Playoffs Daily | QF Game 5 | April 23rd, 2011

A bit late with this daily update. But it was one of those busy Saturdays. I am still reeling a bit from last night's developments. And here I thought just having two games would be boring. But it started off exciting enough, as ESPN decided to show the Flyers game now that the Red Wings did not need their game 5. Lets have the overview first:

[Sabres-Flyers] 4-3. Sabres lead series 3-2. *mumbles, mostly expletives*
[Preds-Ducks] 4-3. Preds lead series 3-2. Hmm another OT loss. The Ducklings sure know how to keep things interesting.

So how did I feel about the Flyers game? It was up and down for me. Obviously the first period was horrible. Boosh looked like a scared little schoolgirl! Allowing soft goals. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark I went to the kitchen and washed some dishes rather than just putting them in the dishwasher and return quickly to continue watching the game. Chores over Hockey *shakes head* ... Upside is that missed I the Sabres' third goal. And oh, Boosh had been replaced by Leights ... wtf? lol

But things definitely got better in the second period. JVR kept us in the game by scoring a marvelous goal. And Mesz. What can I say, there is a reason that he is my fave Flyer along with Leino ... awesome D-guy with an ability to score some big goals. And I am glad Danny got his goal, a great way to equalise the game.

The energy and the dedication in the 2nd and 3rd period showed me they definitely have it in them and I loved watching them. Now, it was getting close to 4am for me at the end of the third period. And I did my best but eventually sleep overtook and I fell asleep on the sofa lol ... so I missed a bit of the 3rd as well as the OT, but I am feeling more positive about my guys than a few games ago. Mistakes were made and the loss could have been avoided, but such is life. Time to move on and have a better next game!

And that Miller guy. His beady eyes make me feel uncomfortable. And did you see him take down Brière? And he got away with it too. Man, that is annoying. Miller has gone from someone who annoys me to someone who has just replaced Sid on my hatelists. From now on nothing but love for Sid :p

Anyways, this post is so late that by now the Pens have lost their game vs the Bolts and quite impressively too ;) The Caps have taken a 2-0 lead half-way through their game vs the Rangers. More about both games in tomorrow's update :)

And saunter over here to see my complete Whimsical Playoffs Predictions:
My Whimsical Playoffs Predictions

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 4 | April 21st, 2011

I could not contain my need to find out how last night's games went, so as I was headed for work, stuck in heavy traffic, I was reading tweets on my BlackBerry. And as I was scrolling I saw good news for the Caps, good news for the Pens fans, good news for the Ducklings and I thought "Hey, this is looking good!" and then I came upon the Flyers result and no. A 1-0 shutout is not what I was hoping for at all. Not at all. And it is also a bit of a lame loss. You know things are not going the way they should when you get your happy hockey fix from other teams. Cause I was very very pleased when I read the Red Wings have sweeped this series!

[Caps-Rangers] 4-3. Caps lead 3-1. Whew. The Rangers were onto something here. Caps were 3-0 behind after the 2nd period but managed to score three goals in a row to make it 3-3. OT was not enough for either team to clinch the win and the game had to go into second OT where Chimera scored to bring the Caps victory. Phew!

[Pens-Bolts] 3-2. Pens lead 3-1. Another long tough game. Bolts did good coming back from a 2-0 deficit. Took the Pens double OT to wint his one. Still think the Pens will win this round, but not without the Bolts fighting back!

[Flyers-Sabres] 0-1. Tied at 2-2. I hate games that generate only one goal. At least it was not a soft goal. Tough game, pretty much a goalie game too. Suppose we should be glad Boosh was in net. And really? A brawl at the end of the game? Shall watch it when I get home. In any case, not too happy with this result *sigh*

[Ducks-Preds] 6-3. Tied at 2-2. Awww my Ducklings fought back and well, not much else to add than well done Duckies, two more wins to go!

[Red Wings-Yotes] 6-3. Wings sweep this round with a 4-0 win! My fave Western Conference team, looking sharp. Have DVR-ed this one and will watch as soon as I get home!

And saunter over here to see my complete Whimsical Playoffs Predictions:
My Whimsical Playoffs Predictions

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 3 | April 19th, 2011

This morning I was driving to work and much of my thoughts had to do with last night's games. Have my Flyers won? Did the Bruins finally beat the Habs? And could the Wings add a third win? And alright, for the sake of my predictions, did the Pens beat the Bolts? Cranking up my laptop is usually a bit of waiting game, but with all these questions in mind it seemed to take forever. I went for a little walk, got a cup of tea before I could finally surf to nhl.com and I have to admit ... seeing all your picks win their game is pretty damned good.

[Flyers-Sabres] 4-2. YEAH! Two more wins to go! I suppose picking Boosh over Sergei at this stage is a wise idea. I am by no means a fan of Boosh, even less so of Leights, but you cannot deny that experience seems to be a bit more important at this stage. And it is a good idea to get the pressure off Sergei, he will grow so much next year and he will have had his first taste of the Playoffs. I see nothing but good happen for him next year. Lets just hope Boosh does not choke. But I suppose he wants to show his best work, after missing out playing last year.

[Bruins-Habs] 4-2. I half-jokingly predicted 6-2 last night. Sort of tried to cheer up a buddy of mine - Sven - who is a Bruins fan. Not holding it against him, especially not when they are facing the Habs ;) Having Chara back probably makes all the difference. Some guys just bring a certain confidence to a team. Alright Bruins, you are back in the game, now net the next three wins!

[Pens-Bolts] 3-2. Well, what can I say. Normally I would have cheered for the Bolts, but for my predictions ... good win. Cheers.

[Red Wings-Yotes] 4-2. Ha, lots of 4-2 wins last night! And way to Wings, my Western Conference faves! One more to go :)

Just two games tonight, but the Nucks can clinch their SF spot tonight. Bye bye Blackhawks!

And as per usual, for my complete predictions, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 2 | April 17th, 2011

At last! I got to watch a few games rather than only getting to read about them the next day. Which also gives me much more to write about ;)

I got home just in time to see the Wings score their second goal and even better, I was in time to see Datsyuk perform one of his famous moves.


Luca Caputi said it best per Twitter:

Luca Caputi

Did Datsyuk really just go between his legs full speed on a partial breakaway? #datsyukiandangle

Followed by:

Luca Caputi

He should be suspended for embarassing everyone. Enough is enough! #besthandsever

Funny! But here a play-by-play of my Game Two Playoffs Hockey Night in the Netherlands.

• Watching the Wings get a 4-0 lead was great; then the game got really exciting! The Yotes fought back to 4-3 and I spent the last two minutes not just on the edge of my seat, I actually moved closer to the TV and sat on the edge my coffee table. Sat so close I could see each and every pixel. Some really frantic play went on ... breaking sticks, crazy skating, stumbles. It was great.
• Poor Frantzen though, that boarding early on in the game was harsh and when he came back he got a bit of an ovation and rightly so. By the end of the game, all that kept his face together were assorted bandaids. Very zombie-like!
• Anyways, during this game my blood pressure went up a few points. With an hour or so to go till puck drop, I was worried about my blood pressure during the Flyers game.

*insert an hour of watching the Spanish classic (El Classico) Real Madrid vs FC Barcelona ... oh yeah us Dutch love football ... no, not the American stuff, the European football of course*

• The Flyers game started well enough. Roo - just like I predicted in my previous post - did score. Unfortunately Harts & Timmo gave us four straight minutes of a Sabres power play early on and sure enough, a rather shabbily organised D gave Vanek a chance to score. Game equalised. Then some further shenanigans - including Sergei being replaced by Boosh - and I just had to shut down the stream for a while. Yeah, ESPN chose to ignore this game so I had to resort to some illegal online watching. It is annoying, but I had to watch this game!
• Watched a bit more Barcelona instead. Needed to get my blood pressure down so I could pick up watching the Flyers again. Dammit, my teams were in trouble for sure. Barcelona gave up a 1-0 lead and did not recover.
• Cranked up the feed again and saw Carcillo had just scored. I was happy again. Until the Sabres scored to tie it at 2-2. I needed another timeout.
• I switched to Flyers Radio. It beat a choppy, laggy feed. Unfortunately I tuned in just in time to find out the Flyers had gone to a 2-3 deficit, but thank god JVR equalised it within a minute. Honestly, at this point I really felt I should stop watching sports altogether and go watch something easy on the heart, maybe a movie. 27 Dresses came to mind.
• I was now so completely stressed that I needed to relax a bit. I went to read some Damn You Autocorrects :D
• Second period was as wild as the first. Lots of PPs for Flyers. And wow. I couldn't believe my ears. We finally got a PP goal! 1 out of 15, not bad eh? Definitely a big 'YAY' for Leino (one of my favourite Flyers)!
• Brière scored to make it 5-3. It became a little easier to breathe!
• The third period. Right. I have no idea what happened in this period hahah. By this time I was so exhausted that completely against my will I fell asleep on the sofa. I was listening to Flyers Radio and watching the Habs-Bruins game on TV. Maybe that did me in. Also, it was past 1am my time lol ... Anyways, by the time I woke up, the game was over and we had WON! Yeah! 5-4 ... somewhere in the 3rd period some pesky Sabre snuck one in lol

Onto the other games:
[Habs-Bruins] 3-1. Why is this happening? Why is the whole choke-thing true? Damn you Bruins. I want the Habs dispatched with!
[Kings-Sharks] 1-1. The Coins are still on par. But for the sake of my predictions, the Sharks better win the next three hahah.

OK tonight ESPN will air the Caps-Rangers game, so another fun evening ahead!

And as per usual, for my complete predictions, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast

Playoffs Daily | QF Game 1 | April 15th, 2011

Yes, nothing quite as fun as checking in on nhl.com and find your team has lost their first game. Right. And to top it off, the Bruins were not able to win their first game either. Habs! *sends evil looks all the way to Montréal* 

[Habs-Bruins] 2-0. Say what? Hmm, this must be the 'by accident' Habs win I mentioned in my predictions. All is cool.
[Sabres-Flyers] 1-0. Oh boy, so much for my 'forecasted' sweep. Hmm, I am not sure why many of my fellow Flyers fans wanted to play the BKK (as I call them) ... they have been the nemesis for my Leafies much of the past few months, by beating a lot of teams on their way to 7th place. Grrrr. But Sergei looked solid for his first ever playoff game! Good vibes for the games to come :D
[Kings-Sharks] 2-3. Sharks might be listening to The Coins.

For my complete predictions, have a look at my previous scribblings:
My Whimsical Playoffs Forecast

Also, if you have not read my forecast yet, stuff like 'listening to The Coins' will suddenly make sense to you ;)

Random Thought #3 | The BKK

Some teams just make me mad for some reason. The Sabres are one of those! I don't even call them The Sabres. I have this need to taunt them. So I call them the BKK.

Ha!

[B] lunt
[K] itchen
[K] nives

*wink*

Another crazy week | March 9th, 2011

It's a good thing this is more like a diary than a blog worthy of following xD


Because after a few very bad games by mainly the Flyers, I couldn't find the inspiration to write things up. Absolute low point: Flyers 7-0 loss to the Rangers. The Rangers!! And just a day earlier they had lost 5-3 to the Sabres. Not only do I hate both teams, but my top Flyboys couldn't even help my Leafies by destroying these two teams. If it were up to me, the Sabres and Rangers would burn in hell ... *feeling particularly evil*


The Leafies did not win all their games either, but hell, they definitely won more than the Flyers and they had some OT points too. Did not like the 5-3 loss to the Blackhawks. And I certainly wish they had gotten the OT point vs. the Isles yesterday. Considering my Leafies were constantly trailing ... glad we got the one point though. The Isles. Just can't hate them since that memorable game against the Pens (apologies for constantly referring to this game lol) ... and they play a very liberated game at the moment. They really have nothing to lose and it's showing in their brawny play. That makes them a rather quirky opponent to play against. You just can't tell what will happen. Anyways, when I first saw the result I was like "Now we're never going to make it!". But hey. The Sabres lost to the Pens and really, anything can still happen. So I will just keep on hoping. Seeing my guys in 10th place is cool anyways, considering they were in 14th place just a few months ago.


Poor Reims by the way! Early in OT it looked as if he injured his hand. Even looked like Giggy would go in. But thank god all was good! A quote:
"My hand is fine,'' he said, a bag of ice covering it. "Shot caught me in the right spot. When I pulled my hand out, I was expecting my finger to be in a couple pieces.''


Hahah, damn, I love that guy.


And then I had to laugh a bit when I read this - Comeau about the play-offs:
"We're not out of it yet,'' Comeau said. "As long as we keep winning, crazier things have happened."
Ah see, there is no end to the amusement provided by the Isles.


OK, back tot he Flyers. YAY Flyers! They finally won again. Read the recap just now though and by the looks of it, they still need some work there. A quote: "The Flyers dominated the first period, outshooting Edmonton 17-1. They were outshot 24-9 the rest of the way, and needed some big saves from Bobrovsky."


By the looks of it they sort of let things slip in the 2nd and 3rd again, but they were still scoring and winning! I'll take it! To make things even more peculiar, we got all three stars :S ... I need to watch this one to form a better opinion.


And what kind of hockey world are we living in when I think stuff like:
- Thanks Habs for keeping the Bruins at bay?
- Thanks Pens for beating the Sabres?


lol disgusting xD

Now remember that game that made me so nervous in my previous post? Leafs-Flyers? Well, my Leafies won and they need the points to get to the play-offs. I was at the same time over the moon for the Leafies and in total despair for the Flyers. And to make matters worse, they meet again next Thursday. Still need the Leafs to win, but I hope that they win in OT or SO.


Just reread this post and I apologise for the lack of order hahah. My thoughts are all over the place!