The first round of the NHL playoffs ended last night without any series going to seven games. Kind of a bummer in the dramatic sense, but the Bruins won so it’s all good.
Here are the results from round one….
In the East:
Flyers vs Canadiens: I picked the Flyers and the Flyers won. I hate the Canadiens with every fiber of my being, but I still kinda wish they’d been able to knock off the #1 seed. Oh well. 1-0
Lightning vs Blue Jackets: I was rooting for the Blue Jackets but they didn’t pull through. They did it last year, but not this time. The Lightning won. 1-1
Capitals vs Islanders: I went for the upset and I was right. The Islanders won. 2-1
Bruins vs Hurricanes: For the second year in a row, the Bruins beat the Whale and all was right with the world. 3-1
In the West:
Golden Knights vs Blackhawks: I picked Vegas and Vegas won. 4-1
Avalanche vs Coyotes: I picked the Avalanche and the Avalanche won. 5-1
Stars vs Flames: I picked the Flames… woops. 5-2
Blues vs Canucks: I picked the Canucks and the Canucks won. As much fun as it would have been to get revenge on St Louis in the finals, there will be no 2019 rematch this year. 6-2
I picked the winner in six out of eight series. I feel like NostroHockeyDamas or some shit. Of course, I usually nail the first round before crashing and burning in the second round. Here we go…..
In the East:
Flyers vs Islanders: Oh crap. I hate Philly. I hate New York. I would like to see them both lose. Given the current standings I would prefer to see Philly lose. They won’t. I’m picking the Flyers, but rooting for the Islanders.
Lightning vs Bruins: The match up we were all afraid of last year that didn’t happen is finally happening. This year… without Tuukka… ugh. I’m picking the Bruins because they are the Bruins, but it’s a pretty even series. This one is going seven.
In the West:
Golden Knights vs Canucks: Our old 2011 Stanley Cup nemesis is about to become 2020 cannon fodder. Sorry, Vancouver. I’m picking Vegas.
Avalanche vs Stars: I’m jumping the gun a tad here, but the Avalanche are my pick to win the West. Sorry Dallas, I’m picking the Avs.
It’s Sunday. My thumb hurts, and the rash on my arm is bigger than it was yesterday. I’m falling apart completely. Quarantine is finally breaking me, it seems. So what’s a red head to do? How about some reflection on the state of his world? Also known as a post full of random stuff? Sounds good to me!
Today is kind of a big day. Symbolically, if not literally. Today is the last weekend day that the kids are at our house before Bellana goes back to school. We’re going all out. Jen is making her favorite dinner tonight. Harry is making her favorite dessert right now. I’m so worried about the future. I want her to go and have a great second year at college, but I don’t want her to go and be at risk of catching the plague. I want her to stay here and be safe. Basically all the same arguments I made last August, with a few pandemical twists. Mostly I just don’t want to miss her again. Selfish, yes, but it’s still true. At the same time, if they can keep the Covid bubble closed and stop her and the rest of the students from being exposed, then I want her to have a great semester. I want her to have a ball. She doesn’t leave for a little over a week, but her last weekend is a dad weekend so we’re giving her a send off a little early.
I feel a little better about my step son’s school plans now that I know he’s only going in person half of the time instead of all the time. I guess you could say I feel half better than full bad? Get it? I would feel full better if he was going full remote, but that’s probably going to require an outbreak in the high school and I don’t want that either. I want him home and safe.
Sports: The Bruins won their first Tuukka Rask free game. They are up two games to one in their first round series against the Whale. I have confidence in Jaroslav Halak, that’s not the issue. I just had more confidence in Rask. A Cup win seems less likely with Halak carrying them, but really given the way they played in the first few games into the return to play, I had lost most of my Cup confidence anyway. We’ll see how far they can go. I’d like to at least beat the friggin’ Whale.
The Red Sox are utterly atrocious. They are very close to being on pace for the lowest win/loss percentage in franchise history, and the franchise has been around for about 120 years or so…. that means they are really, really bad. We all knew it was coming though. They have one major league starter in their pitching rotation and he’s probably a #4 on a real staff. Maybe a #3. Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Nathan Eovaldi together is a nice start for a rotation, but with Sale out getting Tommy John surgery, and E-Rod out with Covid-19 related heart issues, that just leaves Eovaldi and a bunch of minor leaguers and that is a recipe for complete disaster. Add a few hitters having epically bad seasons so far and you have a team that has a good shot at the #1 overall draft pick next year.
Music… 50/90 is 42% complete. I just added songs #20 and 21. I’ve got seven songs with rhythm guitars down that are waiting for lyrics and vocals. That’s it. 28 songs total so far. I need to get to 34 by the end of the month (50/90 takes place over three months and 50/3=16.67). I also want to have a 10 song (at least) album in a month for August. Five of the completed songs were started and finished this month, and three of the unfinished songs were started this month too. Those three are the top of the priority list right now, and I have to keep the new stuff coming so I don’t fall behind. I feel like I am way behind on things, even though I’m really just at the halfway point.
A bird just flew into the window, about two feet away from me. I hope he’s okay. It looked like it might have been a glancing blow. More like he bounced off than crashed.
We applied for vote by mail ballots recently, and our 9/1 Primary election ballots were delivered a couple of days ago. Will there still be a functioning USPS for us to mail them back? The shit stain of a president admitted publicly that he’s hamstringing the post office to tamper with the November election, and the response from those who stand as a check and balance against him? They went on vacation. Also, there is a global pandemic that is killing a thousand Americans a day so they went on vacation. If you still think your government represents you, then that should show you the truth.
That’s kinda a bummer note to end on. Here, let me make it worse by adding a couple of new songs. That should push us all off the ledge, right?
Tuukka Rask just opted out of the rest of the NHL playoffs. He says he feels bad but there are more important things than hockey and being with his family is more important.
Hockey-ily speaking, I am very sad. Our chances of winning a cup this year are not zero by any stretch, but they are greatly reduced without Tuukka. Still, I 100% support him. Given the state of the universe outside of hockey right now, Tuukka is making the right decision. My hockey-heart is a little broken, but I’m with you, dude. Go do what you have to do.
Last night’s Bruins game was postponed because the Tampa Bay/Columbus game took five overtimes to finish. Instead of playing game one at 8:00pm on 8/11, they started it at 11:00am on 8/12.
The third period just ended.
The game is tied.
As if last night’s five overtimes weren’t enough, we’re going to overtime in this game too.
The Bruins have been a little better than what we saw during the three round robin games… a little better. They blew two leads, including a 3-2 lead half way through the third.
It’s 3-3 heading into the fourth period. Please beat the Whalers, Bruins. Pretty please.
3:20 left in the 4th overtime period. Tampa Bay has taken 84 shots on goal.
It’s a weird combination of players being overly cautious, players trying to win the game all by themselves, and everyone being too tired to function at 100%.
Less than two minutes left now. It’s probably going to end on a total bonehead move.
So, as hinted at by the previous post, the National Hockey League’s official playoff tournament started today. The games they’ve been playing for the last two weeks are official post season games, but they aren’t official playoff games… or something like that, whatever.
As mentioned in previous posts, the NHL has put each conference into it’s own bubble. All of the western conference teams are playing all of their games in Edmonton and all of the eastern conference teams are playing in Toronto. Each conference had two games scheduled for today. In Toronto, there was the Blue Jackets and the Lightning at 3:00pm, and then the Bruins and the Whalers at 8:00pm.
Or so they thought.
Here we are at 8:02pm and there is no sign of the Bruins. Why? Because the 3:00 Columbus vs Tampa Bay game is still going. The score is 2-2 at the intermission between the 3rd and 4th overtimes.
Remember, kids, in the playoffs there is no shootout. There is no stupid 3 on 3 garbage. In the playoffs, the games keep going until someone wins. It’s still sudden death, but the overtime periods are full 20 minute periods of 5 on 5 instead of the lame ass little five minute 3 on 3’s they have in the regular season. Columbus and Tampa Bay have played the literal equivalent of two full games, and it’s still going.
So the start of the Bruins game is delayed until someone actually wins.
I’m guessing no one at the head office who planned out the bubblized post season saw this one coming.
Go Bruins… eventually.
(also, go Blue Jackets. I hate the friggin’ Lightning)
I tried to watch or listen to as much prelim round hockey as I could, and I caught a lot of it. Unfortunately I didn’t retain any of it. I’m going to make quarterfinal picks, but they are all blind and consist only of gut guesses.
In the East:
Flyers vs Canadiens: I hate the Canadiens. I pick the Flyers… even though I also hate the Flyers.
Lightning vs Blue Jackets: I’m picking the Blue Jackets. I don’t like them, but I really don’t like the Lightning.
Capitals vs Islanders: Tough one. I really hate the Capitals, but the Islanders are from New York and I hate all New York teams. I think I have to pick the Islanders though.
Bruins vs Hurricanes: Bruins. Like I’d ever pick the Whalers. Duh.
In the West:
Golden Knights vs Blackhawks: I’m ambivalent toward Vegas and I hate Chicago. I pick the Golden Knights.
Avalanche vs Coyotes: This is tough. I don’t hate either one of them. In fact, when I follow the West I tend to support both of them. I’m picking the Avalanche. They are the higher seed, and they gave Ray Bourque a Cup.
Stars vs Flames: Flames all the way. I hate Dallas.
Blues vs Canucks. I hate them both. I hate them both a lot. Canucks because they didn’t beat us in the finals last year and the Blues did. Pricks.
There’s a Bruins game today at 3:00 against the Flyers and it counts.
Teams on the playoff bubble when the season was suspended get themselves a play-in playoff round while the remaining teams at the top of the standings get a lame round robin seeding round. This means that if the Bruins have a couple of off games at the start they could end up being the first President’s trophy winner that isn’t the #1 seed in their conference.
Still, it’s better than having the four best teams in each conference wait while the rest of the league plays 3-5 games leading into the actual playoffs. We get the Flyers today at 3:00, the Lightning on Wednesday at 4:00 and the Capitals on Sunday, time TBD. All of the games will be played in an empty rink in Toronto and that’s perfectly fine with me.
The only thing I would do different, and this is purely selfish of me, is that I would add the numbers from this faux playoff round to the regular season. That’s really just so we can give David Pastrnak three more games to hit the 50 goal mark.
3:00pm. NESN. 98.5 The Sports Hub. Watch it, listen to it, whatever. Just be happy that the NHL is back and there are meaningful Bruins games coming.
ADDENDUM: Sorry, it’s on NBC Sports Network, not NESN.
I’m listening to podcasts while working around the house. Right now The Bruins Diehards are interviewing Ray Bourque and I’m 16 all over again. Those were the days, man.
The NHL post season (or what’s passing for it in the age of COVID-19) starts today. The Bruins start tomorrow.
It’s just like baseball. I knew I was missing it, but I’m a little surprised to realize how much I was missing it.
Inside the Red Head's Head 