NHL Playoff Notebook

Tampa Bay 3 Montreal 1: If things don't change soon, the folks in Tampa Bay are going to start thinking that winning a playoff series ain't no big thing. So far, they've played nine games, have eight wins (seven straight since losing Game Two of their first round series to the Islanders), and two series wins. They've looked dominant most of the time, and in the rare instances where they haven't, hot goaltending and smart fundamental hockey have bailed them out.

So, has Stanley Cup fever gripped the Tampa area? Here's some words from Tampa Tribune columnist Martin Fennelly:

Fear the Bolt.

Let Philadelphia and Toronto bloody themselves silly.

Let them tear themselves to pieces for another week.

The Lightning will be waiting.

Together.

Wow. Almost 100 percent content free. Well, that's at least one resident of Tampa who's gone Cup Crazy.

As for the Canadiens, it was a somber end to a season they ought to be proud of. If all the team had managed to do this season was make the playoffs, they would have had to call the season a success. Instead, they made the playoofs with plenty of room to spare, developed a former goon (Sheldon Souray) into a legitimate threat offensive threat on the blue line, and managed to knock the #2 seed in the conference out of the playoffs.

Head coach Claude Julien and GM Bob Gainey have laid the foundation for this team to challenge in the East for as long as Jose Theodore wears the bleu, blanc et rouge. They've got young talent (Ribero, Ryder, Komisarek), along with a top line that's still in its prime (Koivu, Kovalev, Zednik).

Gainey has made me a believer. And kudos to the Montreal fans who stayed in their seats until the end and gave the Canadiens a standing ovation as the clock wound down with the result already decided. The future is bright in Montreal.

Tampa Bay wins series 4-0.

Detroit 4 Calgary 2: The next time somebody asks me why I love ice hockey, I'm going to want to reach for the videotape of those 18 seconds last night when the Saddledome rocketed from somber to supersonic. When Ville Nieminen faked Curtis Joseph out of his jock strap to score just moments after Martin Gelinas got Calgary back into the game, I rocketed out of my chair.

But as great as the moment might have been, I'm left wondering if it won't be Calgary's high-water mark this season. After all, Detroit took their best punch on the road, and was still able to secure a solid win on enemy ice. We're down to a best of three, with two of those games coming in Detroit.

They've won there before, but can they do it again? Dan Toth of the Calgary Sun is wondering:

The chance to take control of the series slipped through their fingers and Martin Gelinas knows it. "It was a 2-2 game, we battled back from a 2-0 deficit and we had 20 minutes to make it happen -- that's a huge opportunity but we didn't make it happen. We didn't pull through. We didn't have everybody going the way we had the previous game," the veteran Flames winger suggested after last night's 4-2 loss to Detroit, evening the best-of-seven series.

"We need to get back to our game. We need everybody to compete, play well and we need to play for 60 minutes."

Martin Gelinas -- grizzled hockey veteran, proven cliche machine. Catch him on the ice on Saturday afternoon.

Series tied 2-2.

Eric 12:16 PM

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Tracked on May 3, 2004 11:21 AM