There was only ONE French Connection .... And that was literally a lifetime ago – when the Sabres were actually good & fun to watch ;-)
Posted on 04/15/2014 8:23:59 AM PDT by airborne
EASTERN CONFERENCE - ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS
BOSTON BRUINS (1) vs DETROIT REDWINGS (4)
TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING (2) vs MONTREAL CANADIENS (3)
PITTSBURGH PENGUINS (1) vs COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS (4)
NEW YORK RANGERS (2) vs PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (3)
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WESTERN CONFERENCE - ROUND 1 MATCH-UPS
COLORADO AVALANCHE (1) vs MINNESOTA WILD (4)
ST. LOUIS BLUES (2) vs CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS (3)
ANAHEIM DUCKS (1) vs DALLAS STARS (4)
SAN JOSE SHARKS (2) vs LOS ANGELES KINGS (3)
The B’s are the NHL’s version of the “Cardiac Kids” ... Recalling last year’s series vs. Toronto, you can’t count them out despite how they might look at any one point.
So I won’t tear up my Playoff bracket sheet just yet ;-)
Wings will be playing in the brown end of the rink buzzing around pissing off your Bruins, sucking up power plays and scoring. I hope the Habs keep it up and knock out the Bolts - they match up very tough against my Wings.
The Habs are The Yankees on skates to me. I’d like to see them beaten.
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Time to dig out my Original Six tee.
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I’m glad the Wings are back in the East where they belong with most of the original 6 - too much long distance travel against some very tough teams in the West.
Nice green uniforms of the Stars, they looked against it in both games but showed some spark tonight.
Redwings player was able to flip the darn puck down the ice, that lost it for the Wild, hard loss for them last night. Rebound? Not too sure.
Bolts sure were against it too, they use to be the Habs South with LeCavalier and others, it was called the French Connection or something, slight soft spot for that team.
Boston Redwings? Obviously, that can go either way, Bruins famously battled back from deficits a few years ago I believe. But it’s a classic series a bit like the Blackhawks/Blues is a real matchup and that was a fine game last night. Blues lost their last 7 regular-season games or something, that’s a bad stat to have.
3 out of every 4 games has been good.
There was only ONE French Connection .... And that was literally a lifetime ago – when the Sabres were actually good & fun to watch ;-)
FRIDAYS RESULTS
Montreal - 4 Tampa Bay -1
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2013030122&navid=sb:recap
Detroit - 1 Boston - 0
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2013030111&navid=sb:recap
Anaheim - 3 Dallas - 2
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2013030172&navid=sb:recap
Chicago @ St. Louis - 3 PM
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/preview?id=2013030162&navid=sb:preview
Columbus @ Pittsburgh - 7 PM
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/preview?id=2013030132&navid=sb:preview
Minnesota @ Colorado - 9:30 PM
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/preview?id=2013030152&navid=sb:preview
It wasn’t just the traveling that was a problem for Detroit. The bigger issue from a business/exposure standpoint was that they were the only Western Conference team that played its home games in the Eastern Time Zone. So they’d have a lot of games out in the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones that were starting two and three hours later than the local time for their own fan base. TV ratings aren’t nearly as high when a game starts at 9:00 or 10:00 PM local time. This is why the Red Wings have been pushing to get into the Eastern Conference for years.
That, and the competition isn’t as fierce. ;) West >> East.
Go Pens!
Agreed, seems that way, didn't stop Vancouver from not winning the Cup!
Blackhawks G. Crawford makes a quick pad save near the end of Period 1 of Game Two in St. Louis, but is unable to stop a Blues goal
mere seconds before term expires. The second St. Louis tally is the margin at the second Intermission, as they lead Chicago 2-1.
There you go, Blues score to tie it up with 7 seconds left. That’s pretty amazing stuff like the game the other night, just saying this as a spectator not being on one side or the other.
Maybe now that’s the case, but it wasn’t always the case. It kind of goes in cycles. I think the longest “Eastern Conference winning streak” for the Stanley Cup in my days as a hockey fan was the stretch from 1991-95 when the Penguins, Canadiens, Rangers and Devils won five straight. Then the Western Conference won four straight (Colorado, Detroit twice, and Dallas) before the Devils won their second Cup in 2000. It was pretty balanced for a stretch after that, but it seems like the Western Conference has had 3-4 of the top five teams in the NHL in most years since the mid-2000s.
A wrist shot by the Blues' Vladimir Tarasenko with 6.4 seconds left in regulation gets past Hawks' goaltender Crawford to knot the score at 3,
setting the stage for Barret Jackman's slapshot winner early in the OT for St. Louis and a 2-0 Series lead heading to Chicago on Monday night.
That goal was a heartbreaker. I expected at least one win on the road for the Hawks.
Undoubtedly they keep the stat on it but I have not seen so many Overtime games in the first round. It must show there is a lot of parity.
Blue Jackets at Penguins in OT, this must be the 4th (3rd?) game so far since Thursday to go into OT.
In fact, Overtime games this Post-Season so far.
Wednesday:
Montreal at Tampa Bay
Thursday:
Chicago at St. Louis
Minnesota at Colorado
Friday:
Detroit at Boston
Saturday:
Chicago at St. Louis
Columbus at Pittsburgh
So in fact, 6 games in OT, that 1st Blackhawks at the Blues game was into its 3rd overtime, almost a game in itself of overtime minutes.
Congrats CBJs.
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