The Road Warriors

To win in the playoffs means you must know how to win on the road. This is exactly what we saw in all 4 games last night, the visiting grabbing the win. Wth their victories last night Pittsburgh & Philly have both reclaimed home ice advantage. Phoenix's loss all but assure their 1st round exit as they're quite possibly 3 periods away from tapping out to the Red Wings & their figure four leg lock.

It seems that every year there is at least one series where the home team just can't get it done. This trend is holding true for the Bruins-Habs series as last night the Bruins were won their first game of the series - in Montreal. Boston was buoyed by the return of their captain as Chara returned to action last night. It can't be understated what a huge lift for that team - literally & figuratively.

The 3rd period of the Habs-Bruins game was excellent. Habs were playing really well last night & just ran out of time. I loved seeing Gionta take out the big man (Chara) with an great check in the Bruins end. This is one helluva series.

Anyone have any idea what goes through Colin Campbell's mind when trying to make a decision? I suspect he uses the Wheel of Fish from the Weird Al classic movie UHF. Raffi Torres - you make a questionable hit in your first game back from a 4 game suspension? You get NOTHING!

Two more quesitonable actions last night that warrant reviews. Chris Kunitz couldn't have been more obvious in his intent to injure as he delivered an elbow to Simon Gagne's head. Gagne has a well established injury history was very lucky the hit didn't sustan a concussion on the play. The other incident saw Steve Downie (yeah him) leave his feet, launching his body into the opposing player (can't remember who atm) to deliver a big hit. Very reminessent of his preseason hit on McAmmond from a few seasons ago. If the NHL is serious about player safety they can't go all chickenshit in their decision making. They need to be firm and consistent.

Was on twitter last night and had some fun banter with some of you. I've rarely tweeted while watching games in the past and now I know why - it's so easy to get distracted reading various tweets and miss the action of the game. I'm going to try to continue tweeting when possible. If you've a twitter account, you can follow me @ZamboniNation.

Slow night tonight with only 2 games on tap. Chicago will be fighting for their playoff lives trying to come back from 0-3 where as the Sharks-Kings series changes cities for game 3 in LA. Looking into my crystal ball I forsee a bleared eyed morning for me tomorrow.

Enjoy tonight's games everyone.

-PD