Bruins Out, Caps In

So I was wrong on my prediction....again! Oh well, that's why I am not making a living in Vegas. I called for a Boston beating on the Caps. Did not happen. Not by a long shot. However, they did have their chances and they couldn't close the deal. No repeat in Beantown. I'm actually happy about it. They now know what the Habs felt like one year ago when they eliminated us in that building in a Game 7 overtime. What goes around, comes around!

So...what does this mean for our pools?  It really is still too hard to tell. We'll need to review this after tonight. We have two more game 7's on the plate!

Do or Die, Three Game 7's in the East.

So now that the west is won with Vancouver, Detroit, Chicago, and San Jose, all eliminated after being so called 'favorites', who will be the next Goliath to fall?

Who would have thought the New York Rangers would go 7 games against 8th seeded Ottawa? Or that Boston would be pushed to the brink by Washington? Not I folks. However Bassam, Franca, Mike, and Ryan did. They will be rooting for Ovie and his teammates to close the deal tonight in Beantown. My prediction? Washington had their chance at home last game, I think Boston will come out pulling no punches. It will be a rout, Ovechkin will have a nasty argument on the bench with his coach, Dale Hunter, over a lack of ice time. And Lucic and other Boston under achievers will finally wake up and do a serious run for the cup. You read it here first folks. I hope I'm wrong because I don't like the B's but my hockey instincts are tingling and my crystal ball tells me it will be a Boston - St-Louis final. Unfortunately that crystal ball needed batteries when I was making my own picks for the team pool...

Hey Vince, why so sad?

Is it beer time yet?

Listen up peeps. I bet you didn't know that when you joined the office hockey pool, you made a pledge to join in on drink and merriment, did you? Indeed. Read the fine print at the bottom of the spreadsheet I sent you to choose your team and players. It says, "I promise to participate in all festivities organized by the pool master (moi) unless I am about to give birth or have a hot date with a porn star (you have to prove it)".

So for the sake of camaraderie and just because I don't have a good answer to "why not?", would everyone please show up at Ye Olde Orchard on de la Montagne tomorrow night to watch Ottawa upset New York? Please RSVP. I don't mind sitting there all alone but if I know that no one will come, I will at least bring my inflatable dolls...

A day of upsets. 2 of 3 favorites sent packing. Only Boston escape elimination.

Alas it wasn't meant to be. Vancouver and Pittsburgh tried but whatever glimmer of hope they gave their fans, and more importantly to a lot of us in the pool, was finally squashed. A couple of first round upsets now complete…

Boston came an inch of joining the underachiever group until Tyler Seguin provided the heroics with an overtime winner to stay alive and force a seventh game. Meanwhile the once mighty Detroit Red Wings sent to the golf course by the Kostitsyn brothers in that hockey hotbed known as Nashville.

Btw only 3 people went on a limb and picked clear underdogs and 2 called it right. Anastasios was the only one to predict Philly over Pittsburgh, which in hindsight is surprising that he was the only one. Meanwhile Eric felt that Vancouver was going to choke and sure enough they did. Mike called San Jose over St.Louis but unfortunately for him that didn't happen. So congrats on the contrarian calls that came through. No one called for Ottawa to beat New York and that my friends will be one huge upset should it happen.

Here is an update on the Team Pool. Eric is leading the pack with 3 correct calls out of a possible 4. Bassam, Erik, Julie, and a handful of others who called for a Vancouver or Pittsburgh cup win are more or less out of the running (for first prize anyway).

Round 1 current standings

TGIF

Ah TGIF. Time to kick back, crack open a cold one, and watch more playoff hockey! Actually nah. There is only so much playoff hockey one can watch especially when half the time I am wishing it was the Habs I'm watching.

A glance at the leaderboard


Franca and Carmine are the leaders of the day. The race is still tight with only 4 points separating 6 poolers. Eric has a solid grasp on last place thanks to his Bruins forward firing blanks. Tim Thomas has more points (7)  than all his Boston forwards combined (1)! And we're talking some big names here: Bergeron, Krejci, Lucic, Seguin! Sorry Eric. Too good a factoid not to bring up! Who knows if they squeak by the Capitals in Round One and if Vancouver and Pittsburgh cannot pull off a miracle comeback, Eric may have the last laugh yet...

Ice girls


I've often wondered why Montreal, a city of so many beautiful women, choose to go with dudes in white jumpsuits to clean our ice during breaks in the action at the Bell Center. Other teams don't employ middle aged men to do that work, they employ young hotties. I think the first thing the new GM needs to do is show off to the world that although we may not be able to put out the best players on the ice, at least we can show off other Montreal assets.

What we have now:

What Chicago has:

What we wish we have:

I wish this habs fan would 'throw in the towel'!

Some more gratuitous pics of hot ice girls click here: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0802/nhl.ice.girls/content.1.html

Put The Brooms Away!

There is some joy in Mudville afterall! Backs against the wall, Pittsburgh and Vancouver staved off elimination last night. I guess my pre-game phone call to Geno Malkin worked. I told him that if he doesn't start scoring some goals then I won't win the pool and if I don't win the pool, I won't take him to his favorite Montreal strip bars next time he's in town. He said "  Не беспокойтесь, мой маленький китайский друг. Я буду играть в большую игру, и мы будем веселиться с стриптизерш. ." (copy and paste what he said at this link: http://translate.google.com 


Wonder Twin Powers...Activate!


We have a new leader of the pack today. Erik F is back on top thanks to Vancouver's Wonder Twins  

On The Brink Of Elimination....

Wow. I'm sure you'll all agree with me that it's hard to believe that two of the favorites to go far in the playoffs are looking at 'do or die' situations. The Pittsburgh Philadelphia series has been full value for entertainment with plenty of goals, fisticuffs, comebacks, and good old fashion rock 'em sock 'em hockey. Who would have ever guess tthat Pittsburgh would lose two big leads in games 1 and 2 and get smoked in game 3?

Shit happens you say? Yes it does but this is more than shit happening, this is a major case of toilet exploding diarrhea! For fuck's sakes where is Malkin? 4 assists is not going to cut it for a guy who won the scoring race. And don't get me started on M.A. Fleury. My son is a better goaltender, and I don't even have a son!

Oh well, at least Pittsburgh seems to be winning the fights...

Over in the west coast, the shit is stinking pretty bad there too. Vancouver crap is piling up on Robson street thanks to Loserongo in nets and the anemic offense of the Canucks. One would almost think that they are trying to imitate the Habs. They score 4 goals in 3 games. Canucks lose a wonder twin and the well goes dry? The Kings will be pulling out the brooms, look for a sweep on Wednesday.

What This Means To Our Office Pool....

If Vancouver and Pittsburgh get eliminated a lot of us will basically be guaranteed no chance of winning the player pool. Here's hoping for not one but two miracle comebacks...

Below is a breakdown of the total number of Van and/or Pitt players each of us will lose. Only Eric will escape unscathed. 

Bassam 7 + 1 (the 1 represents the goalie)

Erik 6 + 1

Julie 5 + 1

Ryan 5 + 1

Mike 4

Franca 4

Paul 3

Randy 3

Carmine 1

Eric 0

Current Standings ( as of 11:55 pm Monday night)

Paul 37

Erik 36

Mike 30

Carmine 29

Franca 29

Bassam 28

Ryan 27

Randy 21

Julie 20

Eric 17

About Last Night Part 2

We have a new leader this morning. Randy is on top due to his two Chicago homeys having a good game. Statistics show that early leaders of hockey pools don't normally win the pool.

Eric went Boston heavy this year in his picks. 5 Bruins on his roster. Lucky for him that Boston won last night, 1 - 0 in overtime over Washington. Did any of his forwards get a measly point? Nope. However his goalie, Tim  'I hate you Mr.President' Thomas got a shutout. 5 points for the shutout, 1 point for the win. Sweet!