2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs - Conference Semifinals

I didn't do too badly with my first-round predictions. Canucks in 7, Bruins in 7, Sharks in 6, Capitals in 5 -- perfect. Red Wings won in 4 instead of 5. Close enough. And although the Lightning did win in 7 over Pittsburgh, I did say that I was concerned about the Penguins if Sidney Crosby didn't play. He didn't. Pittsburgh had a 3-1 series lead, though, and then fell apart. I had Anaheim over Nashville in 6, but the Predators won. (I still don't think they're going to the finals, though.) And then there was the Flyers-Sabres series, in which Ryan Miller stole one game from the Flyers and Brian Boucher basically gave away another one. Of the other five games, the Flyers won four of them even with some of the weirdest goaltending twists and turns I've ever seen.

So, 5-3 in the first round. As for the next round (which begins tonight for one series and Saturday for the Flyers)...

WESTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Vancouver Canucks vs. (5) Nashville Predators - The top regular-season team nearly had a meltdown for the ages in the first round before finally finishing off the defending Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks in the 7th game. They should be able to handle Nashville with a little less difficulty. Canucks in 6.

(2) San Jose Sharks vs. (3) Detroit Red Wings - Does it seem these teams meet every year in the playoffs? They were matched up in this round last year and the Sharks won in 5. But last year the Wings' first round was a tough 7-game series over Detroit. This year they mopped the floor with the former (and future?) Winnipeg Jets, so they'll put up a better fight against San Jose, but... Sharks in 7.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

(1) Washington Capitals vs. (5) Tampa Bay Lightning - I think the Capitals may finally be ready to make a serious Cup run. There were moments in the first round where it seemed that they would fall apart and make an early exit again, but here they are. Capitals in 6.

(2) Philadelphia Flyers vs. (3) Boston Bruins - Another series that's a rematch from last year, and we all remember how that turned out... I underestimated the Flyers after their lazy finish to the regular season. They were solid against Buffalo throughout that series, and were an absolute machine in the clinching Game 7. And Chris Pronger's presence gave a jump to their power play. Despite the goalie issues (again)... Flyers in 6.

MixBlog 3-22-11

Let's discuss a few topics, shall we? We'll start with sports and then move on...

Flyers' goaltending. Is it now back to being a weakness? Tonight's game against Washington, besides being the first of 11 games to finish the regular season, was the start of a five-game stretch which may well determine if they'll finish first in the Eastern Conference. Four of the games are against teams breathing down their necks: Washington, Boston and Pittsburgh (twice). Rookie goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky hasn't had wins in back-to-back games since January. Tonight he let in three weak goals in little over a period, and was yanked in favor of Brian Boucher. After the Flyers stormed back to take a 4-3 lead and were dominating the game, Boucher let in the tying goal late in the third period and was absolutely shredded in the deciding shootout (which shouldn't decide games anyway, but that's another story). The Flyers got a point but are only 1 point ahead of Washington now instead of the 4-point lead they could have had. Can one of these goalies get hot in time for the playoffs, please?

Phillies and Luis Castillo. Even though everyone who's seen him this spring thinks he's washed up, including the Mets, who released him, the Phils decided to bring him in. Since he signed a minor league deal the only way he'll be paid anything by the Phils is if he actually makes the team. So it's essentially a nine-game tryout to see if he can beat out the competition to hold down second base while Chase Utley is out (which, just because of the fact that the Phils brought in Castillo, seems like it will be for quite some time). They basically agreed to terms Sunday night, made it official Monday morning...and somehow Castillo failed to arrive until after game time today. It's been blamed on a "miscommunication," but come on. I'll be stunned if this stiff wins the job. The guys already competing for spots have done fine, from what I've heard.

MixBlog 1-4-11

So this happened while I was watching "Tron: Legacy" today...



You think that the film jamming and then burning up only happens to people on TV or in movies! Ha! So it took a half-hour for them to resume the film at approximately where it left off, and everyone (maybe 10 or so in all) got a free pass to another movie.

Anyway, I've got a few other things on my mind...

First of all, I've got another rule for Twitter users, or maybe one I've mentioned before that needs to be re-emphasized. When these idiotic memes hit the Trending Topics, such as the one tonight, #lessambitiousmovies (examples of less ambitious movies would include

Flyers' Post-Mortem: A Lesson In Destiny

I came to an important realization recently, and I'd like to share it. You may want to write this down for future reference, because it may be the most profound thing I ever come up with:

One's final destiny only becomes known after the fact.

This is probably obvious, but we're always looking to tell ourselves something will happen because it's our destiny. If it were that easy, we'd have a society full of actors. "It's my destiny to win an Oscar!" How many misguided souls think it's their destiny to be the next American Idol? Now imagine if it were true. "American Idol winner William Hung/Sanjaya Malakar/anyone from Season 9." And, of course, it's my destiny to win a huge lotto jackpot and never have to worry about money again. (Still waiting on that last one, keepers of the karma...)

In sports, we tend to proclaim destiny at the drop of a hat, but especially when our team hasn't won in a long time and something amazing happens that we take as a sign, an indicator, a guarantee of future success.

Softball A Bit Screwed Up; Flyers To The Rescue!

While I eagerly await Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals I thought I'd rant about a couple of issues. As you know, today was day one of the Liberty Bell Classic softball tournament. In our D division each team played three round-robin games. Then the double-elimination portion began -- once you lose two games you're eliminated. Our team, the Tabu Nighthawks, had to play three consecutive games, at 11 am, noon and 1 pm.

Our first game was against a New York team that was filled with C-division (i.e. much better) hitters. Needless to say, we were clobbered. The fact that these teams want to not just play in tournaments, but essentially crush the real D teams -- loading up on players who are highly ranked, and possibly cheat by giving them rankings lower than they deserve -- disgusts me to no end. There's no real accomplishment here, there's no huge cash prize. So they get a trophy. Big freakin' deal. They may win a tournament but they're still losers. Pathetic.

Anyway, we rebounded with two wins in the round-robin and, after a brief break, won our first game in the double-elimination. That means we have at least two more games to play. For winning we were rewarded with a game at 8:00 am tomorrow.

Flyers Make History -- You Can't Make This Stuff Up

When it comes to sports, everybody -- athletes, coaches, fans, media -- likes to make predictions. Whether it's about a particular game or a playoff series or an entire season, people feel they know enough to project how things will go down. Often those predictions don't come true. Sometimes they do. And sometimes they come true in inexplicable fashion.

Case in point: the Philadelphia Flyers. Lots of people thought, prior to the season, that the Flyers were serious Stanley Cup contenders. The Hockey News outright predicted the Flyers would win the Cup. Sure enough, after tonight's 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins, winning their Eastern Conference semifinal series 4-3 after trailing 3-0, the Flyers still have a chance. But how they got to this point -- that's the inexplicable part.

The Flyers got off to a quick start and then fell into a morass of inconsistency that led to a coaching change. Injuries caused a goaltending carousel -- 7 different goalies dressed for a game, 5 of those 7 actually got into at least one game. They had to defeat the New York Rangers in the final game of the season just to get into the playoffs. After three periods and a five-minute overtime, they got that win in the shootout, where the Flyers have historically sucked.

Flyers: The Best/Worst Way To Make The Playoffs

I don't like the NHL's shootout rule for regular-season games. Besides the fact that most teams have higher point totals because of it (there are 11 teams with over 100 points this season -- 11!), I don't think it's particularly exciting, at least not on TV. And it's a horrible way to decide a winner. Imagine a home run-hitting contest deciding a baseball game. I've said many times that if the NHL ever implements the shootout in the Stanley Cup playoffs, I will never watch it again. I stand by that promise. I hope it never happens.

So how strange it was to see the Flyers get into the playoffs because they won a shootout. How awful must the New York Rangers and their fans feel? In a winner-take-all game, they missed out on the postseason because of something that, outside of international play such as the Olympics, used to be seen only during All-Star skills competitions.

But it's the Rangers' own fault they were in that position. I saw a lot of the game, and over the last two periods I felt the Flyers carried the play and earned the victory, something that couldn't be said often enough during this inconsistent slog of a season. They were down 1-0 until Matt Carle (really? Not Richards or Gagne or...) tied the game in the third period. When the five-minute overtime ended with the game still 1-1, I didn't hold out much hope. Yet Danny Briere and Claude Giroux scored shootout goals while Brian Boucher only allowed one Ranger to put the puck past him. The Flyers have been unbelievably awful in shootouts since the rule was put in place, so for them to win this one was just shocking.

Amazingly enough, the Flyers will now face the New Jersey Devils in the opening playoff round. The Flyers were 5-1-0 against the Devils this season. This is the one opponent that, despite their disparity in records and in goal, the Flyers actually have a puncher's chance of beating. Certainly this is much better and hopefully more entertaining than a series against the Washington Capitals.

Flyers' Season Down To This Week

The team that The Hockey News predicted would win the Stanley Cup is fighting just to get into the playoffs. The Flyers haven't won two in a row since early March. They lost yet another goaltender to injury -- Johan Backlund, making his first NHL start, left the 4-1 loss in Pittsburgh on March 27th after two periods when he aggravated a groin injury. Brian Boucher has been so inconsistent that they signed a guy playing in Switzerland for the last 5 games of the season, but that guy -- Sebastien Caron -- is ineligible for the playoffs. The Flyers followed that Pittsburgh loss with a resounding 5-1 win over New Jersey. The Devils, having lost 5 of 6 to the Flyers this year, are the one team they might have a chance against in the playoffs.

Of course, the Flyers first have to get into the postseason, and that win over the Devils and three whole days off (an anomaly in the Olympic-compressed schedule) led to a hideous loss to the New York Islanders. The Flyers had beaten the Islanders 15 times in a row before Thursday night. Although their effort was much better the next night, they lost 1-0 to Montreal, a team they're in direct competition with for the final Eastern Conference playoff slots.

After tonight's games, Montreal is in 6th place with 86 points and 3 games left. Boston is 7th with 84 points and 4 games left. The Flyers and New York Rangers are tied with 82 points each and 4 games left, and Atlanta has 81 points but just 3 remaining games. Since the Flyers have 38 wins to the Rangers' 36, they currently own the tiebreaker for the final playoff slot. Conveniently, the Flyers and Rangers meet on Friday and Sunday, the last two games of the regular season. Most likely those games will decide which team gets in.

While I was skeptical that they could make a serious Cup run, the Flyers were supposed to be a lot better than they are now. Instead, they had to change coaches mid-season and they're still struggling to get into the playoffs, they have serious goaltending questions (both for now and next season), they're extremely hamstrung by the salary cap and their minor league talent is lacking -- no one they call up when they need a replacement seems to produce much. Oh, and in the 2010 entry draft they don't have any picks in the first two rounds. This is not an organization primed for success right now.

Can The Gays Rally The Flyers?

This ridiculous Flyers season is rapidly drawing to a close -- more rapidly than usual, with the compressed post-Olympic schedule. The inconsistency that has dogged them all season, except for perhaps those four wins right before the Olympics, continues. Since the season resumed they're now 5-6-1, coming up with the occasional inspired effort (3-2 win over Chicago on a Chris Pronger goal in the final 3 seconds) followed by the inevitable lazy followup (3-1 loss at the NY Rangers the next day). And now it's taken a turn for the worse.

After losing starting goalie Ray Emery for so many games, and eventually the season, due to injury, they were basically saved by the surprisingly fine play of Michael Leighton. Then Leighton had to go and get the dreaded high ankle sprain on March 16th at Nashville, sidelining him for 8 to 10 weeks -- meaning he can only return if the Flyers make a long playoff run. The Flyers are down to Brian Boucher and heaven knows who from the minors to back him up.

Boucher ended up losing the Nashville game in the shootout, but won the next night at Dallas. The Flyers haven't won since, losing a home-and-home set to Atlanta over the weekend and at Ottawa Tuesday night. (More on that in a moment.) If that isn't bad enough, the team hasn't scored more than 3 goals in a game in their last 11 games, and just lost leading scorer Jeff Carter to a broken foot bone. He's expected to be out 3 to 4 weeks, and we're in the final 3 weeks of the regular season...