Tag: NHL

2014 NHL Quarterfinal Predictions

Hello, and welcome to the first of the 2014 NHL Playoff Prediction Posts.

Is it still called the Conference Quarter Final Round, or is it now the Divisional Semifinals?

I haven’t paid nearly as much attention to the NHL this year as I usually do. Bruins, yes. The rest of the league, not really. Why? Because I’m still friggin’ furious over the lock out last year, that’s why.

In terms of my playoff picks, it doesn’t matter because they are all blind guesses anyway. Having said that, here are my picks for the first round match ups.

Bruins vs Red Wings. If you’ve read this post so far, then you know who I’m picking. There are caveats this year though. The Red Wings gave the Bruins a tough time. They are one of those teams that are really fast on their skates that give the Bruins and their punishing physical style fits. They are similar to Montreal in that respect, although not similar to Montreal in their black hearted evil. Add to that the Red Wings are starting to get healthy and you have a nervous little match up for my Bruins. Then there is the jinx. The Bruins won the President’s Trophy. The award given to the team that finishes the regular season with the best record overall. Congratulations, Boston! Of course the team that wins the President’s almost never wins the Stanley Cup. If you believe in such superstitions, then you can conclude that the B’s are screwed. It doesn’t matter to me though, I am picking the Bruins in this series.

Lightning vs Canadiens. It breaks my hear to say this, but Montreal is going to win this series. It looked like a decent match up, right up until the moment Tampa Bay’s goalie went out with an injury. That leaves their chances at nil and null. (that’s computer nerd speak for slim and none) Sorry, Tampa Bay. I’ll be rooting for you. I just won’t be expecting positive results. Sorry.

Penguins vs Blue Jackets. Moving on to the idiotically named Metropolitan Division (does that mean Boston, Montreal, Toronto, ext, ext are not Metropolitan places?) This is another series where I will be rooting against my pick. Pittsburgh is a disaster right now. They sucked their way into the post season. They are a total mess. They are ripe for the upset. Unfortunately, Columbus just sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I love them and are totally rooting for them. I just think that the Penguins could put out a roster with only 15 players and still win in four. I’m picking the Penguins even though I feel dirty and disgusting doing so.

Rangers vs Flyers. This looks like it might be a fun series to watch. Record wise, the teams are a pretty even match. Head to head in the regular season they were even. The Flyers really turned it on after the Olympics and are probably an easy team to pick, but I think the Rangers are good enough to take this one. Despite being from Boston, I will pick New York.

On to the Western Conference, where it is safe to say that all eight teams are better than the entire Eastern field with the exception of Boston and maybe Pittsburgh.

Ducks vs Stars. The Ducks are a million times better than the Stars. They also do not have Tim Thomas on their roster. That’s one rational reason to pick them and one irrational, petty reason to pick them. That means I pick them. Tim Thomas can go spend the rest of the season at home, the same way he spent the last year of his contract with the Bruins at home. Boo Hoo.

Sharks vs Kings. This is an easy, albeit irrational, pick for me. Rule one in making my playoff predictions is always bet against San Jose. Rule two is, for Western match ups, never bet against the Kings. Done. Los Angeles wins this one.

Avalanche vs Wild. A match up of Ringo Starrs. They’re both just happy to be here. I want to pick the Wild for the same reason I wanted to pick Columbus. It just seems like the cool pick. Not this time though, I am picking the Avs.

Blues vs Black Hawks. I hate Chicago. After last season I hope they get swept. Unfortunately, the Blues have been a suck-fest over the last couple of weeks. Can they just flip the switch and be awesome again? I’d like to hope so but… no. I am picking Chicago and it makes me want to puke.

There you have it kids, my 2014 Quarter Finals Predictions. May the best team from Boston win!

Clinched

The Bruins won their 11th game in a row last night when their back up goalie shut out Colorado 2-0. I missed most of the game. I don’t know if Jarome Iginla scored another goal or not. Their win also made them the first team in the NHL to clinch a spot in the playoffs.

In unrelated hockey news, my alma mater, UMass Lowell, advanced to the Hockey East finals last night by beating Notre Dame. Just think… If the son of a bitch athletic director hadn’t tried to sell our radio station out from under us I might actually care. I might have followed my old school over the last ten years. I might have even realized that Notre Dame was part of Hockey East.

I hope UMass Lowell does well, but I hope the athletic director gets fired more.

Billion Dollar Bracket

I have never watched more than a few seconds of a division one basketball game.  I did watch a couple of division two games back when I was a student at UMass Lowell.  My radio show did a weekly segment with the men’s basketball coach and DJ Dina and I went to maybe two games to show support.  I remember one game in particular because I left at halftime to drive in to Boston to see Mission of Burma’s reunion show at the Paradise.  Brunch with Burma.  What a show that was.  Unreal.

Anyway.  I just signed up for the Billion Dollar Bracket challenge over on yahoo sports.  I only picked a few upsets, and generally I did it just to suck up to New England schools.  In the end I have Duke beating Virginia 82-79.

Of course I know absolutely nothing about college basketball (see the first paragraph of this post).  Nothing.  Nada.  Nuttin, honey.  Zip, zilch, zero.

But, to paraphrase Geddy Lee on the Bob and Doug Take Off album, a billion bucks is a billion bucks*.

Logging in to yahoo sports also reminded me that I have a free fantasy hockey team out there.  I forgot all about that.  I decided to check in.  Turns out I’m in the first round of the playoffs and I’m the number three cede.  Now that is pretty funny.  I stacked the team with Bruins.  Krejci, Iginla, Bergeron, Rask.  Yeah, I can pick ’em.

Speaking of the Bruins, they beat Minnesota last night.  The win streak is at nine.  Tonight they play New Jersey.  A ten game win streak would sound nice, eh?  Even nicer if they beat the team responsible for removing AHL hockey from the city of Lowell, MA.  Yeah, Devils.  I haven’t forgotten about that.  You jerks.

Go Bruins.

 

*Geddy Lee’s actual line was more like, 10 bucks is 10 bucks.  There’s a subtle difference, you see.

Bruins

Just because I haven’t been posting a lot about the Bruins doesn’t mean I haven’t been following.  Just letting you know that.

The Bruins beat the Canadiens on Wednesday.  It was their first regular season win against Montreal since the Carter administration.  It seemed that way at least.  They looked as good in that game as I’ve seen them look in a long time.  Last night they won again against Phoenix.  It wasn’t quite as dominant, and they looked pretty beat through a lot of it, but it was another quality win.  That’s seven in a row for the Bruins.  They lost the first couple of post-olympic games, but then they straightened things out and have been off the charts ever since.  They are first in the East, and second in the NHL. 

And here I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Let’s hope it falls in August, or something like that.

Rich Peverley

Here is a mighty tip of the cap to the medical staff in Dallas who were able to restart Rich Peverley’s heart last night.  NHL fans everywhere thank you for a job well done.

It was another one of those “hockey players are the toughest athletes” moments when Peverley (who was a member of the cup winning Bruins team in 2011 and therefore will never pay for a drink in Boston again) regained consciousness and asked how much time was left in the first period.  After the incedent his teammates were really shaken up and were unwilling to finish the game (rightfully so).  Peverley?  He wanted to go back onto the ice rather than go to the hospital. 

You can read more on this story here:  Columbus Blue Jackets vs. Dallas Stars – Recap – March 10, 2014 – ESPN

NHL Trade Deadline

NHL Trade Tracker – ESPN

Well, there is only about 45 minutes left until the NHL trade deadline.  The Bruins have not made any moves yet.  No top four defensemen coming our way as of yet.

Callahan went from the Rangers to the Lightning for St. Louis.  Two players the Bruins don’t really need, but who I was seriously liked to have seen in a Boston uniform.  There was a defenseman in Ottawa that was rumored to be on Boston’s wishlist who signed a two year extension.  Crap.

Marion Gaborick went to the Kings.  Would he have fit in with the Bruins?  Probably not.

We’ll see how things unravel in the rest of the hour.

Go Bruins.

Trade Deadline Day

The Bruins beat the crap out of the Florida Panthers last night thanks to a hat trick by David Krejci.  Ever since going AWOL last season, it pleases me to no end to watch Tim Thomas get shelled.  After yesterday’s trade that brought former Vancouver goalie (and Thomas’ 2011 Stanley Cup Finals opponent) Roberto Luongo to Florida, it will please me even more to watch Thomas sit on the bench as Luongo gets shelled.  I don’t expect that will happen though.  I can’t imagine Tim Thomas makes it through today’s 3:00pm ET trade deadline without being moved.  He has a no trade clause, but I expect he’ll waive it for just about any team.  I can’t imagine he’s happy about being Luongo’s back up, although now there is no question of whether or not he needs to pump Lu’s tires.

The trade deadline is a fun day to be an NHL fan with an internet connection.  I just wish it fell on a weekend so I could actually pay attention to it.  I expect to find a live blog following the news this afternoon (I’m in a meeting all morning) but I don’t expect to actually have any time to look at it.

The Bruins need a defenseman.  Preferably a top pairing kinda guy but at least a top four.  They have a huge hole to fill with Dennis Seidenberg (am I even close to spelling that right?  I could look it up but… lazy) being out for the season.  That’s the big need.  Beyond that they are just looking for depth all around.  They have been tied to a number of big names, mostly forwards, but that might be just an attempt to drive up the price for their rivals.  Specifically, Ryan Kesler has been rumored to be going to Pittsburgh for a few days now.  Suddenly the Bruins are in the talks too.  As much as Kesler NEEDS to be a Bruin, I think that has more to do with trying to get Pitt to over pay than an actual chance of him coming here.  Who knows.

Enjoy the trade deadline, and may the Bruins hit the jackpot.

Luongo to the Panthers

Roberto Luongo traded to Florida Panthers from Vancouver Canucks – ESPN

 

Vancouver has traded Roberto Luongo to the Florida Panthers?  They sent him back where they got him from?  Does this mean the Panthers have to trade him to the Islanders next?

That’s unbelievable.  Really.  The Panthers are craptastic and they are adding a player at the trade deadline?  The article doesn’t say what they gave up for him.  Also, does this mean Tim Thomas is going to be traded by the deadline?  I’ve heard that he might be a fit for Minnesota, but I didn’t think they would actually take him.  This is crazy.

I really don’t care so long as the Bruins get a top four defenseman to replace Dennis Seidenberg (sp?).

It should be an interesting day for NHL fans tomorrow.

Go Bruins