Well, an interesting First Round of playoffs in North America. In the east, Montreal v Boston and N.Y. Rangers v Pennsylvania Penguins is the result. In the west, Chicago Blackhawks v Minnesota Wild and L.A. Kings v Anaheim Ducks. I'll be going for the Wild in the west and, in the east, the Habs.
Having followed the first round as well as I could (a game a night on Pay Murdoch TV) for my first ever real playoff season has been interesting. My joy at Montreal beating the Lightning 4-0 and going through to the next round before anyone else was great. Sadly, because their series was over so quickly I only got to see one of their games. Hope the 11 day break won't have been too long. The best game I saw was that when L.A. beat San Jose to tie their series 3 all (surprising, as I'm no fan of Kings hockey, but they played lively and crisp and were good to watch). Hats off to LA also, for coming back from being three games to nil down to win that series 4-3. Only the fourth team in NHL history to have done so in a playoff series.
The biggest surprise, though, was how my attitude to several of the teams in general shifted. You might have gathered I'm not particularly fond of Boston and their angry bear style of play. But at least they do it with style. What got me, however, was how much I didn't particularly enjoy a bunch of other teams that play the monster game with their size. Namely, the loser teams of St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets. So, my heart wasn't where my original wishlist predictions had originally put it going into the series. The other team that played the rough house style was the Philly Flyers, but there was enough teamwork class with them to make it entertaining (as they went down to NYR in a seventh game).
We'll see how my predictions stack up before the Conference Finals.
Paid up for Winter Vikings Inline Hockey season today. Go Wheelers!
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