Go Maggie!! TSN's Maggie the Monkey has got at least one right so far!! She "predicted" that the Avs would beat the Stars, and they did--completely defying all expectations!!
I've never been so happy to be wrong in my life!! ^_^ Then again, I can't help but wonder if a bit of it was Murphy's Law at work. At first I had Colorado picked to beat Dallas for my bracket pool, but then I changed my mind and picked the Stars. I figured it would at least set up a win-win situation for me: if the Avs lost, I'd be right in the pool, but if the Avs won, I'd have more playoff hockey to watch! And lo and behold, the Stars lost!
Woohoo!! The best thing about the win today was that the Avs won because Theodore was playing well! So that's another thing I got wrong; I thought the Avs would only ever win in spite of their goaltending. I'm still not convinced that the Avs will manage to get further than the first round, but I'm more than willing to be proven wrong!
Classy Quinn I'll admit I've had my share of beefs with Quinn--particularly his seemingly endless and unfathomable faith in Berg and Belak--but I also acknowledge that he brought and gave a lot to the organization. His accomplishments during his tenure with the Leafs--seven straight years with a winning record, and a post-season every year except this last--are well known and need not be recounted here, but I feel I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that the "unfathomable faith" he had in players benefited me far more than it irritated me.
It was his confidence in and coaching of Kaberle that helped him to become the increasingly respected defenseman that he is now. I was, of course, reminded of this by Quinn's admirably and classy low-key departure message to Toronto fans:
Quinn said there were too many players to thank by name, but singled out the three Leafs who were there from the beginning with him: Mats Sundin, Tie Domi and Tomas Kaberle.
"Mats was our great leader, Tie played with so much heart, and Tomas has developed into an outstanding all-around player," said Quinn. (TSN.ca)
I don't think I can think of a classier coach at this moment. So thank you, Pat Quinn for all the hard work and good years!
. . . .
And on a completely different note, I just had to share this lovely birthday gift from Jello (aka "Jose"--don't ask)! Thanks again, it's lovely!
Shocked and Amazed Wow. So the Avs are up 3-0 in the series on the strength of two overtime wins (after tying the game late in the third).
Crappy for my bracket pool, but awesome for me as a fan!! I've got to admit, I've still got my doubts about them (right now they're winning in spite of, not because of Theodore's goaltending--sorry Jose!) but at the rate the Stars seem to be self-destructing, I'm feeling a lot more hopeful than I was even after game 2!!
They may just pull off this series, against all predictions!! Still don't think they've got a snowball's chance in Hades to make it much beyond first round, but at least it's not as embarrrassing as bowing out in the first. Considering that I was expecting them to be eaten alive by the Stars, I'm just taking things a game at a time and celebrating each victory as if it was their last.
Canada's Greatest Hockey Fan Entry Well, since I've already submitted my entry, I figured I'd post it here. Now that I know that they were looking for community involvement as well as uniqueness/creativity, I'm not really sure what type of a chance I'll have, but I'm still quite proud of my entry:
Mel's Hockey Song (To the tune of Stompin' Tom Connor's "The Hockey Song")
To correctly say "TOE-mash KAH-bear-lay" I took a course in Czech I eat McDonald's three weeks in a row, each card ‘n mini-jersey for to collect For friends I make Jello 'n cupcakes with NHL logos ‘n names At Induction each year I volunteer at the Hockey Hall of Fame
I'm the biggest fan of the game, and Melissa is my name Melissa is the name, the biggest fan of the game
Second period...
From Toronto, I'm on the go, headin' to a game each night In Buffalo, or Colorado, or takin' a B.C. flight I've been to AHL and NHL—the World Cup was insane!— World Juniors, Legends "seniors"! Give me any hockey game!
I'm the biggest fan of the game, and Melissa is my name Melissa is the name, the biggest fan of the game
Third period... (Last game in the playoffs too!)
At a wedding bash, I had to dash, a TV I needed to find A game I wouldn't miss, Tampa-Calgary's sixth—Stanley’s Cup was on the line Went to Burnaby, 'cause I wanted to see ‘n photograph "Joe Sakic Way" From in the street—could've been dead meat—'twas a real life "Frogger" game!
I'm the biggest fan of the game, and Melissa is my name Melissa is the name, the biggest fan of the game (repeats)
Kudos to the many friends who helped me to edit this! It was quite terrible at first as I didn't realize that the first two lines of each verse actually rhymed (the original used a lot of half-rhymes which I didn't catch the first time around), so the edits were really vital! ^_^
Anyway, if anyone's interested in entering the contest, it's open until 11:59:59pm on May 5th, 2006. Contest details and entry submission are available on http://www.tsn.ca/lays.
Playoff Pool Junkie Woohoo!! NHL playoffs are here!! The Leafs aren't in the playoffs, but the Avs are, so I'm still happy. ^_^
Anyway, first two days of playoffs so far are going mostly as I would expect, with a few minor surprises. Nashville beating San Jose 3-4 was one surprising thing. Colorado beating Dallas 5-2 was another.
Even though I'm an Avs' fan, I didn't think that they'd be much competition for the Stars, much less to win so convincingly against them. I knew Wolski would make an impact on the team, but I didn't expect it to be so large or immediate. He scored the game-tying goal and assisted on the powerplay game-winner. All in all, the kid from Brampton is having a good year. ^_^
Hopefully the Avs will be able to keep this up! Of course, that'll mess me up in all of my playoff pools--all four of them. I'm in a Sportsnet, a Futureshop, and two FSN pools. When I was selecting players and teams, I went on the assumption that Colorado would go down in the first round, so if they don't it'll be great for me hockey-wise, but bad for me pool-wise.
In other news, I found a link to a cool thing on Vancouver Canucks Op Ed: an NHL fans group map! If you look at the map in the left sidebar, the blue represents Western Conference fans, and the red, Eastern conference. ^_^ Since you're reading this, you're obviously a hockey fan, so add yourself to the map!!
Speaking of joining something, I'm a co-webmistress with Jello of the Mikael Tellqvist Fanlisting. I know he didn't do so well after Belfour went out, but he's still an amazing goalie, and once he gets some consistent starts, I'm sure he'll prove himself.
Post-script: Montreal is currently up 4-1 and it's the start of the third period. If first games are any indication, Ovechkin may've been right when he predicted the Habs for the upset series win.
Leafs' Character... Well, I said going into the Leafs-Sabres game on Sunday that the game would really show the Leafs' character. Unfortunately, it seems that, as with the goals they scored, it appears they haven't any.
Granted there were moments when they showed some spark and energy--they had a couple of shifts in the second period, right before the Sabres scored their third and fourth goals, where they actually looked dangerous--but for the most part, it was truly embarrassing watching them play.
Considering the number of Leaf fans who not only paid to see them play, but braved the holiday border traffic to watch them play an essentially meaningless game, the least they could have done was to actually make a game out it!
On the bright side, at least I got to take some decent pictures, including two of the Sabres scoring. I think my sports photography skills have greatly improved with the number of games I've attended this year. ^_^ Although, I still have a tendency to "stalk" my favourite players with my camera.
Oh, and thanks to the Olympics and the Leafs pathetic season, this is the first year that the Leafs and Avalanche won't both be eliminated on my birthday!! Moreover, there's no possible way the Avs could be eliminated from the playoffs on my birthday this year since they'll just be starting the playoffs on Sunday! I wonder if they'll have a game on the day? That'd be nice, but even if they don't, I'm planning on going to watch "The Rocket" in theatres, since it will have just opened on Thursday! Yes, I'm expecting a very good hockey birthday this year! ^_^
Darn Carolina!!! ARGH! Even though I fully expected the Leafs to miss the playoffs this year, it still sucked to see the Canes blow an OT powerplay and then allow the Lightning to score to win the game and dash the Leafs' slim chance/hope at making the playoffs. At the very least, it takes some of the excitement out of my Toronto-Buffalo game tomorrow. :(
Still, at least they beat Ottawa soundly (5-1) in their last meeting of the season. And Kaberle had an awesome game, which is good for me in both of my pools!! I guess what it really goes back to is those two games they lost to Montreal about a month ago. If they had won just one of those games, they wouldn't have had to depend on Carolina to keep their playoff dreams alive.
*sigh* Oh well. The Leafs played well tonight, so I'm still going to wear my Leafs' jersey tomorrow.
Leafs Game! Okay, so this is two days after the fact, but it WAS a long game, so I didn't get home until nearly 12am, and then I was marking like mad all day Wednesday (stayed up all night, in fact) so I didn't get a chance until now to post about it!
The game in question is, of course, Tuesday's crazy 6-5 OT Panthers-Leafs game. The game I WATCHED LIVE!!! ^____^ It was awesome!! Well, it was exciting at any rate. There were definitely a lot of times during the game when it was irritating because the Leafs kept letting the Panthers score, but there's definitely something to be said about high-scoring games.
And Luongo wasn't in net anyway so I wasn't feeling sorry that the Florida goalie got shelled. =P Funny how that works, isn't it? The two times in my life that I've bought tickets to Leafs games (coincidentally both on Tuesdays) to see goalies that I like, the goalie in question wasn't even played that night! First time was my first ever NHL game. It was in 2003, and I wanted to see Irbe. At that time, of course, he was on his way to leaving the NHL so Weekes was in net. Then last night, McLennan was in net.
How far the Leafs have fallen, eh? The Florida Panthers don't even consider the Leafs worthy of starting their number one goaltender against them!! =P Don't really blame 'em...
Anyway, here's a selection of pics from the game (click to see larger image):
The third picture is a shot of the play that led to one of Sundin's first three goals, the fourth is of Sundin's game-tying goal, and the fifth is Kaberle's game-winner (you don't see Kaberle in the pic, unfortunately, but if you look carefully, you can see the puck in the net).
