Everything Else

Coming Through Your TV

By 1850

I get that trying to support the Nashville Predators this spring has been a tricky proposition. There’s always a bit of angst about the team that knocked you out. Thankfully that’s been somewhat mitigated by their next two opponents being two teams I can’t stand, and I know I’m not alone.

There’s obviously the bigger, much bigger, that this was the organization that stood behind and re-signed Mike Ribeiro, and also employed Mike Fisher and his non-stop bible-waving arm. So I get that, too. God knows if you’re a Hawks fan you’ve dealt with enough conflict in your hearts to add any more to it.

And yet I find myself drawn to the Predators’ run here, not just because of PK Subban or Ryan Johansen simply caving in Kesler’s skull while calling him out on it, though those certainly help.

It’s the noise coming through my TV.

Everything Else

Boredom And Bullshit

By 1757

The Senators took a 1-0 lead over what looked to be a very tired Penguins team, and one that was already beat up, and all anyone could talk about was how boring the Senators are. Apparently most everyone hadn’t watched the Sens all year or in the first two rounds, and I can’t really blame you if you didn’t because the Bruins and Rangers hardly  move the interest needle either. This is what Guy Boucher does. Maybe you didn’t pay attention to what he did in Tampa, and again I don’t blame you if you didn’t because it really wasn’t worth your time.

But Guy Boucher, and the Senators as a whole, don’t owe you anything.

Everything Else

Friday Foofaraw: Mother

By 1327

If you’re new to the surroundings here, during the offseason on Fridays is when we tend to get a little loose and write about anything that happens to be on our mind. In Feather’s case, it’s almost always zombies. So here’s our first for this offseason. 

First off, she’s the one in the middle. There are two stories I’ve been told about this photo, which was taken well before I came on the scene. One is that it was a Christmas card photo from her company. The other was that it was for an article in an advertising magazine. Either way, it applied to the company my mother ran and owned, which was a placement agency in the advertising world. Every other member of my family was involved in advertising, so if you’re wondering why I’m constantly tweeting about how much I loathe 95% of advertising, this is pretty much why.

Everything Else

The Figure Four: The Conference Final Preview

By 1445

We’re in the business end now. The part where all four teams can have legitimate fantasies about parades in a month’s time. They’re halfway there, much like Mark Lanegan, and now all they need to do is repeat what they’ve already done. Let’s run it through.

 

Nashville v. Anaheim (Game One Tonight)

I really have no idea what to make of the Ducks at all. They swept a team that had the next best blue line to Nashville’s in Calgary, though a lot of that was due to Calgary’s own idiocy. In the underlying numbers, the Flames pretty much kicked the Ducks from pillar to post but watched their goaltending and discipline fail them.

On the surface then, it really shouldn’t have been all that hard against the Oilers, who has no blue line to speak of and even that was decimated in the last two games with Sekera not playing either and Klefbom missing one. And yet that took to a Game 7, and really would have been over sooner had the Ducks not thrown the biggest hail mary we’ve seen in a long time and Talbot finally succumbing to the workload he’d been given all season. Oh, and a little goalie interference didn’t hurt either.

Everything Else

Capital Destruction

By 2728

I guess it says a lot about me that I’ve always enjoyed writing about the failures of teams more than the successes. Well, “enjoyed” isn’t the right word. But the writing is better. It’s a more interesting study. There’s more layers to it, and looking forward from rubble is more interesting than just gushing about triumph. That doesn’t mean I don’t want the triumph from time to time, because otherwise I’m going to set myself on fire on the Michigan Avenue Bridge. Whether it’s the Hawks or elsewhere though, there’s just more to talk about when things go wrong for a team.

All series, I had sat here and really wondered what the Capitals would conclude if they continued to dominate this series but lost anyway. Would the panic of yet another loss, the aging of Ovechkin, the impending cap situation, and whatever other factors cause them to act rashly this summer? Or would they hold the line? Now we’ll find out.
However, it didn’t quite go that way, did it?

Everything Else

Decision Day

By 1545

I’ve seen people in some circles complain that we had to wait nearly a full month into the Stanley Cup Playoffs to get a Game 7. None in the first round and all that. Me? I love it.

Game 7s should be the thing you never want to get to. The “Please Don’t Make Us Do This” level. The absolute last resort. The “We’ve tried everything else and now this is the only way we can reach a conclusion. This is our only path to catharsis.” They should only happen a couple times per spring, to keep them special.

Because if you get a spring full of them… most of them turn out to be pretty disappointing. Rarely do you get November 2nd in Cleveland (and I still would have happily taken an easy, 6-3 Cubs win and been just as happy thank you very much) or Seabrook’s shot tipping off Kronwall’s stick and over Jimmy Howard or… well, we won’t mention that other Game 7 at home.

Everything Else

Honey Don’t Stop Tryin’ And You’ll Get What You Deserve

By 1312

A mere five days ago, I wandered in from whatever haze I was in and wrote a post on just what would the Capitals, their fans, and the hockey world in general conclude if things didn’t break their way the next three games. Because for the most part, they had done everything right and simply were not getting rewarded for it. And the last time they went down this road, they needlessly blew it all up. This time, after last year’s loss, they stuck to the plan. Are they finally getting what they have earned?

Or this being the Caps, are they reserving the biggest stomach-punch for their fandom for Wednesday night? You never can tell with this bunch.

Everything Else

On The Verge Of History…Hilarious History, Glorious History

By 1251

People, do you realize what we’re on the verge of here? Do you understand? We’re all so swept up in watching the Capitals throw away yet another brilliant team and season that I don’t think the hockey world is paying enough attention to what could happen on the other coast. The Anaheim Ducks are just one more, 60-minute spit-up from blowing their fifth-straight 3-2 lead and losing a Game 7 at home.

FIVE! They’ve done this four times in a row! They’re halfway to their 5th! Do you understand the magnitude here?! On level of sports accomplishments, this is Kerry Wood’s 20 Ks, Jordan’s 55 in the Garden, that one game where Cutler was great behind no offensive line (I forget which one). This is going to be a Picasso, a Rembrandt, a Monet of playoff idiocy.

Everything Else

Friday Foofaraw – Fireside Chat

By 1231

All hail the new lord of Tomato Cans – Tanner Glass.

It only took 65 playoff games but he finally strung together ten solid minutes of playing time and contributed 2 assists – and all in one game! Therefore, all the empirical evidence on the wasted roster spots of 4th line fighters is rendered moot and we now live in a world where everyone needs a Tanner Glass type player on their roster if they want to win 7 to 8 games in the post-season (Though I suppose that’s a step up from the combined 3 wins the Hawks have had the past two playoffs).

If you have to say anything about this Rangers/Senators series when Erik Karlsson is not involved, it’s that it will be completely forgotten by the the time it’s over and no one will ever remember it happened. God bless the Senator fans for being smart enough to realize their team has 0 realistic Cup aspirations and still had plenty of open seats for a playoff game as recently as Game 2. Perhaps some Senators fans can speak at the upcoming Bulls re-education camp this summer to help instruct some of the yokels here.

–I do feel slightly bad for Caps fans. Unfortunately, the Caps seem to have entered that rarified air of Murphy’s law of playoff weirdness that transcends sports. The Cubs and Red Sox are the first two teams that come to mind as former members of this group that needed this type of moment before they could finally break through. I’m sure there are others that aren’t coming immediately to mind.

Basically, what it boils down to is that it’s going to take a moment (or a comeback) like this if they’re ever going to win it. It’s sort of what I was expecting going into this series. There was no way the Capitals were going to sweep through or dismiss the Penguins in 5 or 6. When teams have failed this many times before and against the same team each time, it almost always requires some sort of revived from the dead/miraculous comeback.

So here they are. Down 3-1 and everyone ready to dance over their grave. If they can see past the smog of death, they’ll notice their only very difficult task will be winning one more game in Pittsburgh. If they keep playing as they are, they’re going to win (at least) one of those games in Washington quite easily. Pittsburgh would be foolish to play Crosby in anything but a Game 7 at this point. Winning the next three games shouldn’t be as monumental of a task as it probably feels to them right now.

Of course, it’s easier to say this as an outsider and not covered in the stench of previous playoff failures.

–In the West, Anaheim may have broken Cam Talbot in Game 4. With a 2-0 lead at home and facing a Ducks team that loves to fall on their face, the Oilers had their chance to put them away. That didn’t happen. Instead, the series heads back to Anaheim with the Ducks regaining home ice and the feeling that they’ve finally solved Talbot and therefore are never out of any game for the remainder of this series.

Naturally, this is the time to remind everyone that if a series was best-of-5, the Ducks would be a 7-time Cup winner already. No team loves to win 3 games and then forget how to play hockey more than this outfit. So while I’m inclined to believe Anaheim is going to push through; I will certainly not be surprised if Lucy pulls the football out from underneath them. Again.

–In one of the rare predictions we nailed in our playoff preview podcast, the winner of the Blues/Wild series appears to, indeed, be a speed bump for the winner of the Preds/Hawks series. Mike Yeo and the Blues just can’t help themselves and are more worried about what the Predators are saying to the officials between plays than how to actually slow down their attack. So the Blues will do what they do best – go away. Never change.

Should be a couple of fun ones tonight regardless who you’re rooting for.

 

Everything Else

Now The Capitals Are Fascinating

By 1527

Sometimes I think there’s this assumption about how you build a championship NHL team, or in any sport really. That you bottom out, collect your draft picks, hit on most of them, bring them through together, add the veterans at the right time and then you win. But that doesn’t really factor in for so many things that are out of your control. Because you can do all those things, and there just might be someone better or farther along their curve when you’re ready. And then when they’re done, one who is behind you on the curve is ready to come to the fore.

The Capitals have gone through this cycle twice. They had one of the NHL’s best teams in 2009 and 2010. They had blended Ovechkin with Backstrom, Semin, Green, Laich, Fehr, Fleischmann, and a few others. They amassed what now looks to be a silly 121 points. But one year, they ran into Crosby and the Penguins in 2009 when they were a post-Therrien firing buzzsaw. They lost in seven games. Not all that far away. The next year they got goalie’d by Jaro Halak. Really, these are two things out of their control. And they lost both series on something of a knife edge.