What you missed last night because only the west coast teams were playing

Sharks beat the Hawks, 3-2: Not to say that any of the goals that Huet gave up were soft, but he should have done better. He went down so early on Heatleys. I guess Thornton made a good shot. And Demers' release was quick, but I think that's a stoppable shot. And Nabakov was better. And right there, in 4 or so sentences, is the game.

Canucks beat the Predators, 4-1: Last night, when Paul Hornqvist beat Luonguo with a sweet backhand to ruin Lou's shut-out, Roberto did something interesting. He smacked the post with his stick. Well, thats not interesting, but I can't remember ever seeing him emotional mid or post game. I think this is a good thing.

Ducks beat the Avalanche, 4-2: Are the Ducks maddingly inconsistent or just shallow with flashes of brilliance? Was this a great comeback or a game they slept through and got lucky? Also, pick a starting keeper already and trade the other one!

What you missed last night while you were talking about Brett Favre and then lighting yourself on fire

Rangers beat the Devils, 4-3: Ok, who picked up Michael del Zotto in fantasy? Obviously, I don't think he'll keep up this pace of goal scoring, but he runs the PP, so points are there. The Rangers were impressive last night. I wonder how much of that can be attributed to Tortorella's early game time-out and subsequent yell-fest. I thought that might come back to bite the Rangers in the ass when, late in the third, the same Ranger's line kept icing the puck. It didn't, because of a Lundquist's great blocker save into the stands.
I understand that Bryce Salvador needs to stand up for Paul Martin, but it actually cost the Devils. Instead of going on the PP, the Rangers win the face-off in the 4-on-4, and score to tie up the game. Oh, and Paul Martin was fine.

BJs beat the Canucks, 5-3: Canuck fans must be flipping out. Its not just the 3 losses, but Luongo got pulled last night and except for the 3rd period, the BJs kind of worked the Canucks. I don't understand how the Canucks gave up a 3-on-2 shorthanded goal while on the powerplay. Hey forwards, backcheck! It was a sweeting passing play though. Simple drop from Nash, who went to the side of the net, got the puck back and then fed a sweet cross-crease pass to Vermette. By the way, Nash had a playmaker last night.

Seriously at this point....

First off...hats off to a godly Monday night game from the two superstars of the NHL. Caps off to the both of them. Steckel was the difference. Nice goal by him though too! To be honest I really don't understand how OVY drills those shots right in the zone from way out. Puts it on the net hard with that natural Russian Force. It's really quite remarkable...Federov hesitation, Kozlov banging his stick he wants it, even though it's a tight fit...grabs it and slaps it over to OVY and BANG! Than the 4th goal with the swerve in at the line, get the d's feet moving the other way along with Fleury looking the other way than Ovy, toewy snap, hop right, toewy in wrister wide jesus christ! Fleury was like, "Really?" Than the best part of the whole game. 1000!


You can't see it clearly here but you can see the makes of it. Right after he scores, OVY jumps so hard and far into the boards that I thought they were going to shatter all over those poor caps fans. One day...seriously, mark my words in his career, he will smash the glass, and I just hope no one including him gets hurt. So much energy is Alex Ovechkin.

The 2man is in a playoff fantasy grouping in which you choose a line from the east and one from the west. From the east, we have Thomas in net with Green and Gonchar at the points and Crosby, Staal and Ovy up front. We got like 10 points from that game alone last night. Just juicing. Out of the west we went with Bobby Lu in net, Lidstrom and Niedermayer at the point and Getzlaf, Franzen and Zetterberg up front. We were torn between Staal and Savard and we basically flipped a coin if you will but I think Staal is scrapping this playoff and will take this to at least 6 games so he serves as a beautiful hedge against Bruin drought as we saw in game 2. He pumped out a goal and an assist so call Staal your ultrashort. For example while long a certain number of us equities, I am long a little TWM and SDS which go up when the market moves down. Don't ask me why these things exist. Don't ask m e why Nemy won't watch a Bruins game with us. Don't ask me why Sue Sung is in fact Sue Sung. Just listen to Billy and get pumped for Tuesday nights games.


Why is it still raining in New York? I feel like I'm with Frasier in Seattle.

And dude if your going to swing your stick in anger please watch your goalie.

- Scotty

What you missed last night while you were miss-playing a line drive to left field

Canucks beat the Blues in OT, 3-2 (VAN win series 4-0): I finally got an OT call right. Anyway, the OT was probably the best (almost) period that the Blues played all series. If not for repeatedly shooting at Roberto Luongo's chest, they might have won that game. Chris Mason actually made the better of the saves, but was once again supsetable to the weak five-hole shot. Did you catch Burrow's celebration? Yea, it was the bow-and-arrow tribute to Luc Bourdon. Got to love that.

Penguins beat the Flyers, 3-1 (PIT leads series 3-1): Marc-Andre Fluery was the difference in this game. He got peppered with 46 shots and made 45 saves, some in that you might categorize as sensational. The Flyers played well, real well. Mike Richards was an absolute beast on the ice, but it came down to Fleury making saves and Biron, not.

Sharks beat the Ducks, 4-3 (ANH lead series 2-1): The Sharks persevered last night in spite of Evegeni Nabakov. He was kind of awful - Carey Price level soft goals. Scoring 4, should give the Sharks confidence, especially since it was their big guns doing the work.

Red Wings beat the BJs, 4-1 (DET leads series 3-0): Before the puck dropped, Fox Sports Ohio (or whoever shows the BJs games on Center Ice) gave the viewers a look inside the BJs locker room. Wow, they were fucking tense. Not one smile. Just a lot of guys saying cliches ("play our game," etc). Then the Red Wings killed the crowd with that early Holmstrom goal. How impressive was it, that Hossa got the rebound upstairs so quickly off his backhand? Anyway, story of the series, Nash a non-factor and Osgood non-sucking.

Hurricanes beat the Devils, 4-3 (series tied 2-2): What a comeback ruined! Devils fight back from 3-0. Score 2 in the final period and then let up the game winner with less than a second. This is when a short memory comes in handy. Does anyone else think Brodeur acts the same way he did at the end of this game as when some takes the last drumstick at dinner?

What you missed last night because the Versus feed was like the Playboy channel growing up

I missed the Vancouver/St. Louis game last night because my Versus feed was scrambled like my eggs. This morning I saw 2 people wearing Rangers jerseys on my walk to the subway. That is way more than the usual zero I see.

Canucks beat the Blues, 2-1(lead series 1-o): As I said above, I couldn't watch this game. I did see the high-lights (twice) on NHL: On the Fly this morning. The slap pass from Demitra to Sedin for the first goal is true beauty. Its an obvious pass, because of the angle, but its got to be a slap to get enough speed on it to beat a goalie five-hole. Also, when Matt Barnaby was analyzing the play on ESPN this morning he said, "you can't give Demitra that much time and space." Well Matty, it was pretty much a power play for Vancouver as Lunogo had gone to the bench on a delayed power play. Thats why he had so much time and space to pick out Sedin in the slot. Oh yea, and Luongo has give up 2 goals in his last 4 or so games. Thats not grease in his hair, thats him exuding confidence.

Penguins beat the Flyers, 4-1 (lead series 1-0): If was writing a New York Times trendwatching piece about the NHL play-offs, it would be about face-offs. See everyone knows how important face-offs are, but I would make it a times trendwatch piece, by just talking about it now and only using limited evidence - like last nights Penguins game. The Penguins won almost 65% of the draws. And with the 9 power plays they had, thats a lot of time where Philly didn't have the puck. It wasn't complete domination, but the numbers make it seem that way. Also, somehow Daniel Carcillo got in trouble. He was more invisible than Chevy Chase in that move.....

Devils beat the Hurricanes, 4-1 (lead series 1-0): This game was complete domination by the home team. Cam "hot in march" Ward was not great, but also took on more shots than a Mr. W at a high school keg party. The Devils played like an efficient machine last night. The little plays they make are so fundamentally sound. For example on Elias' snipe - he doesn't get that puck if Gionta doesn't take the right angle to get body positioning on the Canes defenseman. Also, Parise went low stick side from the goal line - how is that possible!?

Rangers win over the Capitals, 4-3 (lead series 1-0): Jose Theodore made the Rangers an offensively gifted team. Well, so did Jeff Shultz. Henrik Lundqvist plays so deep in his net, it makes me think that he never learned his angles. I've always admired the Rangers penalty kill, its seems to me the most logical and ferocious way to be a man down. Lastly, Blair Betts broke his stick sliding to block Ovy's last second shot. Thats play-off hockey.

Weekend Wrap Up OR The return of the confusing t2MA! playoff pick game!

First of all, for Islander, King, Thrasher, Lightning, and Avalanche fans, your one-day play-off is tomorrow for the 1st overall pick. Here is my guess - the Kings get the #1 pick, then Isles, Lightning, Avs, Thrashers.

In other news, The 2 Man Advantage will be participating in a Sportsnet.ca play-off fantasy game, thing with some bloggers. We were invited by The Battle of Western Canada, so follow it there. We'll update you as well.


Heres the simple truth about the playoffs right now based on the past weekends games (in bullet format):

• Washington looks like it could be the top seed to go down. Theodore is playing worse than a blind man in a poker game. Even though the Rangers couldn't score on midget in a soccer goal, Lundqvist is on fire and hot goalies rule all in the universe known as play-off hockey.

• Speaking of hot goalies, the Flyers don't have one. Thusly, they will be beaten by the Penguins in the first round. And even if Philly somehow makes it a series, they'll regret losing that home ice advantage on the last day of the season.

• If the Montreal/Boston series could be won by getting more penalty minutes, then the Canadiens might win. Tim Thomas is a beast while Carey Price will make 2 great saves, but still give up a softie.
  
  
• Does anyone care about the Devils/Hurricanes series?

• Sharks and Ducks series will be a bruiser. In nature, the Sharks would win easily.
  
• The Red Wings looked prime for an upset if they faced any other team then the currently awfully playing BJs. Only Steve Mason can save them now.... well and Rick Nash

• Will the Flames be able to have a full roster? Do cap issues affect the post season?
  
• The St.Louis Blues are the feel-good story of the league. Unfortunately, they are facing the shut-out robot 2000 aka Roberto Luongo.
  

Finally, we will be having our own game again this year. You pick the winner of each series and how many games it will take. You get 7 points if you pick the right team and games. Its a one point deduction for each game off you are. And you are awarded zero points if you pick the wrong team. Does that make sense? Put your picks in the comments. The winner will get a t-shirt!

Here are Bress' picks:

Boston in 5
Washington in 6
New Jersey in 7
Pittsburgh in 7

San Jose in 7
Detroit in 5
Vancouver in 6
Calgary in 7

What you missed last night because you were watching the Sounders debut

Canucks shut out the Blues, 3-0:
Lou stopped all the pucks
His team didn't play great D.
Luckily, they played Blues

Senators beat the Canadiens, 5-4:
Carey Price is so
inconsistent. Sens play great
with no Cup pressure.

Oilers win big over the Avalanche, 8-1:
Are the Avalanche
tanking for Tavares?
When is Sakic back?

Capitals beat the Lightning, 5-2:
I wonder if the
stupid celebration caused
Cherry to have stroke.

Panther beat the Maple Leafs, 3-1:
Stephen Weiss's goal
had the hardly seen move, the
self-saucer-backhand.

Ducks beat the Coyotes, in the shoot-out, 3-2:
I have nothing to
say about this game, except
Bobby Ryan - great!

Kings beat the Bruins in OT, 3-2:
The first Bruins goal
was great hockey, but the rest killed
Nemmy. He threw couch.

Sharks beat the Predators in the shoot-out, 3-2:
When west coast games
go to the shoot-out, bress goes
to bed. Recaps suffer