Oh woe to be a third seed in the NHL playoffs. Both the Vancouver Canucks and Boston Bruins brought ruin upon their respective fans this past weekend by blowing up, committing hari kari, driving off that cliff edge faster than Thelma and Louise.
Bruins fans have a little more to be upset about, though. After two years without a true playoff goaltender, Boston finally seemed to find one in Andrew Raycroft. Despite his lack of, well, any experience, he led the team to a 3-1 series lead. And the fans were ready to chase away the indignity of their first round loss to the very same lowly-ranked Montreal Canadiens team two years earlier.
Well, Jose Theodore did his goaltending thing again, and suddenly the Bruins are playing golf well before their time for the third year in a row. Boston did not even play poorly. They did not have any serious injuries to key players. They lacked nothing. And yet, now, Bruins fans are left with nothing but a horrible Celtics team for their spring playoff aspirations.
Of course, for the Vancouver fan, the taste is just as bitter. The team seemed to be playing well without power forward Todd Bertuzzi. The team pulled through after losing starting goalie Dan Cloutier. Minor-league netminder Alex Auld seemed to be making a name for himself, playing at the level of a playoff goalie.
With less than one minute left, down by one, the Canucks tied it up on a beautiful goal that made Calgary Flame's goalie Miikka Kiprusoff look like an amateur. And Vancouver fans everywhere felt their hearts raise in hope.
Two minutes into overtime, Calgary's moving on to face the Detroit Red Wings, and Vancouver is headed home.
Teams like the San Jose Sharks, that have fought expectations for an entire season, are still going strong. Despite a serious lack of strength in scoring, San Jose is showing itself to be a serious threat in the Western Conference.
The Paul Kariya-less Colorado Avalanche might have something to say about that this week when they go up against the Sharks. Even without Kariya, the Avs' offensive power is going to put the Sharks to shame. There is the chance, however, that Shark goalie Evgeni Nabokov could do what he does best, and steal game after game against Colorado's scoring prowess.
In the end, though, the Sharks are going to need to get enough goals against the Avalanche, and if they run into a little bad luck, they will not have enough clutch scorers on the team to pull them out of a scoring drought.
The betting sheets are pointing towards the Detroit Red Wings, coming in at nearly 1-1 odds to be the West's team in the Stanley Cup finals. But the Nashville Predators -- a team that was not supposed to be in the playoffs three months ago -- made them work, and the older Red Wings were looking tired as the series progressed.
The team's talent allowed Detroit to swing through the series without too much of a problem, but everyone on planet Earth has witnessed the Flames' -- Detroit's second round opponent -- incredible work ethic around the boards. Not to mention the hitting.
If the Flames can keep up their energy and enthusiasm, they might be just the team to break down Detroit. The Red Wing's Joe Louis Arena is known as one of the most forbidding buildings in the NHL, but one look at the recent rabidity of the Flames' fans and that distinction might have to be moved north to Calgary.
These people have not even seen playoff hockey in nearly a decade, and they have absolutely no intention of letting their team get away with an early exit.
A little closer to home in the Eastern Conference, we might witness Darwinian selection in action. The Toronto Maple Leafs are facing off against the Philadelphia Flyers, and whoever comes out of that contest might be too sore to face its third-round opponent. These are two large, east coast style teams that are going to knock each other silly before they're finished.
That means that whoever comes out of the Canadiens-Tampa Bay Lightningmatch up will have an easy time of it, going against a big, tired team.
To finish off, a reminder that while betting on the NHL playoffs might be fun, it is best left to professionals. Some heavy losses this past week is teaching a lesson that school never could.
