Matchups are set:

Nashville/Phoenix
St. Louis/Los Angeles
Washington/New York
New Jersey/Philly

Well mostly just Phoenix vs Nashville
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<---- At least we have this

I expect a pretty similar series to Boston.

Maybe slightly more offense.

UNITE AGAINST EVIL!!!

http://i50.tinypic.com/2ihbk0j.jpg

# of canadians on each team:

Phoenix (15) - Antoine Vermette, Gilbert Brule, Taylor Pyatt, Ray Whitney, Daymond Langkow, Raffi Torres, Kyle Chipchura, Shane Doan, Boyd Gordon, Marc-Antoine Pouliot, Adrian Aucoin, Mike Smith, Derek Morris, David Schlemko, Paul Bissonnette.

Los Angeles (13) – Justin Williams, Mike Richards, Jarret Stoll, Dustin Penner, Willie Mitchell, Jeff Carter, Drew Doughty, Brad Richardson, Kyle Clifford, Dwight King, Jordan Nolan, Colin Fraser, Jonathan Bernier.

Washington (13) - Brooks Laich, Joel Ward, Mike Knuble, Troy Brouwer, Mike Green, Jason Chimera, John Erskine, Jay Beagle, Karl Alzner, Dennis Wideman, Jeff Schultz, Mathieu Perreault, Braden Holtby.

St. Louis (12) - Andy McDonald, Carlo Colaiacovo, David Perron, Alex Pietrangelo, Jason Arnott, Kris Russell, Scott Nichol, Matt D’Agostini, Ryan Reaves, Kent Huskins, Chris Stewart, Brian Elliott.

Philadelphia (12) - Claude Giroux, Daniel Briere, Brayden Schenn, Scott Hartnell, Sean Couturier, Maxime Talbot, Matt Read, Wayne Simmonds, Braydon Coburn, Marc-Andre Bourdon, Zac Rinaldo, Eric Wellwood.

Nashville (10) – Gabriel Bourque, Kevin Klein, Shea Weber, Nick Spaling, Mike Fisher, Matt Halischuk, Brandon Yip, Francis Bouillon, Jordon Tootoo, Ryan Ellis.

N.Y. Rangers (6) - Brad Richards, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal, John Mitchell, Brandon Prust, Marty Biron.

New Jersey (6) - Travis Zajac, Steve Bernier, David Clarkson, Bryce Salvador, Martin Brodeur, Adam Henrique.

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/opinion/2012/04/no-canadian-clubs-left-were-here-to-help.html

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<---- At least we have this

I have a better feeling about this series than I did about the Canucks. Not because we are playing the Blues. But because we have played well. Out right dominating a couple of games then stealing a couple of others. Quick has been on a good one. Should be a nice series. I expect this one to go 6 or 7.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

Carter looked pretty good in Game 4 and at least moving better in Game 5. They need those guys to get it going. There won't be a lot of even strength scoring in this series. Whatever there is will probably come off of turnovers, need a big fore-check from the bottom lines.

I think the Kings can win the series but they are up against it a little bit. St Louis does a lot of things really consistently, that's how teams have won so far in the playoffs.

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I kind of like this Blues team and they'd be a cool contrast against the Flyers (whom I am obviously rooting for), especially with Hitchcock coming back to town. He kind of sucked the fun out of the game but he got a lot out of his Flyers teams.

I don't really care who wins the West that much, I get to do the Finals no matter what. I guess it would be cool if the Kings made it but I'm not too hung up on it.

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Two A.M. on the 91 freeway lookin spooky,
headed to this girl house to get my dooky. (c)

.
<<<<< The Note

could have used another fan

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

How fucking MAD was I that Ottawa could not score throwing the whole goddamn kitchen at Lundqvist in Game 7?

Anyway, I actually think the Caps have a decent chance of taking out the Rangers. They will need more great goaltending and excessively dull five-on-five play to do it but as cleanly as they executed, they can do it. They remind me a bit of Montreal and their run to the conference finals with Halak. The Rangers I thought played a very average series, if they didn't have Lundqvist I doubt they would have even reached Game 7 (although Anderson played very well also).

I'm going to go out on a limb and take the Caps in 7, why not? I thought they'd do nothing in the first round, turns out they were working toward this time all along, I guess. I didn't see them really put it together until about 80 games into the year, but that is the right time to do it.

I'll even go further out and say that Ovechkin has a decent series. How about Semin? Where did that come from? He was playing hard every shift. Hunter did a nice job managing minutes and pulling strings, I thought.

The Flyers should have no trouble with the Devils, who would have continued their playoff losing streak if they didn't run into kind of a weak opponent. Flyers power-play is on fire, their PK went from top-ranked to just rank in short order. I like Philly in six or less.

In the West, I mean you can nitpick this or that but both series have even teams. I took Nashville to win the Cup so I am kind of forced to take them but I think Phoenix might get them. They will have to hold home ice to do it, if Nashville gets the split here, I think they are boned. Nashville in 6.

STL-LA is going to be a brutal series, guys are just going to beat the shit out of each other. Could be seven games and seven goals lol, although there is always the odd high-scoring affair in those types of series. I like the Blues because they were great at home during the year and they took care of business there during the first round. Yes, they lost once but 2-1 was better than most teams and they really should have won all three. How they failed to score in the first OT of Game 1 remains a mystery to me. They win their home games and they win the series, I actually think they will get 3/4 and a road win, so they win in 7.

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I'm going with 5 shutouts... One isn't happening tonight, but between the 2 series, I think 5 is a number that's not out of reach...

_____________________________________________________________
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and I might take the under, I am going to say three.

teams find ways to score.

phoenix was pretty lucky tonight. they were lucky that they didn't give up more in the third for openers. that goal that was reviewed they got a quick whistle. the faceoff, in a way it exemplified hanzal's value. plays d, blocks shots, stands in front, wins faceoffs (ding), creates space (ding). but really they got a lucky bounce off the puck drop that made it happen. well-timed risk, i guess, definitely was a set play aided by a bounce.

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Would it surprise you if Smith had one shut out in this series?? What about Rinne getting one shut out?? and Quick?? and Elliot??

If each goalie just got 1 shutout, that would be 4 already... 5 is a high number, but not out of reach by any means...

_____________________________________________________________
Everyone here hates pop music, but loves Michael Jackson... Okay Player...

More likely that any given guy records zero than two. In the first round, the four guys had two between them, three sort of since Elliot played a little more than half of a shutout in relief of Halak. So I think 3-4 seems right.

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father inlaw got hooked up since the tickets the company gave him for game 6 last round didnt happen. He said they were going to be on the glass. That would be awesome. If not we are in PR6 or the company suite. Cant lose.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

Up top fighting altitude sickness with free Popcornopolis.

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not working with them anymore?

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

the press box is on top of the back row and the only thing that lasts the whole game is sugary ass popcorn.

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I thought it was above the suites. One day we gotta do some beers after the game or before.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

even the broadcast booths now are moving up to the top.

in san jose there is not even a press box, it is scaffolding high above the arena. like some shit van damme would have chased a villain around during "sudden death." if you're scared of heights, it's not for you.

beers after a game sound good, i usually leave the arena just after 11. hit up mic specialist, he has my number.

<<< Separated at birth

definitely when i dont have the little one in tow.

That Sharks box sounds nuts. You should snap some pics of it. I am interested in how to looks and how the view is. I picture one of those window washer boxes just bigger.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

It's pretty well supported scaffolding that hangs down off the roof, there is a perimeter row that goes around all four sides and that is where everyone sits. Then there is a little mess of connecting alleys from one side to the other with big sandbags hanging down that you have to kind of side step as you cross over to get a soda or whatever (hot dog, pretzels, soda, pretty bare bones food setup!). There are desks along all the perimeter rows, they have enough space for three computers on the corners and maybe six on each one on the sides. There are three rows of wire (kind of like a wrestling or boxing ring) to enclose each row of scaffolding.

It sounds pretty weird because it is. It's kind of funny to look at. There was some kid there from their minor league team once, they had a big crew of the Worcester kids in there because they'd been knocked out of the AHL playoffs, who kind of freaked out. He was like "Where is my seat?" and then got pretty nervous, I think they moved him into a regular seat.

I don't dread it that much but I was relieved in the playoffs when they set up a secondary set of press seating which had a better view and normal tables/chairs.

The story is that when they designed the arena they overlooked luxury suites and press seating. To put them in with the plan as it was, they would have had to reduce the capacity to like 13,000 or so. So they delayed construction and put in the boxes, somehow the press seating fell by the wayside anyway. I think that's why they played in the Cow Palace initially, delay in building the arena.

<<< Separated at birth

that sounds insane

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

i am probably making it out to sound scarier than it is but it's pretty goddamn weird. i've never seen anything like it. there are some kind of cramped ones but a lot of them are nice. boston is killer, seating ALL the way around the upper bowl, good ass food, plenty of elbow room, etc. philly is pretty good, too. staples is not bad, if they have the finals there then they will have a lot of seating. when i stay for clippers games i am all alone so they must have a separate nba press box the same way they have separate nba locker rooms.

<<< Separated at birth

I'm lightweight pulling for them cuz I love Dave Tippet. Dude just seems like a rugged, no bullshit kind of coach.

Not to take anything away from them but if that set the tone for the series then I really like Nashville's chances. It was luck in a "residue of opportunity and design" kind of way, but still luck.

The Preds dragged a little coming out but in the third period and OT they were dominant. Smith played huge for PHX. That goal that was reviewed probably should have counted, quick whistle saved them. Then the OT they don't have a lot of possession. Get an offensive zone draw and a PERFECT bounce off the puck drop.

Don't get me wrong, I was talking about Hanzal a couple days ago and said he was the guy player in the series because 1) he wins draws 2) he creates space 3) he goes to the dirty areas and gets his stick on pucks (plus plays great defense and blocks shots). He did all those things there but the way he was able to win it and how they executed that cleanly was all off the hop.

Game 2 is pretty big, if Nashville wins I think they win the series, if PHX wins I think they have a very good chance.

<<< Separated at birth

Damn, it's hard watching games where they give him a mic...



I swear there is one or 2 players on each team he stays on his knees for...

_____________________________________________________________
Everyone here hates pop music, but loves Michael Jackson... Okay Player...

True story.

<<< Separated at birth

Perron with the redirect.

go down 1-0, lose home ice (for a team that was awesome at home) and lose your best player.

that doesn't sound good.

<<< Separated at birth

WE GANGSTA!!!!!

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Two A.M. on the 91 freeway lookin spooky,
headed to this girl house to get my dooky. (c)

damn Quick stole that game. They were lucky to get out of the first period tied 1-1. Blues dominated the whole period. They got lazy for a minute and the Kings were able to tie it up. I think that took the wind out of their sails. They never looked the same after that. Kings controlled the second period. Blues again let their guard down after King's penalty and we got that shorty. I love the way we are playing right now. Even when we cant get our offense going our defense and goal keeping are solid.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

yeah like hitchcock said they "deferred" or backed off a lot after the first period. i couldnt really figure out why. they took all those penalties late in the game, too. kings did nothing on them but it ran the time off the clock, six key minutes. that buried them.

quick made some crazy saves in that weird ass crab stance, sort of a sprawl but not exactly. kiprusoff has a similar one but he doesn't flatten out. made one on mcdonald in the first and another similar rebound save late in the game where i though the blues would score for sure.

kings are in pretty good shape, steal a game on the road plus take out their most important/best skater. was just a careless play but i am expecting a one game suspension, two max. it could be for the rest of the series and it would still be a huge advantage, pietrangelo chews up minutes, runs their power play and matches up with the kopitar line.

<<< Separated at birth

he seems to have a shit load of scoring opportunities but he can never finish. He has to have some of the worst hands on the team. Who would they activate to replace him though?

Losing King and them losing Pietrangelo hmmmm I think we got the better of that.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

a lot more guys because they are going to have a big club of black aces coming. manchester is done playing in the AHL and toffoli's junior club got eliminated from the OHL playoffs. so they will have a shitload of guys in town.

that said, it won't be any of those guys, it will be clifford when he's ready, loktionov until then or maybe westgarth although sutter has dressed him really sparingly it seems. he played pretty well in the playoffs last year, obviously gives them a heavyweight. i'd bank on loktionov though, playing on the fourth line.

<<< Separated at birth

that 4th line has been huge for us. Would be nice to get him back.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

I literally almost threw my remote into the brick wall beneath my t.v. at some of the penalties they were taking. Backes said it best "the difference was special teams...we took a rest and they kept going" I can't even speak on Alex's injury yet, because I'm still too upset about it. We lost the first one against San Jose, but we outplayed them and lost in the end...last night we got beat the fuck up.
<<<<< The Note

first sight of trouble and that was it. Just rolled over and died. That last period was similar to how the Canucks played games 1 and 2. Please keep that up.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hz80LNkVrw

---
http://livefromphilly.tumblr.com

the shift before.

Nice start.

Bad start AGAIN. At least this time they had an excuse.

Took control at 2-1, couldn't cash in after.

Simmonds huge miss!

BS call against Carle leads to power-play goal off a broken play. That had to be the most frustrating sequence.

G's goal seems to put them back in command. Too much indecision though, no aggression but not a complete prevent defense either. The way they shut down Game 6 against Pitt is how they should have played or just kept the game open a little while longer.

Then they dominate the OT and have a goal disallowed.

All's well that ends well but they should have nailed that game down earlier.

NJ's best players were their best players mostly. Henrique nice, active game. Parise and Elias were their only consistent threats. Brodeur with some monster stops. Volchenkov made a couple mistakes but in general played his role well.

Really shitty games from Kovalchuk and Zidlicky though, wow, Kovalchuk has something slowing him down. Not much of a stride skating, no extension going for pucks and weak(er than usual) along the boards.

I love the Flyers chances in this series, Grossman came back today, maybe Mez will be back at the end of it. Timonen was strong today, great pass to G on that third goal, really showed how underrated he is as a one-on-one player, too, most notably when he buried Parise on the rush.

<<< Separated at birth

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<<<<< The Note

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Two A.M. on the 91 freeway lookin spooky,
headed to this girl house to get my dooky. (c)

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

http://i1131.photobucket.com/albums/m545/dimagus/2011-2012%20NHL%20Season/2011-2012%20NHL%20Playoffs/OvechkinCelebration-NYRangers04302012.gif

Rest In Peace, Bad News Brown

thats all I have to say about that

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

Didn't know it would take the addition of Carter, but with him on the team, the Kings are TOUGH!

_____________________________________________________________
Everyone here hates pop music, but loves Michael Jackson... Okay Player...

but yeah they are playing so solid right now. I am pumped for game 3. Its going to be so fucking loud at Staples. Cannot wait.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

is strong.

Power play is still garbage and something they will need to fix if they want to keep playing.

Evenness of effort is still a little off, too. They had two wins in the Vancouver series that they could have just as easily lost.

I think tonight they had kind of a similar trajectory to the Blues in Game 1, from the first intermission on they had maybe half a dozen shots tops. They did a nice job competing in the physical game and killing penalties (had to kill a lot, sort of weighted their total) but if they weren't staked to a huge lead I wouldn't have had that much confidence. St Louis clearly outplayed them in the third period, Quick had to make some really big saves to keep the door shut.

You're going to have some runs go against you, it's the playoffs with high stakes and high quality opponents, but I could still stand to see them with a little heavier foot on the gas. Tonight was a good start to that in some ways, they need to keep it rolling now.

It would be a colossal feat for them to lose this series now but Phoenix is playing a really crisp game and if Nashville rallies it will be for that same reason. Big thing is power play, have to get opportunistic there. 0/15 these two teams tonight, Jesus.

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do you know of any maps of the seating chart that show row and seat numbers? I am wondering how close we are to the penalty boxes.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

seat data usually gives you a view from the exact seat you enter. it's small and crappy if you don't register but it should be good enough to show what you want to see. they might charge to register, like i said though there was a free view the last time i used it.

<<< Separated at birth

okay maybe you can help me. I am in section 112 row 1 seats 14 and 15. I know this section is right next to the penalty boxes. from the view I am able to get I can count 15 seats in the first row. which side would I be on? If I remember correctly if you are facing the ice the seats are numbered from left to right. Also if I am next to the penalty boxes which teams would I be next to. I sent an email to the staples center, so far no response.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

You and your son have fun man!

_____________________________________________________________
Everyone here hates pop music, but loves Michael Jackson... Okay Player...

father inlaw got us tickets from work. We are sitting in section 112 row 1!!!!! on the fucking glass son. I want to make a sign for my son to hold. I am thinking of making 2. 1 for pregame pandering to the players. Maybe he can get a puck or something. Another for the game to get him some TV time. Maybe one shitting on the Blues. So help me think of some good signs.

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November 8th, 2005 The greatest night in the history of GD!

BLOW ME PIERRE! (I don't care that he's not covering the game)

GRETZKY ALWAYS HATED ST. LOUIS!

THANK YOU FOR NOT TRADING BROWN!

and of course,

THE BLUES ARE COOKED!

_____________________________________________________________
Everyone here hates pop music, but loves Michael Jackson... Okay Player...

>BLOW ME PIERRE! (I don't care that he's not covering the
>game)
>
>GRETZKY ALWAYS HATED ST. LOUIS!
>
>THANK YOU FOR NOT TRADING BROWN!
>
>and of course,
>
>THE BLUES ARE COOKED!

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Two A.M. on the 91 freeway lookin spooky,
headed to this girl house to get my dooky. (c)

I dunno if I've ever seen us play that bad of a defensive game. The PP was TOTALLY inept. The attempt on the 5 on 3 chance made me cringe. We really needed Carlo and Polak to step it up and they DID NOT. I wonder if these dudes were inside their own heads last night. Something wasn't right. We're too good of a defensive team to have played like that. Damn, I know our best player wasn't out there, but I don't know what Petro could have even done to change the shit that was going on out there. I believe in these guys and I know we can get one in L.A. Shit was mad frustrating to watch, though.

Some guys located their sack and played better, I thought Backes kind of led that charge and got Oshie and a couple other guys going.

Carlo was definitely disrupted, he was responding to every little thing and getting distracted. Had a crappy turnover the led to a goal, too, one of those plays where one mistake compounds another and leads to a real big one.

I saw that Halak will be unavailable the rest of the series. I don't think it's a huge deal since Elliot has been good but it's another limitation for sure. Allen is a fine prospect but he basically has zero experience. They are married to Elliot big time now. Anybody can have ONE pull-worthy game, especially since half the time a guy is pulled it's more a reflection of the guys in front of him.

I dunno, it would take a pretty major feat for the Kings to lose the series now. Maybe in a first round series a team can overcome to home losses (Boston did it last year) but as the rounds march on that's even tougher to accomplish.

Kings PP looked shitty, too, but goddamn, Blues had NINE power plays. Like you said that 5on3 was a disaster and it might not have been their worst one.

I think they will come out hard in Game 3 though, it's basically an elimination game for them so it's kind of tough to pick against them IMO.

<<< Separated at birth

Rads and Andrei Kostitsyn suspended for game 3 for partying in Scottsdale until 4 AM the night before game two.

We had a solid, defensive minded team before all the trade deadline additions and were still one of the west's best squads. Time to put up or shut up.

Off to the arena, lets fucking do this

Scottsdale (clubs) is/are an athletes HEAVEN.

rough game for the Yotes, but figured that Nashville would play lights out. hope they can bounce back and take a 3-1 lead.

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*Jews you*

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Proceed with caution. I am overtly racist.

<-- In Pigpen we trust

It was an amazing game, but how heartbreaking at the end. And now I'm beat today. Ugh.

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I can't even be mad they lost.

SO close. Hit a wobbly puck too. Yeesh.

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