2014 NHL Playoffs Day # 5 Open Thread

If you are feeling lazy and crazy you can watch NHL playoff hockey all day today! There are 4 games on tap for Sunday and here's a quick run-down.

Flyers At Rangers

9:00 AM PST

Rangers lead series 1-0

The Rangers spanked the Flyers 4-1 in Game 1. Brad Richards, who former coach John Tortorella had benched in last year's playoffs, had a goal and 2 assists in game 1. Martin St. Louis is heating up at the perfect time. Am I giving the Rangers any love now that they have Alain Vigneault as coach? Hell no! It's the Rangers! May they die a slow death!

AV has a different reaction to a reporter's cell phone going off than say..Torts:

Go to the 2:10 point:

OK, that's funny.

No Steve Mason in goal for the Flyers, yet. Ray Emery starts again.

Red Wings At Bruins

12:00 PST

Red Wings lead series 1-0.

Most hockey fans may have been looking forward to this series the most, as it is a battle between 2 original 6 teams. Bad blood was expected and it came early, especially from our favorite Bruin Milan Lucic:

It's all good until you get caught, right Milan? A $5000 fine for him for that.

Detroit won 1-0 in Game 1 with Pavel Datsyuk scoring the winner with 3:00 left in the 3rd period. Are the Bruins finally done their playoff dominance? Hell no.

Lightning At Canadiens

4:00 PST

Habs lead series 2-0

I have the Habs making it to the Stanley Cup Final in my playoff bets. Whacky? You bet! But right now it looks like gold. Montreal won both games in Tampa Bay to send those phoney fans home crying. They can now win one and lose one in their next 2 games at home and still have a strangle hold on this series. Tampa is in deep doo doo.

Dale Weise scored the OT winner in game 1, and then much-maligned Rene Bourque had an excellent game 2 with 2 goals in a 4-1 win. Bourque is streaky as hell, so I think the anger from fans towards him is justified. But if he keeps it going now, the Habs have that much more of a balanced attack.

The Lightning are missing goalie Ben Bishop, who is not playing in Game 3 either. Rookie sensation Ondrej Palet fell to injury late in Game 1 and has not played since. However he may make his return in Game 3.

I thought this was impressive:

Another victory by Price will move him past Jose Theodore into possession of 10th place among Canadiens goalies in playoff wins.

You know, since the Habs have been around for....forever.

Kings At Sharks

7:00 PST

Sharks lead series 1-0

121 hits in Game 1. It was a beauty. But it was the Sharks that dominated the Kings, chasing Olympian goalie Jonathan Quick en route to a 6-3 win.

I can keep this really short. The Kings are revered by many to be such a great team, but the Sharks are deeper and better in every area except in goal. 12 different Sharks had a point in Game 1. The Sharks employ Raffi Torres, so, I want them to win. Ooo, I support a dirty player in Torres? Bite me!  Torres plays to kill, and he plays to win. I wish he was still a Canuck. At least he played with balls. It was guys like Higgins, Lapierre and Torres that gave the Canucks that extra punch in the 2011 Playoffs. Ah sorry...I'm living in the past.

Happy Easter!

I watched Mel Gibson's Passion Of The Christ to commemorate the event and by god, that movie makes Game Of Thrones look like Ken And Barbie.