I’ll lead with the new home team, the Austin Stars (Texas is weak and besides, it’s Austinites putting the majority of their butts in those seats, not the residents of Cedar Park, they’re too busy collecting the money in the parking lot and concession stands!). They lost their final game against Houston last night. Not great yet it wasn’t critical to affecting the outcome of anything. Word has it they have a lot of injuries which is why I haven’t seen key players on the ice: Greg Rallo in particular. I was (and still am) guessing this may be more of a ruse to the opposition because it would be better to let our scoring forwards rest on non-essential games. I’m likely to be wrong on this since Perttu Lindgren played and got clocked pretty hard by some jerk from the SA Rampage (the dude led with his elbow too).
Friday will be the first game of possibly seven agains the Rockford Icehogs. Stars have the home-ice advantage for the series. They need to win both before heading north. If they don’t, I predict they will be eliminated. I will not be saddened though. This was their inaugural season and they exceeded my expectations; it’s a new organization and they’re attached to Dallas who had a pretty weak year. In contrast, San Antonio has had the Rampage around since 2003 and those guys have only been to the playoffs ONCE along with three changes in their affiliation: originally they were with the Florida Panthers, now they’re primarily with the Phoenix Coyotes and have a deal to take in the Anaheim Ducks’ guys until the AHL adds a 30th (or something) solution.
How will the remaining seven matches go? I’ll take a stab at it based upon the numbers and what little I’ve seen of some when they visited us.
- Worcester Sharks v. Lowell Devils > Worcester Sharks
- Manchester Monarchs v. Portland Pirates > Portland Pirates
- Hershey Bears (current champs) v. Bridgeport Sound Tigers > Hershey Bears easily
- Albany River Rats v. WBS Penguins > going on a limb with the WBS Penguins, Albany is moving to Charlotte
- Hamilton Bulldogs v. Winnipeg Moose > Hamilton Bulldogs
- Rochester Americans v. Abbotsford Heat > Rochester Americans
- Chicago Wolves v. Milwaukee Admirals > Chicago Wolves, those guys dominated the second half of the season
Meanwhile, my Philly Flyers limped across the finish line with a shootout victory against the NY Rangers who shared the same dilemma; win to play another two weeks or make plans for a Tuesday morning tee time, say 10 AM. My mind is blown over them nailing the seventh seed over eight. I figured the Flyers would choke today since they did Friday evening against those same, desperate Rangers. I guess the Flyers prevailed because the people of NYC are more accustomed to disappointment in hockey than Philly. It’s only fair. NYC dominants in baseball through the Yankees lately. I’ll give the New Yorkers the most boring American, televised sport and keep the more interesting one to my teams.
The victory is mixed. On one (positive) hand, this maintains the Broad Street Bullies’ reputation for being a winning franchise during the regular season and having only missed the playoffs seven times in 42 years (I may have to correct this after I catch the Philly papers tomorrow). Many of the other 29 teams only wish to have such a problem. The other (negative) hand holds many other criticisms of what this is bad: the management stay the course; this hurts their chances in the upcoming draft; it falsely vindicates bringing on Pronger (he is an ill-tempered mistake) and nothing has been done to address the lack future talent playing for the Phantoms. Not long ago, the St. Louis Blues had a 25-year streak of making the playoffs. Their fans grew weary of it because the Blues were never serious Cup contenders at the end. Hence, I’m in favor of either shortening the season to 60 games or just let the division winners and one wild card advance. Allowing the other four teams in each conference continue is wasting everybody else’s time. Sure there have been upsets: the Minneapolis North Stars going to the Cup in 1991, the Canadian teams in recent years weren’t in the top three; yet these successes feel more like spoilers and it rewards mediocre seasons. My Flyers are going in close to .500 with injuries, a coach I don’t like (the guy who got the ‘Canes a Cup), poor offense and questionable goalies (I love Boucher to death, he just isn’t the starter). I’m expecting elimination in five games by the Devils.
As for the rest of the NHL? I haven’t watched much this season due to our lack of cable and online packages being rather overpriced. I’ll just go with who I think the Stanley Cup matchup will be until the next round.
Chicago Blackhawks v. Washington Capitals, advantage Capitals.
I would prefer the San Jose Sharks but they tend to choke in the playoffs and I will be cheering for all teams against the Pittsburgh Penguins because Cindy Crosby is an overrated d-bag. I do want to congratulate the Phoenix Coyotes for their first post-season appearance in about a decade. Hard to believe it would take bankruptcy and the threat of moving to Hamilton, ON to finally get their collective act together!