Surprise! Surprise!

It's been a surprising start to round 2 - I doubt many of us forsaw the early going playing out like it has. Sharks up 2-0, Bolts up 2-0, Pred-Nucks tied @ 1 and the Flyers being dominated by the Bruins in their series opener.

Huge win for Tampa last night - very heads up play by Randy Jones to catch the Caps napping on a line change by firing a home run pass down the boards to Teddy Purcell who then flipped the puck cross crease to a waiting Lecavalier who had all day & eventually roof daddy'd the puck over Neuvirth for the OT winner. The Bolts are dangerous and have backed the Caps into a place where they don't want to be, down 2 zip & heading on the road. Washington has the offensive horses to run with anyone, but as long as Boudreau is holding back the reins they're not gonna do much in terms of post-season success. Offensive minded players playing defensive hockey? Case in point - Nick Backstrom. 2 assists in 8 games? Isn't he supposed to be one of the NHL's elite offensive players? Round peg meet square hole.

Detroit must be experiencing a case of Deja-Vu. If your a Wings fan that's not a good thing. Last year saw the Wings beat the Coyotes in Round 1, open the 2nd round in San Jose, dropped a pair of one goal losses & eventually were rubbed out in 5 games. Fast forward to this year - rinse & repeat. We have the exact same scenario playing out with the Sharks winning the first 2 with identical scores of 2-1 . Detroit is a veteran team so they've faced this type of adversity before - but this time, San Jose is even deeper than last year.

This won't come as a surprise, but I'll finally admit it - I'm no Canucks fan. Both their players & their fans are way too smug for a team that's never won anything. Luongo, I got 2 words for you - Over. Rated. Lets just say I was quite happy to wake up yesterday morning to learn that they lost in double OT. The Preds did their job - they won a game on the road to take home ice advantage. I'm looking forward to seeing game 3 - seeing the clip video of the thousands of predators fans waiting for the team at the airport and cheering their arrival was pretty cool to see.

So these Bruins continue to make me look foolish. I should just avoid trying to predict anything that has to do with that team. To see them dominate the Flyers was a huge shocker. If they ever get their power play sorted - look the F out! Game 2 is the only game for tonight. What are the Flyers gonna do for a goalie? They've already played 3 different ones & have apparently called up a 4th goalie from their farm team. Anyone care to guess what they'll be doing this offseason?

Ok folks that's it for now - I'm off to cast my vote in today's federal election as I head into work. I hope that sometime today you're planning on doing the same.

Thanks everyone. Enjoy tonights action.
-PD