Round 3! Pens and Canes

Well, surprise, surprise! The Canes are still the predicted losers of yet another round of playoff hockey!

I, myself will call shenanigans on them all. And of course I would, I'm a Canes fan. But here are my points.

1. Our forwards solved Martin Brodeur of the 3rd seeded Devils, and the probable 2009 Vezina-winner Tim Thomas. Do you really think that Fleury is the same calibre of goaltender as Marty or Timmy? Fleury is 8-5 with a 2.72 GAA and .901 SV% in the post-season. Those numbers are NOT good enough. At the same time, Cam Ward has a 2.22 GAA and .927 SV% along with 2 shutouts this post-season. Goaltenders win playoff series. Who have the Pens faced? Biron? Varlamov?
   
2. Our "no-name," "bucket list," "non-scoring" Defense has somehow managed to hem in both #3 New Jersey and the number 1 seeded, 2nd-in-the-League-by-1-point-in-the-regular-season Boston Bruins. But somehow, Crosby and Malkin are going to score 7 goals each on them.
   
3. Look at the competition. Pittsburgh has had to play Philadelphia and Washington. Against Philly, they played against a crumbling team in front of a very shaky goaltender (yes, I know I picked Philly to go to the Finals. That was based on gut-feelings, not facts). They then played against the Washington Capitals, who they only had to keep up in score with. The Caps really had no defense(similar to the Pens), and their rookie goaltender turned out to be fluky. It was a matchup to see who could score 4 or 5 goals the fastest. The Canes on the other hand had to best arguably the greatest goaltender there's ever been along with a New Jersey team that is historically defensively-minded(although not as much so recently). The Canes then had to further beat the heavily favored Boston Bruins, the team that everyone had basically handed the Cup to already. Boston was supposedly the perfect team. They had scoring, they had massive shut-down D-men, they had a Vezina Candidate in goal. Yet, the Canes prevailed.
   
4. Lastly, the Hockey Gods are on our side. Yes, the Hockey Gods. The Hockey Gods are fair, they are balanced, they look down upon meddling Refferee's and officials. They do not turn a blind eye to fans who turn their zealotry into putrid vile toward others. They smite those who are not believers of truth, balance, and fairness.
   
   FACT: The Buffalo Sabres have never won the Stanley Cup.
   HOCKEY GOD INTERVENTION: Sabres fans are loud, obtuse, and remind one of the hooligans in England. The Hockey Gods have Smote them.
   
   FACT: The 2002 Stanley Cup Finals were determined by the Refs and NHL Officials, rewarding Detroit with the Stanley Cup.
   HOCKEY GOD INTERVENTION: In 2006 the Edmonton Oilers eliminated the Red Wing in round 1. Then, the team with less Stanley Cups, won the Cup that year (balance).
   
   FACT: The NHL did everything in its power to keep Carolina out of the 3rd round. The refs swallowed their whistles while looking at Chara and Ward abuse our forwards, disallowed a (ultimately meaningless) goal, and called phantom penalties on the regular season's least penalized team.
   HOCKEY GOD INTERVENTION: They influenced Colin Cambell's decision not to suspend Scott Walker for having Aaron Ward's face lose a game of chicken to Scotty's fist. Then, gave the series winning, OT goal to said Scotty.
   
   FACT: Brooks Orpik (Orprick?) viciously broke Erik Cole's cervical (that's neck folks) vertebrae (yes, that's spine folks) on March 4th, 2006. He was about 1 Newton of force close to killing, or permanently paralyzing Erik Cole. He was given a 3-day suspension. Not once did he call Erik Cole to apologize. Not once did he send flowers to Erik while he was in the hospital. Not once has he spoken to the man whom he almost killed, while playing on the same ice.
   HOCKEY GOD INTERVENTION: None.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Yet.
   

Buffablow vs. Canes 4-8-09

Ah, it's nice to be sitting pretty as the slugs cling on for dear life with their 2.1% chance of making the playoffs. It truly is a thing of beauty that we may eliminate them tonight, assuming NY doesn't beat Philly first.

What will also be nice about tonight's game is that the team we play against will at least have something to play for. Unlike Tuesday's joke of a game against the Islanders the Slugs will at least have some fire. Tonight should be much closer of a match than the Islanders game.

Not much of a preview for today, but here's some pics of Buffalo that helps further explain why it sucks.

What is this freakin Communist Russia?

Good Luck Canes. Take away any hopes of Playoffs the Slug fans have. Give them one more season in which to whine about.

Buffalo vs. Carolina

I defer to my previous post.

The Case against Buffaloonians

I hate Buffalo, NY. Well, I don't really have anything against the city, but I can't stand the people that hail from that part of the Rust Belt. I am speaking totally from personal experience here. In every single one of my encounters with a person from Buffalo at a Hurricanes game, I have yet to see anything remotely close to a person who is good-natured. This aversion all started in 2006 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Canes fans embrace the Southern Hospitality Mantra of the South. We are nice to the opposing teams' fans. We offer them a beer when we tailgate. We look the other way when their team scores and they yell in joy. However, you will never see a Canes fan act the way the Buffalo Sabres fans did (and still do) when some of them came to town for Game 1 of the ECF in '06.

This was 2hours before the game started:

And this was directly after the game:

Notice the little girl trying to take care of her dad after he was jumped and beat up by two Buffalo fans. We actually called 911 for this incident. And this was after the Buffalo Sabres WON the game. This scene was repeated all around the RBC Center parking lot that afternoon.

Here is an article stating that half the number of people arrested for the entire previous season, were arrested during this one game.

My own group almost got into a fight because two Buffalo fans thought they were tough and and started poking and shoving my fiance'. All she had said was for them to just "get out of here." Those words do not demand a reaction of physicality on a woman.

Ever since that one game, the Raleigh PD has had to increase their force at any Buffalo game by a degree of magnitude. Instead of having 3 cops for the entire 3rd level, when the Buffalo Sabres come to town, there are 2 officers for every entrance to the 3rd level!

That's over 40 cops.

Just for the 3rd level.

This happens for no other team that comes to Raleigh.

If you are a Buffalo Sabres fan and are reading this, I challenge you to change my mind. Show me that you are decent folk. I challenge you all collectively to act like civilized people. There is not a fine line between being passionate about your team and being completely classless jackasses.

Related, the Canes play the Slugs tonight, in Buffalo. I fear for the safety of any Canes fan being there.

My only prediction for this game is that it could swing either way for the Canes. They will either snap out of their funk and kill the Sabres 4-1, or they continue with their current ways and lose 5-2.

The Canes got an earful from Mo yesterday in practice, let's see if it helps.