Brain Enema of a Savage Mind

Slaughtering the Sacred Cow.

Many times in Buffalo when Lindy Ruff’s name is spoken, it is spoken with reverence.  He brought a core of young players together, and over the past few seasons have really helped a lot of them to find their place.  Sadly, just when things looked brightest injuries to every line slowed the momentum of the team two seasons in a row.  Injuries have been an issue again this season, and of course those aren’t Mr. Ruff’s fault.  What is his fault, however, the inability to get goal scoring out of his team.

When your backup goaltender (of questionable worth – ask the half dozen or so other teams he’s played for) puts up some decent numbers (for a backup) – like holding a bottom feeding team to 2 goals – you expect to win, or at least put on a good show.  Instead they don’t find the net.  Not once.  People are quick to point out how the team suffers with Vanek out of the lineup, but face it, if one guy is your whole offensive output you’re not a team in very good shape.

Sure, Afinogenov hasn’t been having a banner year.  Then he strained his groin.  However he’s been cleared to play medically for 10 days now and still he has remained a healthy scratch, still sitting on the IR list.  I know Ruff wants to make a point, that if you’re not producing you’re not going to play, but this is ridiculous.  No one on his team is producing.  He’s holding back an asset ready to get out there and earn his spot back.  What, is he afraid of sending someone like Matt Ellis back to Portland which he’d have to do in order to reactivate Afinogenov?  Well I have news for you, Ellis belongs in Portland.  In 109 career NHL games he only has 17 points.  That’s .15 points for game in case you were wondering.  That’s not where you’re going to find offensive production.  We need points on the board Mr. Ruff!  We need some creative line juggling.  We need firey speeches, and wrath of god-like threats to the players, the staff, and any one else out there who will listen.  We need a Buffalo Sabres team that has fire in their belly, not the current Sabres team who couldn’t seem to care that they are hanging on to the last playoff spot by a thread.

In the wake of all the other coaches who have been sent packing maybe, just maybe Buffalo should start doing the same thing.  Afterall Lindry Ruff is a proponent of benching those who aren’t performing up to par – and lets face it, right now he is the one who’s not up to par.  Get that fire back Mr. Ruff, or open up the classifieds and start looking for work.

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Lord Stanley’s Cup

All right, it’s finally here.  The best team in the East taking on the best team in the West in what should be a wild shoot ‘em up.

Pittsburgh Penguins v. Detroit Red Wings

Detroit comes in to this game eager to return to the glory days where they dominated the NHL.  They finished with a spectacular regular season record, and have been matching that record with an equally impressive post-season tally.  They have a very experienced and determined crew.  It’s almost a whos who of hockey glory these days.  I had wondered if age would be catching up with them, however after how they man-handled Dallas I’m not sure age is an issue with this team.  Chris Osgood continues to be a dominate netminder – not that he’s been called on very often to win the game for them with a powerful defensive core in front of him keeping the traffic in front to a minimum.  Chris Chelios has continued to do what he does best by pounding the offensive talent of opposing teams.  Add to this mix Zetterberg who has been a scoring machine (tied for playoff point lead with Sidney Crosby) and you have one hell of a tough team.

On the opposite side of the ice is an equally impressive cast of characters.  A lot is said in the media about Sidney Crosby, and certainly he’s been putting up the numbers.  He’s a valuable asset to this team, but his media pressence overshadows other members of this team.  At the trade deadline Pittsburgh brought in a couple of experienced players in Hal Gill and Marian Hossa to provide some stability to the brashness of youth that fills the Pens locker room.  Hossa is one of the most underrated defensive players in the game.  He closes up the passing lines and forces low percentage points from the outside with he is amazing postional play.  He’s a living text book of to transition from the offensive forecheck to defensive prowess.  Then there’s Evgeni Malkin, in my opinion Pittsburgh’s most promising player for the future.  He’s quick, he sees all the ice, and when that puck is on the end of his stick he’s like a magician, weaving through defenders.  Cap all this off with Marc Andre-Fluery who has developed in to a future Hall of Fame goaltender.  The Penguins patience with him paid off, and he has been rewarding that patience with absolute brilliant play in net.  They’ll need him to be at the top of his game.

This is going to be a high scoring series with a lot of end to end action.  This is a tough one to call.  In the end I’m going to go with not only my gut feeling, but my desire to see the Eastern Conference come out on top.  Penguins skate away with the cup in game six in Pittsburgh.

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Sad Clowns in Dallas

The Dallas Stars are playing like a team lucky to even be in the post season. Detroit is dominating them in every sense of the word, both mentally and physically. Not that I didn’t see this coming, but it really is embarrassing to watch the Stars completely collapse. I guess I should have predicted a sweep on this one, but I really thought Dallas could pull one win off – that some of the contests would be a little more, well, contested than they’ve been. Hey, the Stars still have a chance – not to win the series, but they might eek out that one win before the Red Wings finish them off.

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Semi Finals.

All right, so I’m a little late on posting this as the first game has already happened.  What can I say, I was discouraged by my abysmal picking from the previous round (only 1 of 4), but I still say in two of the games the Rangers were robbed by obscenely bad calls that directly impacted last minute goal scores that would have pushed said games in to over time.  But you can’t dwell on the past, and things are what they are, so lets move on to the semi-finals.

Eastern Championship

Pittsburgh Penguins v. Philadelphia Flyers

The battle for Pennsylvania is alive and well.  This is one of those rare epic moments in a rivalry.  Since neither team can compete directly against one another in the Stanley Cup game this year, this is as close as it comes.  Pittsburgh keeps astounding me, defying odds, and playing like a team with a lot more experience than they have.  Outstanding goaltending and entire lines of players who are getting it done on the score sheet.  Whatever I thought of them early in the season, they really are the real deal.  Philadelphia spent the off season putting together a real team – not just picking up great players, but picking up great players who fit in the system they were looking to establish and it has paid off.  Biron was a wild-card.  His past performances have been streaky, but in Philly he seems to have found the chemisty Buffalo fans long had hoped he would achieve.  He still strays a little far from home, but he has a cast of defensive characters who are more than capable of picking up the slack.  Philly is a physical team that uses big bodies to generate traffic for their prolific snipers.  Daniel Briere leads Philly with 8 playoff goals and is showing no sign of slowing down.  This could be the best seven game, end to end, series to be seen in the playoffs in the last decade.  It’s too bad I’m not a fan of either team (I downright despise Philly, and Pittsburgh drives me crazy mostly because I am sick of hearing about Sidney Crosby like he’s the second coming of Christ), but this is shaping up to be some amazing hockey.  I’m going to have to go with my gut on this one and pick Pittsburgh in 7.

Western Conference Championship

Detroit Red Wings v. Dallas Stars

Yes, they’re already a game in to the series, but even if they weren’t it wouldn’t change the fact Detroit is not going to fall apart like they have in so many playoffs in the past.  This is a team on a mission.  The best team in the regular season, and they are looking to be the best team in hockey when all is said and done.  With Osgood playing the way his in net they might very well do just that.  Most of Dallas’s success against San Jose came from Marty Turco holding his own while the Sharks did everything they could to screw themselves.  Bad turn overs, stupid penalties, and missed opportunities galore. It was a case of not so much Dallas winning as it was San Jose losing.  The Stars aging players are starting to show signs of fatigue.  A lot of the chemisry they rode in to the playoffs has all but evaporated.  They are a team on the ropes and baring a stunning game two performace I’m saying Detroit takes this series in five.

There you have it.  A Detroit Red Wings v. Pittsburgh Penguins cup game.  Not since it was a Detroit v. New Jersey have I cared less.  Actually, any combination of the remaing 4 teams is less than interesting too me, but I’ll watch anyway, because even if I don’t care who wins it should still be a fun ride.

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Put down the whistle.

The Penguins v. Rangers game frustrated me – and not just because every other sentence the announcers uttered had to be about Sidney Crosby (who has what, zero points so far in this series thank you very much), but by how one-sided a lot of the calling was.  The worst offense was the quick whistle by the official in the third period – I’m talking about the quick whistle that wiped out the Rangers goal.  From the camera over the referees shoulder you never lost sight of the puck except when it went through the goalies five hole and in the net.  This is when he blew the whistle, the tiny fraction of a second it was passing under the goalie.  If the refs are supposed to blow the play dead that quick then all five hole scored goals should be disallowed. It was pretty damn pathetic.  This makes twice tha then Penguins were aided in the waning moments of the game by highly suspect and amazingly bone-headed calls by the officials.

I despise the Rangers.  I hate to think of them winning.  But damn I hope in the next game Sean Avery puts Crosby through the glass… and maybe takes one of the officials with him.  It’s absolutely disgusting how they have washed out good hard play, and showed a clear preference in their rulings.

Bullshit Officialls Union.  You need to clean house.

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