Ottawa pwns Habs; Casey fears Leaf playoff run

In one of the very few instances you'll see me rooting for a team playing against the Senators, les Habitants came up extremely short against our capital's team tonight. While Ottawa has locked up a playoff spot, and is in a fairly meaningless race for 4th spot in the East, it's far more important for Montreal to get the points necessary to beat the Leafs to the playoffs.

Thanks to Dany Heatley's 47th goal, and 3 points each by Mikes Fisher and Comrie, the Senators took a 2-0 lead within 6 minutes of the puck drop, and never looked back, en route to a 5-2 spanking.

So now, with 4 games remaining, Montreal sits at 86 points, in 8th place. The Canadiens are only 1 point ahead of the Make Beliefs, who have a game in hand. Adding to that, Montreal faces Buffalo (#1 in the East) tomorrow night, which probably won't end well.

The race for the final playoff spot in the competitive division of the NHL (the West is a joke) is a race I'm going to be following closely. With Tampa Bay sitting at 88 points (thanks to a 4-2 win over the Cup-defending Hurricanes), the NYR with 87 points, Montreal with 86, TO with 83, and 2 teams with 84 points (NYI/Hurricanes), it's still anybody's season.

Personally, I'm gunning for Montreal. It's gotta be a Canadian team, and I can't rightfully, as a Sens fan, support the Leafs ... so that only leaves one logical choice.

The playoffs have nothing on the final games of the regular season.

Chilliwack forgets to show up; Vancouver takes series

In "Gong Show of the day" news, the Vancouver Giants beat the Chilliwack Bruins 3-1 in game 5 of the best-of-7 series to move on to the next round. Based on the cockamamie scheme that the WHL has developed for the playoffs this season, I have no idea who the Giants will face next. Apparently the second round of the playoffs has the 1st/4th and 2nd/3rd place teams from each conference playing one another. Though I'm not sure how that works if one of those teams loses in the 1st round of the playoffs. So I'll let the people in the know figure it out, and I'll just come along for the ride.

In tonights game, Pat Smith and Derek Zalaski handed out a total of 114 minutes in penalties, for 17 total powerplay opportunities. Yet the only special teams goal was a shorthanded marker at 13:15 of the 1st, which tied the game up for Chilliwack, just over a minute after Vancouver opened scoring. The end of the game featured a bit of a brou-ha-ha, by the looks of the scoresheet, with 72 minutes in penalties (4 fighting majors, 2 game misconducts, 2 10-minute misconducts and an instigator minor) being handed out at the 20:00 minute mark of the 3rd. Now that's a classy way to leave the season behind, Chilliwack. Way to cap off a great inaugural season.

3 stars of the night:
1: Kendall McArdie (VAN) --> 1G, 1A, 2P, 2PIM
2: Mario Bliznak (VAN) --> 0G, 2A, 2P, 0PIM
3: Josh Aspenlind (CWK) --> 1G, 0A, 1P, 2PIM

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing - Jack Johnson Makes NHL Debut

Oh, the West. I'll admit, it's an incredibly intense division in the NHL, with regards to competition. Tonight featured a match-up of the irritatingly competent Cansucks against the basement-dwelling-40-points-out-of-first-place L.A. Kings (with former castrati Vancouver coach Crawford at the helm). Canucks pulled out 2 points (no surprise there, really), Luongo played again (I really need him to get hurt in game 1 of the playoffs), and the ginger twins combined for 6 points. Yawn. The story I, personally was interested in, was the big-league debut of Jack Johnson. No, not the Curious George-serenading beach bum, but the former NCAA star and US National team phenom. After the University of Michigan's loss to North Dakota in round 1 of the NCAA playoffs last Saturday, Johnson (who incidentally played high school stick-puck with sophomore sell-out Sidney Crosby) signed a multi-year deal with the Kings. It's kind of a weird story, because Carolina (who drafted him 3rd overall in 2005) offered him multiple NHL deals, which were consistently turned down. Johnson quoted a firm desire to play college hockey, rather than jumping right into the show, which is fine. But he's now given up his NCAA eligibility to play for a team who sucks -18 points more than the one that previously owned his rights.

So how did this whipper-snapper do in his first game playing in front of Sean Burke? I give him a solid "meh". Lots of ice time (23 shifts for 18:45 play time), but a -1 overall, with no shots on net. Give him time, and I'm sure he'll turn out to be one hell of a defenseman. But it won't be this season. With only 5 games left for the Kings, and no chance of a playoff run there's not sufficient time for Johnson to build his skill level up to pro caliber. It's a big jump from NCAA to NHL, and I think that's going to be reflected in his stats for a while still.

In other "irritating Casey" news, the Penguins beat Boston 4-2 (thanks to the aforementioned Crosby's 3 assists), putting them 2 points ahead of Ottawa in the east. However, Ottawa has a game in hand, so it'll be a tight race for that meaningless 4th place. Also of note in the PTS/BOS game was former Golden Gopher Phil Kessel, who was named the #2 star, thanks to a 1-1-2 night.

It's the End of the World as We Know It.

Well, my WHL-following year is over. The Blazers succumbed to the Prince George Cougars in a well-fought game four tonight. They kept it together, but ended up losing in overtime in the city. Hopefully a few more people showed up to game 4 than were in the stands in game 3. Watching highlights was like being at a Burnaby Express game ... the hockey's good, but where are the fans? I expected a lot more out of the city of PG than 6 twelve year old boys scattered throughout the front row. At least Kamloops would have the senior-citizens clapping along to "Takin' Care of Business".

It's a good thing the Senators are still doing relatively well, or my hockey season would be over. Right now I'm interested in seeing who the Canadian team of the year will be. Last year, the country got behind Edmonton. Year before that, everybody was a Flames fan. If it's the Canucks, I swear to god I'll snap. 1.3million fanboys are bad enough ... can you imagine an entire country of people on the Luongo-bandwagon? If that's the way the playoffs are going to be, I'm hitting the golf course.

My Hockey Luck is Shite

So first it's UMN. They break my heart and go out in not-so-blazing not-so-glory before they even reach the Frozen Four. Then Ottawa decides to lose to ex-pat Zdeno Chara and the Bruins. Which is fine (Ottawa and Pittsburgh are still tied for 4th in the East ... I'm fine with that). And now I read the Blazers lost, again, to PG? Another 1 goal game, another loss by Kamloops. They're now down 3 games in a best of seven, and I don't seem them crawling out of this hole easily. Kamloops had a one goal lead going into the 3rd, when the Cougars pulled out 2 unanswered goals to take the W. Game 4 is tomorrow in PG at 7pm (PST), and you can expect the rabid Cougar fans to show up in droves. Prince George has a great fan base, and Kamloops is definitely going to be hard up to get a win, and try to drag themselves back into the series.

In other WHL news, the Vancouver Giants showed their #1 rank against the Chilliwack team, shutting out the team from the valley 4-0 and regaining the series lead, 2 games to 1.