Edmonton sure didn’t look like Cup Contenders by the end of game 2, as Carolina beat their sorry asses 5-0.  Sure they’ve lost Roloson for the rest of the series, but that doesn’t excuse their leaving Jussi with-the-unpronouncable-and-unspellable-last-name out to dry the way they did.

Some how I think that tonight in game 3, at home, they will get their collective shit together and put a hurting on the Hurricanes.  Granted at this point it’s probably too late (although they did come back from 0-2 in the San Jose series) but I don’t want to see them roll over and die and get swept… for no other reason than I want there to be five more games this season and not just two… so I’m selfish, shoot me.

Anyway, I picked up the Ian Flemming – James Bond Novel thread where I left off a couple of weeks ago.  Book number nine out of 14… Thunderball.  I was just lounging on the couch in the living room with the iPod in my ears and the book in my face, but my eyes got tired and started crossing so I had to stop… stupid lazy eye.

The book of the day is Thunderball, but the music of the day… week… and probably month has turned out to be Victory at Sea.  I saw Mo Elliot about a hundred years ago at the Middle East upstairs.  It was my first time in the club, and we were supposed to be downstairs and didn’t realize we were in the wrong place.  We saw Mo and a New York art pop band called Run On (who were very good, and their guitar player used to be in a band called Lovechild with a drummer who’s cousin worked with me in Tewksbury… sing it with me:  It’s a small world after all….)  Anyway, we watched Mo’s solo set and I liked it a lot.  Sad and creepy and nice and depressing… just how I like it.  then we watched Run On (I might have the order reversed here… it was about 10 years ago, maybe more) then we realized we were in the wrong place and went downstairs and saw The Dambuilders and became instant obsessed Dambuilder fans.  Okay, I was already a fan, but that show kinda hurled me over the edge.

Some time later… probably years later, but I can’t quite remember now… I saw Victory at Sea on the same stage.  I also picked up the Snow 7″.  I can’t remember which event happened first though.  After seeing them I picked up the cd The Dark is Just the Night.  My reaction to Snow was simple.  WOW!  The Middle East gig and the cd were a little different.  My initial reaction to both was WOW, but as they played through the gloominess and depressingness of the songs got to me.  It’s very difficult for gloomy songs to reach a point where they are too gloomy for me, but Victory at Sea did it to me in both cases.  I liked the band a lot.  A Whole Lot.  But only in small doses.  Around this time I basically stopped paying attention to music in Boston in general.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago.

I picked up, what I believe is, the most recent release which is called All Your Things are Gone.  It is fantastic.  As close to perfect as I’ve heard in a terribly long time.  It’s completely in my head.  Check back through the last couple of weeks worth of posts here and you’ll see it mentioned in a bunch of them.  It’s just a really high quality piece of work.  I’m actually a little pissed off that the band is this much better than when I last saw them and I wasn’t paying attention and missed out on their evolution from really good to fucking great.

So I did what I usually do when I stumble across a new recording artist.  Off I go to CD Baby… Carousel and The Good Night were delivered yesterday, and Memoies Fade is coming via amazon in the near future.

Check out their myspace page here and hopefully you’ll be saying WOW! too.

I hated Conklin at UNH, and he justified my hatred tonight.

On a much happier note, I think after tonight’s game it is safe to say that Cam Ward of the Carolina Hurricanes Rules the Known Universe and Beyond.  The third period tonight was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen by a goalie.  Ward was super-human tonight.

Those few of us who followed the Lowell Lock Monsters last year got to see goal tending like that almost every game, and now the folks in the Carolinas are learning what we already knew.  Cam Ward is the King of all Goalies.

Hail to the Goalie King!

(image from tsn.ca)

(two images from covers.com)

(image from sportsnetwork.com)

(image from carolinahurricanes.com)

(image from vaughnhockey.com)

Here it is:

The Hurricanes are going to win.

BUT!

I don’t care.  I have a lot of reasons to want both of these teams to win, so while I expect Carolina is the better team right now, I am not going to specifically cheer for either team to win or lose.  I’m just going to sit back and enjoy the series.

Both teams have played like mad in the post season.  Both teams are strong on both sides of the ice.  Both teams have goalies who by all rights should be bench warmers this time of year but are standing on their heads every night.  Both teams have major ties to New England Hockey (which is usually the deciding factor for me in a situation like this).

I really can’t route against Sergei Samsonov (former Bruin) or Dwayne Roloson (who played for the University of Lowell when I was a music student there) but I also can’t route against Cam Ward, Mike Commodore, or Eric Staal (all of whom were Lowell Lock Monsters last year when the team had it’s most successful season ever).

So as I must pick someone to win I will pick Carolina, but I will watch the series in the hopes of seeing two great teams play great hockey and be happy for whichever team ends up etched onto the cup.

Go Whale
Go Oil

I believe I may have mentioned that I hate the Sabers.  Oh how I hate the Sabers.  I danced the danced of bliss when they announced their bankruptcy a couple of years ago, and I dance the dance of bliss when Rod Brind’Amour potted that third period goal.  I think I woke the neighbors with my screaming,  soccer~esque, “GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAL!”

I am officially back over .500 in the pick-the-play-off-winner game.  6/8 in the quarters.  0/4 in the semis.  2/2 in the conference finals.  That’s 8/14 over all for a success rate of 57.14% with just one more series to go.

That final series however presents me with a quandary…

Who do I route for?  Who do I pick to win?  Do I pick one and route for the other? (I did that with Carolina in the 2nd round.  I picked New Jersey and routed for the Whale and the Whale won in five)

I wanted Edmonton to win the West simply because I want to see Sergei Samsonov win the Stanley Cup in the same year Boston traded him away.  I’m a Sammy fan, but I’m also in this for the vengeance.  Boston screwed their fan base over in a colossal way this year and I want to see them eat shit over it.

I wanted Carolina to win the East because for the last few years they have been the parent club of my Lowell Lock Monsters.  I’ve seen a lot of their players in Lowell.  Here’s a list:
Chad LaRose
Craig Adams
Mike Commodore
Andrew Ladd
Eric Staal
Cam Ward
and those are just the guys on the current roster that I can remember off the top of my head.

What a hockey quandary I’m in.  Do I cheer for Commie Samsonov or do I cheer for Commie Commodore?

It’s too soon for me to decide.  I have to think about this one for a while.  I’ll post again before game one begins on Monday.

Until then, look at this picture, taken from www.thegazette.uwo.ca…

Will Carolina win and make me 2 for 2 in the third round?

We’ll see.

And now because I feel good today I’ll give you two more pictures from my Memorial Day walking around Boston taking pictures event.

First we have the bell tower from Old South Church, then we have another shot of the clouds reflecting off the Hancock.

Thank you, goodnight.