Game 7 overload

Remember when you were a kid and you came back from a night of trick-or-treating and you turned that bag upside down to watch all that glorious candy come cascading down in a giant wave and you surveyed your pile in all its glory debating how best to enjoy the fruits of your labor? The past two nights have been just like that for hockey fans. Four of the eight first round series were going to be decided by a Game 7, and each of them involved a great comeback of some sort. The Flyers were down 3 games to 2 and trailed game six 3-1 before rallying to win in OT and force a Game 7. The Blackhawks trailed 3-0 before going on their three game rampage. The Bruins looked lost, down 0-2, yet they too were able to win three straight before the Habs took the sixth game, setting up Game 7 between two historic rivals. Finally, the Lightning trailed three games to one before their offensive onslaught in game six in Pittsburgh shifted the momentum and led to a Game 7.

Game 7. There’s nothing better. Makes you want to just say those words out loud while sitting in your cubicle, right? Suddenly you feel more serious, more excited. There’s an idea right there. Every office should have someone just scream out “GAME 7!!!” in the afternoon over the loudspeaker. Suddenly worker productivity would jump by 100 percent for the rest of the day. Brilliant.

The past two nights we have been treated to four Game 7s, two of which went into OT. It’s almost overload. It makes you wish they could be spaced out over the span of four days so you could savor one per night. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. Instead, each fan was left staring at this marvelous pile of Game 7s, left to his own devices on how to best consume this wonderful Game 7 pile of goodness…

Tuesday night

Flyers win series 4-3

It started in Philly. Tuesday night kicked off with the Flyers hosting the Sabres in the culmination of a wild series. Who better to kick off the Game 7 festivities than Kate Smith on the Jumbotron belting out God Bless America to the whipped-into-a-frenzy fans on Broad St.? The Sabres never had a chance. Miller was bombarded in the first period as the Flyers outshot the Sabres 16 to 2. However, the Flyers weren’t able to get one past Miller until Coburn’s late shot was redirected past Miller, allowing the Flyers to take a 1-0 lead into the dressing room. This was huge. It’s possible this game might have gone very differently had the Sabres held off the Flyers and survived that first period onslaught with a 0-0 tie. We’ll never know. The Flyers never looked back. Their anemic power play suddenly clicked, tallying twice in the second, and then Leino blasted one from an impossible angle over Miller’s shoulder to make it 4-0 early in the third. Miller time was over.

Everyone knew Miller would have to be brilliant in order for the Sabres to knock off the Flyers. Even if this was every Tom, Dick, and Harry’s trendy upset pick, I wasn’t buying it. Yes, the Sabres were playing great hockey heading into the playoffs and the Flyers were struggling. Yes, the Sabres had the better goaltending. But the Flyers would come after Miller in waves, especially with their backs against the wall. That was something the Sabres hadn’t had to deal with in the regular season.

The third period was fairly anti-climactic as the Flyers eventually polished off the Sabres 5-2 to win the series. In the end it was Lindy Ruff “doing a lot of whining.” Perhaps he should tell Patrick Kaleta that maybe it’s not such a good idea to give the best postseason player over the past 5 years even MORE motivation to kick his former team in the teeth. Yet, by all accounts that’s exactly what Kaleta did. He crossed the line when he allegedly brought up the divorces that Briere and Hartnell have been through recently. So in Game 6, when the Sabres had the Flyers on the ropes (must….not……make….Rocky reference….) Kaleta stupidly lit a fire beneath Briere and the rest of Flyers with his idiotic decision to make his trash talk personal. Big mistake. I still wonder if Briere and Hartnell would have shaken Kaleta’s hand while wishing him good luck on the golf course had he actually played in Game 7. We’ll never know…

Canucks win series 4-3

No sooner had the final horn gone off to end the Philly-Buffalo series then we were transported by our friends at Versus instantly across the continent to Vancouver where the Canucks had just taken a 1-0 lead over the Blackhawks early in the first period on an Alex Burrows goal. Maybe this one was going to be a blowout, I thought? What a silly notion. It did cross my mind for a second though. Here were the Canucks, back home in front of one of the loudest crowds in sports. And they had to be pissed. The city was on the verge of full scale panic. This couldn’t really be happening, could it? Seriously? No way. This series was like an action, drama, rom-com, and arthouse indie flick all rolled into one. The mighty Canucks coming off their best season ever steamrolled to a 3-0 lead over the Blackhawks, and, even though it just happened last year, I don’t think anyone outside of the Blackhawks locker room would have predicted it would go to a Game 7 at that point. But here we were. After a heartbreaking OT defeat to the Hawks in Game 7 in which Luongo once again took the loss, we were potentially witnessing a second straight year of perhaps the most difficult thing to do in sports – come back after being down 3 games to 1.

I was pulling hard for the Canucks simply because I cringed at what the city Vancouver would have felt had the Canucks lost. Mass hara-kiri was certainly a possibility. Three straight years to the Hawks? And to have it end like this at home? This was going to be like a horror movie. And just like the killer in a horror movie the Blackhawks REFUSED to die. That 1-0 lead sat there, and sat there, and sat there. Everyone knew it wasn’t going to be enough to kill the tormentor, but the Canucks just could not solve Crawford a second time. Then the Hawks took a penalty with just over three minutes to play. That had to do it, right? Nope. Here comes Toews with the puck barreling down on Luongo. I swear as I was watching him fight off two Canuck defenders that I saw a chat bubble over Luongo’s head saying “Oh @#$%.” A weak shot by Hossa, a juicy rebound, Toews down on the ice. But the captain of the tormentors was not ready to die. This horror movie was not ready to end. Practically from his stomach Toews slapped the puck behind a sprawled out Luongo to confirm what everyone was thinking, “I knew a 1 goal lead wasn’t going to be enough…”

Here we go to OT. Tied 1-1. With all of Vancouver sharpening their blades in case their worst fears were realized. Not tonight. This horror movie would have a happy ending after all. The killer made a mistake, a turnover, and Alex Burrows grabbed the puck out of mid-air, dropped it to the ice and blitzed to the slot with the puck sitting on its edge. Still sitting on edge… Still sitting on edge? How the hell did the puck sit on edge for what seemed like an eternity? I still don’t know, and I think neither does Burrows. He doesn’t care. After overthinking his penalty shot in the second, resulting in a weak wrister that never had a chance, Burrows wasn’t doing that again. He took one look at Crawford and the net, then reared back and just ripped a slap shot that was in and out of the net so fast, I barely saw it go in. Just like that the killer was dead and the movie was over. Oh, and the roof of the Rogers Arena was practically lifted off from the noise. All the talk of psychology and demons and playoff jinxes and disastrous collapses and history and comebacks was all done. All the bushido blades were being placed back in their sheaths. There would be no wake tonight. Only a massive party. I heard one quote that summed up the night for the Canucks perfectly, “What a wonderful day for an exorcism.” The Canucks had defeated their nemesis and were moving on.

Two Game 7s down. Two more to go on Wednesday….

Wednesday night

Bruins win series 4-3

In a game that was overshadowed by the two Game 7s taking place on the same night, the Habs rode two power play goals (both coming with a 2-man advantage) to a game six victory, setting up a second Game 7 on Wednesday night between the two archrivals. The B’s jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but a timeout by Martin settled the Habs down. Over the past couple seasons I’ve noticed the timeout being used with more frequency earlier in games in order to slow momentum and allow a team a chance to regroup. Once again, it worked. Just when it looked like the Bruins were going to run the Habs out of the building, the momentum seemed to shift a bit back to the Habs. The Habs capitalized on a power play to cut the lead to 2-1, then tied it on Tomas Plekanec’s shorthanded breakaway goal. Chris Kelly gave the Bruins a 3-2 lead, but then, you guessed it, a late penalty for a careless high stick by Patrice Bergeron gave the Habs another powerplay, and a PK Subban laser tied the game with 1:57 left in the third.

The Boston faithful tried booing Subban all game, but it came off as kind of a weak retaliation for the Habs booing of Chara in Montreal, and not nearly as loud. After his goal, Subban showed why he is so hated even at such a young age by blowing a quick kiss to the crowd and motioning to them as if saying, “Come on! Where’s the noise now?!” There’s no question this kid has talent. His laser of a shot to tie the game just reinforced that. He had a very good series, and he may very well be a future All-Star. However, he needs to tone it down a bit before he joins the realm of Matt Cooke and Sean Avery. Right now, he’s in the tier just below those two along with guys like Patrick Kaleta, Dan Carcillo, and Steve Ott. Somehow, I don’t think he will. He seems to enjoy being hated and acting like a punk. It will be interesting to see how his career progresses.

So, on we went to our second OT in a Game 7 in two nights with Nathan Horton blasting a shot that appeared to be redirected on its way past Price. The Bruins, once down 2-0 in the series and looking dead, had come back to win the series without scoring a single power play goal, going 0 for 21 in the series. Yikes. In fact, they were -1 because of the shorthanded goal by Plekanec in Game 7. Conversely, the Habs didn’t score a single even strength goal in either of the last two games. They had 4 power play markers and the shortie. I’m telling you, you can’t script this stuff even if you tried.

Lightining win series 4-3

Another series with a comeback story. It seems like a long time ago that Dwayne Roloson was practically single-handedly trying to steal the Stanley Cup with Edmonton before an injury knocked him out of the final series. The Oilers never really recovered and Carolina eventually triumphed. Roloson was back in the play-offs and back to his old tricks. Darren Pang interviewed him after game 6, I believe, and started off by asking Roli the Goalie if he knew what his record was in elimination games in the postseason. Roloson’s reaction was classic. This was even better than watching Cammalleri do his best Gladiator impression and giving one-word answers during his interview before taking the ice. He basically said “No, I don’t, and I don’t want to know, so don’t tell me.” Classic. Superstition lives on.

Roli was brilliant again in Game 7, making 36 saves to steal the show. However, the amazing this in this game was that a Dominic Moore no-look-behind-the-net-pass to Sean Bergenheim worked AGAIN! When I saw this work in game six I was impressed, but to see Game 7’s only goal come from virtually the same play was just too much. Yes, it was slightly different. The first time he used a forehand pass and was completely behind the net. The second time he was driving behind the net and used a backhand pass. But still. To see that work twice, in two games, involving the same two players? Crazy. And impressive. Here’s a tip to the Caps d-men. Might want to be careful about overcommitting when Moore dips behind the net. Just a suggestion.

In the end, the Penguins just missed their star players too much to finish off the Lightning. While still a very dangerous team (they outshot Tampa Bay 36-23 in the final game) they just didn’t have the goal scoring and leadership provided by Crosby and Malkin. Yes, they even missed what Matt @#$%ing Cooke brings to the table. It will be interesting to see what moves the Penguins will make in the offseason, but they are as deep and talented as any team in the league at every position. The Lightning, on the other hand, face a very difficult challenge against the Caps in the next round.