There’s an amazing amount of hockey to be watched on the weekend. I, unfortunately, can’t watch every minute or even every game, so here are some early impressions of the coverage I have seen.
Oilers – Ducks (Game 1): Missed the game, but saw the highlights and read the live coverage on mc79hockey. I’ve just discovered the blog and I thank the author for the compliments on Puck This!:
“There's a well written blog called Puck This! that I've been looking at lately.”Like most of us, the author got a kick out of the “battle” between Huck and Sacamano from the Battle of Alberta blog. He does reference the quality of the writing twice and, in the second reference, he writes:
“I'm almost certain from the quality of the writing on the site that these guys are well educated and well beyond their undergraduate days.”I’d like to feel proud and take some credit for that comment, but I’m fairly sure that he’s referring to Rob’s writing. Actually, I’m certain of it.
Oh yeah, about the game…
I wasn’t surprised by the outcome. I have, after all, picked the Oilers to move on to the Stanley Cup final. I also didn’t buy any of the “will the Oilers be tired” business. None of the teams get tired at this point. If so, they have no business being in the Conference finals.
As for Anaheim being “rusty”, well, that may have been the case. It’s a far better explanation than “fatigue” had the Oilers lost. In any case, as I’ve previously mentioned, I don’t think the Ducks can match Edmonton’s intense, physical, style of play.
Canada – Sweden (WHC Semi-Final game): This one hurt to watch. Canada has played so well in this tournament and to lose at this point and in such a way, is tough. Canada, in my view, outplayed the Swedes for most of the game (except, maybe, for the 2nd period), but they got some real bad bounces.
Canada was down 5 – 2 at the end of the 2nd and they rallied back to 5 – 4, but they were unable to make up the huge deficit.
Sweden, to their credit, played well defensively. They were great at cutting down the passing lanes and, essentially, contained Sidney Crosby for the first two periods (if you consider a two-handed cross-check to the face as “containing”).
Let’s hope Canada will be able to find the energy (and the interest) to take the Bronze from the Finns.
* I also watched a good chunk of the Finland – Czech Republic game and I still am amazed of well the Czechs play in international tournaments. They never seem to have the best team on paper, but the systems they have put in place, and the unconditional buy-in from all the players are quite impressive. Just as impressive was the play of Tomas Plekanec. He’s going to have big year for the Habs in 2006-2007.
Hurricanes – Sabres (Game 1): I was also not able to catch much of this game, but from what I did see, it was a very high-tempo game, but both team were very cautious defensively.
Surprisingly, it seemed that Carolina had trouble with the Sabres’ speed (I may be the only one who was surprised by that). The Sabres are fast, but so are the Canes. From the looks of it, this series will live up to the hype. I just hope they actually have night games so I can watch them after my son goes to bed.
Moncton – Vancouver (Memorial Cup): The Wildcats took their first game of the tourney in front of a very boisterous home crowd. It was great to see that the game is alive and well in my homeland.
Moncton had a very tentative first period. They directed only 3 shots on the Vancouver net. They were down 1 – 0 after the first, but came out strong in the second with two goals to take over the lead. The teams exchanged goals in the third and Moncton won 3 – 2.
I was a little worried with the slow start, but if the Wildcats play like they did in the last half of the game, they have a great shot at the Cup. I’m confident Ted Nolan will make sure the jitters aren’t there in game 2.
* I also caught some of the Peterborough – Québec game and the Remparts impressed me. They were actually robbed by Shantz, the Petes’ goalie. Regardless, I was not really rooting for Quebec as I don’t relly like Patrick Roy. He is, arguably, the best goalie to ever play the game, but he just comes off as the most arrogant SOB ever. Too full of himself for me.
I need to write thirteen more words to reach my goal of 800.
