Round 1:
Philadelphia Flyers.
Jordan Staal was given the task of shadowing Jeff Carter. Carter scored 46 goals in the regular season (the second most in the NHL). He had one goal in the six game series.
Max Talbot’s fight with Carcillo was only the beginning of Max’s storied playoffs. He shushed the Flyers fans and woke up our offense.
Round 2:
Washington Capitals.
This is all about Letang for me. He was injured in Game 2 and questionable for Game 3. Not only did Kris play in Game 3, he scored the GWG in overtime. That brought the series to a more manageable 2-1 and set our team on fire.
And then in Game 7, he fired that puck right over Varlamov’s head and rattled him right out of the game.
Oh and Captain had that well deserved and hard earned hat trick.
Round 3:
Carolina Hurricanes.
Sweet Sweep Love. Did anything but awesome happen in this series? I mean, other than those hateful men taking out their frustrations on Lelover's and Jordan's gorgeous faces.
Satan sticking up for baby boy and beating the crap out of "that guy"!
Staal vs. Staal.
oh yeah there was that Evgeni Malkin hat trick. His third goal was unreal.
Round 4:
The Stanley Cup Finals
Detroit Red Wings.
MAF was amazing… if we forget about Game 5... which wasn’t his fault anyway. Games 6 and 7 were enough to shut a lot of people up though. Or, at least they should have been. He was brilliant. I’ve always liked Fleury and was an apologist before I even started watching the games again. Because no goalie can stop every puck and every goalie lets one in on occasion that he wishes he could take back. There are few losses that can be blamed entirely on MAF no matter how easy it is to blame him. If he’s having a bad game? The rest of the team needs to step up and help take some of the pressure off of him, period. And please, do not stand an inch in front of him and expect him to stop the pucks. He can’t see them if you are blocking his view. Seriously. Clear the fucking crease.
Rob Scuderi. I’m way too nervous about his UFA status at the moment to talk about him. People can keep making fun of me for tearing up at the mere mention of his name. I was just going to write here about how he saved Game 6 for us. How it’s entirely possible that if not for him, we could have lost that game. Lost the series. Lost the Cup. I would do so many different kinds of things, legal and illegal, to ensure his status with our team. I would sell my soul. I would do things that got me imprisoned. I swear to you, Ray Shero, if you screw this up and we lose him and we play against his new team, I will root for him to shut us out. Yes, I am that stubborn. ugh. Maybe I am exaggerating about that. I'm not lying though. I mean, right now I feel exactly like that. Like I would follow him to the Red Wings if I had to. But I am not lying or exaggerating when I tell you that I almost threw up just now. I remember somebody on ESPN radio saying that Scuderi loosely translated is "the shield".
This team has enough going for it to survive the loss of almost anybody. And by that I mean, almost anybody else. Ohmiscuds, I have to excuse myself to go cry in the ladies’ room.
Jordan Staal. Rob Rossi said that somebody said to him (and I remember hearing this before Rob Rossi said it so whoever told him told all of us) “Jordan Staal wins you championships”. In this seven game series, the Stanley Cup Finals, "for all the marbles", Jordan held Henrik Zetterberg to three points (one goal and two assists). His shorthanded goal in Game 4 lit a spark and won us the game. Then there was that goal in Game 6.
I hope that people understand why we have so much money locked into our third line center. He’s priceless. Our third line really clicked and you should never, under any circumstances, wish for it to change next season... or ever, quite frankly.
We have some scary free agents right now: Rob Scuderi (UFA), Bill Guerin (UFA), Ruslan Fedotenko (UFA), Petr Sykora (UFA), Miroslav Satan (UFA), Hal Gill (UFA), Craig Adams (UFA), Mike Zigomanis (UFA), Philippe Boucher (UFA), Mathieu Garon (UFA), Alex Goligoski (RFA)
I think it’s safe to assume that Sykora, Satan and Garon will not be back. I will miss everything about Petr. I will miss Garon’s reliability. ( “He’s like a spider in there!” ~ Bob Errey) I will miss the Satan jerseys and his ability to shock everybody by getting physical and/or being awesome. The ones I expect to return are Guerin, Adams (who could only come at a better price if that price was free. I mean, for real, he comes cheap and is a master of the penalty kill, can win faceoffs pretty much all the time, can score goals, can block shots, and I could go on and on. This guy does it all. Thank you Chicago!), and GoGo (he just signed a 3-year and ohmygod I'm scared). I won’t be surprised either way with Feds. I know we’d like to keep him for sure but if he gets a better offer, he’d probably take it and we’d probably have to let him. I would love to see Hal Gill and Philippe Boucher return but I can see where that might be too much to ask for. But we know who I would make the number one priority and I do hope that he is quietly Shero's.
When I hear those words... those words that mean I can sleep at night, you will hear me rejoice. Until then, I continue to vomit at random times in random places on random people (mostly I try to catch it in my mouth).
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our top three lines look exactly the same going into next season. The fourth line would have to be different. I do not wish to speculate on the defensive pairings because I hate that it has to change at all. Our shutdown d-line is in danger and it makes me nervous and extremely sad.
This entry isn't quite complete. It doesn't have everything I've been wanting to say. Not even close. I just wanted to comment on that article and to post some of this stuff while it's still fresh. There's plenty more to come.
NHL Awards are tomorrow on Versus. Draft is next week. Free agency *vomit* starts on July 1st.
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