Ottawa Smack

[John Giacoletti]

The hockey playoff begin tonight.

The defending Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightening go aginst the Eastern League Leading Ottawa Senators.

The Senators have had the Lighting's number. The radio sports show are afloat with smack.

I have some of my own and your contributions regarding other teams is welcome

Ottawa, eh? The the only city in North America where beaver is as popular as Bush.

Ottawa, eh? The prom concludes with a Zamboni lay

Ottawa. The city where your men, eh, don't shave because beards are free.

What's the city, eh, where the Easter bunny slides his eggs through the five hole? Ottawa!

[Willy]

Beaver is popular everywhere in Canada.

4/1 hmmmmmmmmm

[John Giacoletti]

RATS. Smack didn't help. Ottowa's better ... at this point.

When the 2nd period ended without another Lightning goal I knew they had a problem.

Ottawa is patient and turned the pressure on the the power plays in period 3. Bolts couldn't hang on.

Vinny Lacavalier got the one bright spot for Tampa on his 26th birthday. He will be, is a major star.

[Willy]

Good game so far today 3/3!

Lacavalier...absolutely a major player.

Looks like the lads remember that Stanley Cup Run against Calgary. They are not the eigth place team playing the first place team. They are the returning Stanley Cup champs.

We are in for a great series John!

Go Sens Go!

Ohh crap 4/3 lightning, got to go cheer on the Sens!

[John Giacoletti]

Bolts 4/ Ottawa 3

They played lik Champions tonight

InTensity with a capital T. Open your mouth and your heart falls out.

Ottaway native Dan Boyle Lightening Defenseman scores tying goal making it 3/3 and then Martin St. Louis scores winner 55 seconds later.

Ottawa pulls goalie with minute and a half + for extra skater but Lightenting hold on.

Lots of putting on the body. It's playoff hockey. Massive shot advantage to Lightning puts pressure on rookie goalie.

Next game Tuesday in Tampa

[Willy]

Two games in Tampa, Ottawa must win at least one away or faces the possibility of elimation @ home in game # 5.

Martin St Louis, what a hockey player, can you believe Calgary trade him because they thought he was too small to play hockey!

I love this game!

I'm a flames fan, my son the Sens and Oilers. makes for some great rivalry at home, but as you can see John. With me a flames fane and him a Sens fan. this was painful.

Great hockey!

[John Giacoletti]

Thanks Willy. It was an exciting, dramatic game.

Marty is fiesty and has the heart of an assassin. Each team has offensive and suspect goal tending.

The games will be grinders

[Willy]

[chewy]

Two teammates with a hattrick in the same playoff game?!? OUCH! That's gotta hurt Phili!


GO SABERS!

chewy

[chewy]

Look for a lot of penalties over the next 2-4 games. It all started with the "check heard around the world" by Buffalo's Brian Campbell on Philli's R.J. Umberger in game #1. A legal check, I might add, that nearly knocked Umberger unconcious and has prevented him from playing in games 2-3 (concussion).

Then there was the penalty ridden "idiot" fest on Philli's part in game #2; a game in which Buffalo managed to score two hat-tricks plus two more goals. This was followed by Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff calling the Flyers a bunch of "idiots" in the post game press conference.

This leads us to last night's game, where Phili's Denis Gauthier speared Buffalo's J.P. Dumont in the groin when the refs weren't looking; taking Dumont out a big portion of the game. Peter Forsberg finally started playing like the #1 player in hockey and got Philli it's first win of the series.

I originally thought Buffalo would have this thing wrapped up in 5 games, but now that Forsberg has come out of his hibernation I think it may come down to the seventh game.


chewy

PS- For hockey fans, ESPN.com has great (free) clips from the games. Checkout the Campbell hit in game #1 of the Sabers/Flyers series. Classic "goon"-style hockey!

[John Giacoletti]

The last Lightning/Senators game was a debacle for the Lightning defense.. What defense?

There's a lot more of putting on the body, good ole Canadian style hockey.

The Senators are talented and patient. They have enough smarts to egg Lightening defensemen like Chris Dingman on and keep him in the penalty box or like on Tuesday to get him ejected from the game.

The Lightning aren't scoring on their power play opportunities and the Senators are.

It's like the NFL ... special teams win games, defense wins games. The Senators are a better but the Lightning can make a go of it and if they get the win tonight it's a whole new hockey game.

Eastern conference ... watch out if the Lightning get past the Senators.

[chewy]

I'm not too worried for the Sabers if the Lightening make it to the next round:

Sabers Record vs. Lightning
-----------------------------
4 Wins, 0 Losses
19 GF, 10 GA
Lightning? OWNED!

Sabers Record vs. Senators
----------------------------
3 Wins, 5 Losses
21 GF, 35 GA
Senetors? The better team, when healthy.


The only wins the Sabers managed to get were when the Senetors were playing hurt. I'm hoping the Lightning win the first round, but I'm not holding my breath. Even if the Sabers manage to shut down Forsberg for the rest of their series, they will have an uphill battle in the 2nd round against Ottawa.

Wait, I'm not even sure if Buffalo would get Ottawa in the 2nd round? Hmmm... time to do some research.

chewy

PS- I can't for the life of me understand how hockey is not more popular in the USA. Basketball? Zzzzzzzzz.

Maybe someday... <sigh>.

[John Giacoletti]

The Sens are playing like they are the best team in hockey.

They go on a surge and the Lightning goalie can't handle it. Last night there was a rapid swing from 2-1 in favor of the Lightning to 4-2 in favor of the Sens in a four minute time span.

Graham's a back up goalie and not playoff level caliber. You cant give up 5 goals on 17 shots and expect to win many games.

After Saturday, Richards, Lecavalier and St. Louis will be playing golf and watching hockey. The Lightning have won three games out of 24 vs. the Sens. Will they win three in a row?

No way.

[John Giacoletti]

Blow Sox 2
Rays 5

Fosome only hit two Boston batters
Radar Gun clocked one blooper curve at 51 mph
Jonny Gomes (tied for AL HR)playing right field lost towering fly ball in lights which got ran out as a triple
Boston loaded bases twice; declined to score

[chewy]

The Sens are playing like they are the best team in hockey.

They go on a surge and the Lightning goalie can't handle it. Last night there was a rapid swing from 2-1 in favor of the Lightning to 4-2 in favor of the Sens in a four minute time span.

Well, it looks like the Sabers have finally wrapped things up in Phili. Next stop... Ottawa!

This is going to be a great series, even though the Sabres are going to lose . These two teams represent the best that the new NHL rules have to offer. Both teams are extremely fast, high-energy, and have great passing skills (something sorely missing from the American/Canadian goon-style of play). It was kinda symbolic that the Sabres and Senetors topped, the Flyers and Lightning, since both the latter represent the best that the "old" NHL rules had to offer - one or two good lines with 2 or 3 superstar players and a lot of goon-style hockey.

The Sens have the psychological edge over the Sabres and better goal tending. The Sabres strength is that they bring four equally profient lines to the game; no A+ superstars, just a bunch of B+ players who play well together. Both teams are very fast and pass the puck well.

chewy