Wild Wild West!

Good morning fine hockey folks.  These playoffs sure are keeping us on our toes aren't they?  I must say, I was a bit disappointed yesterday when I saw that there were only going to be two games and that they were both Western conference games.  Although, I was looking forward to watching the Chicago/Vancouver game.  I've had quite a few guys from Chicago on my fantasy hockey team over the past couple of seasons, so I've sort of adopted them as one of my West coast favorites.  I don't dislike Vancouver by any means.  Last season I had the Sedin twins on my roster.  Now those guys know how to grow a beard!  But this year I wanted to see Chicago at least give Vancouver a good run at the series and not be swept out in four.  So as I sat there watching last night, you can imagine the smile on my face growing wider as the goals kept piling up on poor Bob Lou, 4-1, 5-1, "are they gonna pull him?" "I don't know, maybe at the period".  Start of the third, 6-1, out Bob Lou goes, in comes Cory Schneider.  Wow.  Schneider only lets up one and the final score is 7-2 and the Hawks have kept their hopes alive for one more game.  Didn't see that one coming.

Later last night the Sharks took on the Kings in more West coast action.  This game I did not watch.  Too late for me!  Word on the street is that the Kings took an early 3-0 lead in the first and were up by 4 not long after the second period began.  The Sharks' hopes were looking dim.  Then the Sharks' woke up and scored 3 to cut the Kings' lead to one.  Ryan Smyth answered that goal to take the Kings back on top by two.  Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski rallied for the Sharks to tie the game before the end of the second period.  The third period went scoreless and sent the game into overtime.  Three minutes into OT Devin Setoguchi of the Sharks sent one past Kings goalie Jonathan Quick to lead the Sharks to victory.  What a game!

Good thing there were only two games last night.  That's enough action!  Below is a recap of where all the series stand and a schedule of tonight's match-ups.

Eastern Conference

Washington vs NY Rangers - Washington leads 2-1
Pittsburgh vs Tampa Bay - Pittsburgh leads 2-1
Philadelphia vs Buffalo - Philadelphia leads 2-1
Boston vs Montreal - Montreal leads 2-1

Western Conference

Detroit vs Phoenix - Detroit leads 3-0
San Jose vs LA - San Jose leads 2-1
Vancouver vs Chicago - Vancouver leads 3-1
Nashville vs Anaheim - Nashville leads 2-1

Tonight's Games

Washington vs NY @ 7pm
Pittsburgh vs Tampa Bay @ 7pm
Philadelphia vs Buffalo @ 7:30pm
Anaheim vs Nashville @ 8:30pm
Detroit vs Phoenix @ 10:30pm

And last night's pic. :-) GO CAPS!