remains defiant:

"It was a hard-fought game," Leafs forward Joe Nieuwendyk said as he scurried for the team bus. "We would have liked to end it now but this is no time to hang our heads.

"It just shows the importance of winning that final regular-season game."

Nieuwendyk was referring to the Leafs' 6-0 blowout of the Sens on April 3, a victory that allowed Toronto to finish one point ahead of Ottawa in the Eastern Division standings.

The result was home-ice advantage for Toronto in the first round, an edge the Leafs now will attempt to exploit.

"That's what you play 82 games for," defenceman Bryan McCabe said. "It's something you hope you don't have to use, but now that we're in this position we'll take it."

Of course, we would have never gotten to OT had Ottawa's Patrick Lalime not made a wonderful pad save in the closing moments of regulation to get the Senators into OT in the first place. Unfortunately, we have to wait until Tuesday night for Game Seven.

For readers looking for news on the Mike Danton arrest, and the accompanying speculation about his personal life, click here, here, and here.

Eric 06:49 AM

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Posted by: at April 19, 2004 11:53 AM

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