2nd Round Schedule, first 2 games

According to www.tsn.ca, the Bruins and Hurricanes will play game 1 on Friday at 7:30, and game 2 Sunday at 7:30. More to come...

Let the second round begin! (Finally)

Well looks like I was right in my predictions, although the scores were a little off from what I expected. In the earlier game, the Capitals fought off elimination by wearing down a stingy Rangers team. Lundqvist played amazing, but was fooled on a crazy redirection for Washington's first goal. And on Washington's second goal, The King had no chance as playoff veteran Sergei Federov sniped a laser beam to give Washington the GWG. It was a great series and I hope the Capitals and Penguins go 7 games as well. I am sad the Rangers didn't win though for one reason: I wanted to see how big former Bruin's Paul Mara's beard would get.

This thing could have been like grizzly adams!

The Hurricanes pulled off an improbable win tonight by scoring twice in the games final minutes, and did it away from home. Being down 3-2 late in the 3rd period, the Hurricanes rallied back and won the game and the series 4-3. I like the match up for the Bruins. The B's beat the Hurricanes 4-0 in the regular season. Although those numbers don't mean anything anymore, the Bruins still should hold the edge in most categories. But don't underestimate the 'Canes. They were one of the hottest teams leading into the postseason, and will look to continue their surge into Boston. I hope the series starts Thursday with game 2 being Saturday night, but who knows. We'll have to wait and see tomorrow.



As for the western conference...wow. Thank you Anaheim for knocking off the Sharks. Jumbo Joe didn't really look jumbo at all. In fact, the best quote about him: "Built like Tarzan, plays like Jane." I think that about sums up Thornton and his Sharks. The Ducks will now take on the task of trying to oust the #2 seed, the defending Stanley Cup Champions Detroit Red Wings. In the other series, we have the Canucks against the Blackhawks. I look for this series to be decided by the goaltending, the Sedin twins, and the young guns for Chicago.

My predictions:
#1 Bruins over #6 Hurricanes (Bruins should beat this team, key word being should)
#3 4 Penguins over #2 Capitals (Sid the Kid outlasts Alexander the Great)

#8 Ducks over #2 Red Wings (Thats right, I went there!)
#4 Blackhawks over #3 Canucks (The Bulin wall will stand tall)

In any case, the series to watch for this round is Washington vs Pittsburgh. The league's most marketable names, Ovechkin vs Crosby, squaring off in the playoffs for the first time, but definitely not the last. More fuel for the fire that burns between the 2 superstars.

7th Heaven for Tuesday Night

2 great series come to an end tonight, as the Caps and Rangers square off at the Verizon Center for game 7, and the Canes and Devils face off in NJ for their own game 7. Before I get to these, I wanna toot my own horn again for picking the winners last night. With the Sharks losing as bad as they did, look for that team to be blown up, or at least shaken up personel wise over the summer. I predict they could fall to a #5 or #6 seed in next years playoffs. As for the Blackhawks, I see them going to the conference finals. They are the Bruins of the west: young, energetic, and have great goaltending.

For tonights game 7's, its gonna be tough. What I want is Carolina to win, and the Rangers to win. But ultimately, I think the Caps advance to the next round. They don't have Donald Brashear but I don' think that really matters. As for the Canes and Devils, I am gonna go with Carolina. However, rooting against a team with Marty Brodeur is never an easy thing to do. I think the Caps win by at least 2 goals, and the Hurricanes win by at most 2 goals, with one of them probably being an empty netter. Lets hope I am right.

Bruins vs Canes would be a good test, but Caps and Penguins would be Epic. That would be a fantastic series to watch. Lets hope these things happen.

Monday night games

I think I was pretty dead on this weekend with calling the games. The only team that screwed me was the Flyers, who blew a 3 goal lead. I was right about the Hurricanes last night. The Capitals look really good right now. They are clicking on all Cylinders. However, the league suspended Capitals tough-guy/goon Donald Brashear for 6 games, due to his vicious hit on NY Rangers forward Blair Betts. Yet the league didn't do shit to the Habs for all their shenanigans in game 1, or Komisucksass' cheap shot on Lucic in game 4. Colin Campbell needs to be fired, but that is a topic for a different time...

As for 2nites games, I might need to make a slight change on my predictions from a few days ago. Before I said that the Blackhawks/Flames would go 7, but now I am begining to think the Blackhawks will close it out 2nite. Calgary is without Dion Phaneuf, one of the best D-men in the league. I think this hurts their chances, and I will say a young and energized Chi-town closes it out 2nite. As for the Ducks/Sharks, I'm sticking with the Ducks winning and closing out the series 2nite. If the Ducks don't win 2nite, the Sharks will comeback and win it. It's up to Jonas Hiller to stand tall one more time for the Ducks.

I hope the opening 2 Bruins games fall on Thursday and Saturday. I don't know how much longer I can wait. I'm sure the players can't wait either haha. We'll see if I'm right about 2nite's predictions.

Weekend update

Well I was pretty much dead on with my predictions. Except for the Flyers, and they should have won that game. They were up 3-0 and lost. Pathetic. They didn't deserve to win. I forgot to pick a winner in the game between the Devils and Hurricanes, so I will do that now before the puck drops.

Hurricanes over Devils (I am hoping for Hurricanes in 7)

Since the Rangers lost today, I am starting to get scared that the Bruins might have to face Pittsburgh. That would be a really tough matchup. If the Devils win tonight, then the Rangers need to win in order for the Bruins to get the better matchup. Let's go Hurricanes! (for 2nite and Tuesday anyways)

The Russians Rock The Red...

(Getty Images)

Holy crap. The Washington Capitals are alive and well. Led by Alexander the Great, Alexander Semin, and the 20 year old rookie sensation Simeon Varlamov in net, the Russian led Capitals steamrolled the Blueshirts 4-0 for the second time in this strange series. Matt Bradley netted 2 goals in the 1st period. His first goal was a pretty shorthanded goal and the second was a softie Queen Henrik would have liked back. Ovechkin had the best goal of the playoffs, with a nifty dangle around everyone, and a great finish.

The Rangers decided to bench leaguewide bad guy Sean Avery. Although he was a bonehead the last game, he may have been useful in this one. The Capitals now have life, and are looking to push this series to a 7th game. Some stupid fan poured beer on Rangers coach John Tortorella. Needless to say, Rangers fans at MSG will probably return the favor to Baldheaded Bruce Boudreau. If the Capitals can somehow pull off the comeback, whoever they face will be in for once tough series. The knock on them coming into the playoffs was their goaltending. Well we know Theodore sucks, but his rookie "backup" and probably Washington's future #1 Varlamov is playing lights out. And with the Capitals offense showing signs of life, this team is becoming a scary team. I hope the Rangers can somehow hold off the Capitals, because I think the Bruins could beat the Rangers in 5-6 games.

In anycase, this weekend will definitely help shape out the next round. Will the Orange Crush march back to Pittsburg to face the Penguins? Will the Blackhawks tomahawk the Flames in pivitol game 5? And will Team Disney take a bite out of the Sharks once and for all?

My predictions for Saturday:

Flyers over Pittsburgh (This one needs to go 7, great battle of Pennsylvania going on)
Blackhawks over Flames (Blackhawks are awesome at home, this one is going 7 too)

Sharks over Ducks (Sharks still might have some bite in them. This one ends in 6)

As for Sunday, with the Rags vs the Caps:

Capitals over Rangers (This one is going the distance)

Buckle your seatbelts, this weekend is going to provide some awesome hockey.

BTW, what the hell is the deal with the guy in the blue shirt on the right in the picture? Weirdo...

Calling Jumbo Joe...

So the San Jose Sharks are down 3-1 to the 8th seeded Anaheim Ducks. Now although Anaheim isn't your normal 8th seed, the question needs to be asked: Where are you Jumbo Joe? He is an abismal 0-2-2 and a -4 in 4GP for the President's Trophy winning Sharks. It isn't all his fault, but he isn't helping his reputation of being a sensational player in the regular season while being invisible in the playoffs. Last season Joe was 2-8-10 and a +3 in 13GP. That isn't that bad, but after having a superb regular season of 29-67-96 and a +18 in 82GP, you would think he would be producing more. As a Bruins fan, I was so mad when we traded Jumbo Joe. But as the years have gone on, I have come to realize that was a great move. In hindsight, this one move helped shape the Bruins team we have today. The B's got Wayne Primeau, Brad Stuart, and Marco Sturm. Then they traded Primeau and Stuart to the Calgary Flames for Chuck Kobasew and Andrew Ference. And with the money saved from trading Joe, the Bruins landed Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard. So in essense we got Chara, Savard, Kobasew, Ference and Sturm for Thornton. Not a bad trade now huh?

If the Ducks can pull of the upset, they would then play the #2 seed and defending Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Redwings. If the Bruins can make it to the finals, they would have home ice. I am rooting for the Ducks to beat the Sharks, AND the Redwings. Those are the 2 toughest matchups I see for the Bruins out in the Western Conference. Now it's up to the Bruins to make it to the finals. If they can do that, and the Ducks do their part, the Bruins could be sipping some ice cold champagne out of Lord Stanley's Cup in June.

Coming Back to this thing

I've decided to change the format of the original Bostonrinkrats.com into a blogging style. This whole blogging thing is kinda new to me, although I did have a livejournal account that I used to write in alot. But this one will be mostly Bruins related: my takes on games, trades, etc. I will try to keep it up to date as much as I can, but I won't make any promises. More to come soon.

Go Go Black and Gold!!!