Hedberg will probably be in net on Tuesday despite having been scored on by a dump-in off the glass (they gave two assists on that one, too; cheeeeze.) Back-to-back games in the Garden mean Lehtonen will play game 4 no matter what the outcome in game 3. Less than ideal if we’re down 3-0 at that point, but if so then we have problems bigger than soul-crushing pressure on young goalie.

Rangers defensive play v. impressive; game 2 was much stronger effort from the Thrashers but extremely close checking made it hard to get the usual flow going. Hossa and Kozlov, my two favorites, among the least effective so far.

Well, I just came down here to thank Prof. Berube for saying the above in lieu of the awful “could care less” and was repaid for my trouble by his link to Scott’s Western Conf. match-ups. As an intermittent Red Wings fan since the late days of Howe, Lindsay and Sawchuck, I appreciated the analysis at the link.

Darcy Tucker, Michael Peca, very late hit below the knee. What, you think we would forget these things? Or Quinn’s dumbass decision in ‘94 to try to cover the Rangers’ Messier line with the line of Tim Hunter, Shawn Antoski, and John McIntyre? (“Us crush them,” said Antoski when asked to explain how his line intended to contain the Rangers’ fast-skatin’, crisp-passin’ attack. “Yeh,” added Hunter. “They go squish now.”) Oh, sure, let’s pretend that Quinn’s teams were just a bunch of virtuous Gary Robertses hustling after loose pucks. Let’s pretend that Ogie Oglethorpe, a/k/a Tie Domi, wasn’t the heart and soul of Quinn’s team.

Slanderous Slanderous, I say. (Possibly libelous – I’m not sure.) Which stars exactly are you refering to here and what illegal tactics did the Leafs use to administer these injuries?
In the age of the neutral zone trap, Quinn’s Leafs dumped the puck into the corner and went in and got it by forechecking hard and finishing every check. By the seventh game of being hit each time they touched the puck, the more delicate opposing players (Yashin, as one example) weren’t too interested in going and getting the puck anymore. And who was leading the charge for the Leafs when they were acting so reprehensibly thuggish?

great-grandpa Gary Roberts (40), a brilliant trade-deadline acquisition who has been flying all over the ice like a young thing and doing for the Penguins’ forecheck what Sean Avery does for the Rangers’, minus the borderline-sociopathy part.

Oh, the slanderous irony. (despite this, I’m glad to see you back on the interwebs)

GO SABRES

(And I do get Versus, mainly for the cycling, though my cable provider is currently trying to screw more money from Comcast to keep carrying it.)

But first you will need to build your own telecommunications satellites and launch them from your backyard, as I did—because, as has been noted upthread, hockey is not televised in the United States.

And yeah, JP, it’ll be so exciting when the Penguins start playing!

I grew up playing soccer, but realize it’s awful to watch – but not nearly like hockey – as well.

America is crying for that fourth national, professional sport, but Hockey is jsut so friggin’ unappealing.

Have to lean towards the top seeds in the East (even the Astonishingly Dull Brown Birds Of The Georgia Metropolitan Spreawl), but the Sens-Pens really does grieve me, because Crosby is a true phenomenon, a player who re-introduces people to the game. But Canadian Teams Must Win. Sorry. Even against Mario and Sidney.

Ice hockey is just like curling, only without the excitement and suspense.

You are a very silly person and thus ideally qualified to lead the NHL.

Thank you!

All right, who let Gary Bettman in here?

Posted by Michael Bérubé · April 11th, 2007 at 2:28 pm

Oh god, Michael I’m so glad you’re back on the intertubes

As Stephen Colbert would say, I ACCEPT YOUR APOLOGY!

Seriously, I love Ted Nolan. He deserves better than this Islanders squad. He has done a magnificent job with that team and should be named coach of the year once again.