Round 2 Game 1 DEVILS 4, Ottawa 5

Well this was a very strange game. Ottawa came out of the box strong and hard and quickly took a 4-0 lead in the first period. It seemed that the Devils were very tight and they forgot how to play defense. A late tally by the Devils made the score 4-1 at the end of the first period.

As bad as the Devils played in the first period, they played great in the second period. They came back to make the score 4-3 and had momentum on their side. However a late penalty that would carry over to the start of the third period would prove to be their undoing. Ottawa scored on the power play at the start of the third and would hold on to win 5-4, with the Devils getting a late goal near the end of the game.

Tonight's non goal moment was the absence of captain Patrick Elias, who was battling a cold. Now Elias missed half of last season with hepititis A, so it is understandable that they would take a chance playing him, but given that this was a wild game with lots of scoring chances on both sides, the Devils did miss him. Hopefully he will be ready for game 2 on Saturday night....

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Round 2 East predictions

Well if you look back a few posts you will see that I picked 3 out of the 4 series spot on. Ottawa in 5, check. Buffalo in 5, check. Devils in 6, check. The only one I blew was the rangers, cause I picked with my heart instead of my head. Still one would have thought that Atlanta would give them a bit of a tougher time. Oh Well.....Round 2:

rangers vs. the ALL POWERFUL BUFFALO SABERS....ooops there I go again. No sweep here this one will take more than 4 games. Buffalo will throw speed and skill players against the hated averey. I don't think Buffalo will bite at mr. averey's big mouth sound bites and I think they will skate circles around some of the older ranger players.....BUFFALO in 6

DEVILS vs. Ottawa Senators......To the Devils this looks like more of the same. Replace Lecavlier with Heatly, St. Louis with Alferson, Richars with Spezza, and Boyle with Redden you have basically the same team that the DEVILS beat in round 1. Only that all the guys on Tampa Bay were just a little bit better statistically, than their Ottawa counterparts....which could mean absolutely nothing in the playoffs.......So................DEVILS in 6

LET'S GO DEVILS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Game 6 DEVILS 3, Tampa Bay 2 DEVILS WIN!!!!!

Round 1 is over and the Devils move on taking Tampa Bay 4 games to 2. This afternoon's game was just another great game as Tampa Bay never gave up and stayed in it all the way to the end. The Devils defensive system answered everything that Tampa threw at them in the 3rd period.

The non goal moment of the game was the big time play of Marty Brodeur. Yes he gave up two goals. Yes he gave the puck away on the second Tampa Bay goal. However, he played better IMHO than in game 5 where he had the shutout. Marty shined brightest in the 3rd period when Tampa put all they had into the game.

Next up Round 2 : Devils vs. the Ottawa Senators......LET'S GO DEVILS !!!!!!!!!

Game 5: DEVILS 3, Tampa Bay 0

YESSS! Marty Brodeur is all the way back. The Devils played Devils' hockey for the first time in the series and they shut out the Lightning. Andy Greene started the scoring with his first career playoff goal. This D-man has a great future with the Devils.......Gionta and Gomez with the empty netter rounded out the scoring. The EGG line (Elias, Gionta and Gomez) has found their touch again.

Tonight's non goal thingy goes to two Devils defensemen, Richard Matvichuk and Paul Martin. Together they shut down St. Louis and Lecaliver. Matvichuk missed all but the last game of the season with an injury, yet he is playing some of his best hockey since joinng the Devils and he looks like he has been going all season long. He made a sliding block of a sure goal in the first period, which could have given the game a different outcome had it gone in....

Game 6 is Sunday in Tampa Bay on NBC at 1:00pm est. LET'S GO DEVILS!!!!!

Game 4: DEVILS 4 Tampa Bay 3 OVERTIME

Even if Tampa had won this game I would still have to say that this was a great, great, classic playoff game. That the Devils managed to win in overtime makes it SWEET!

So tonight's non goal moment was all about spark. The Devils found some tonight and it payed off big time. There were scrums in front of both nets at play stoppages and players showing some of the intensity that comes out in a playoff series. Zach Parise continues to amaze scoring twice tonight and Scott Gomez had the OT game winner. The OT session was particularly intense with up and down play and both teams taking a penalty. It's all knotted up now at 2 games a piece and going back to the Meadowlands on Friday night. LET'S GO DEVILS!!!!!

Game 3: DEVILS 2 Tampa Bay 3

Ugh, bad news for my 200Th post.....The Devils lost game 3 to Tampa Bay going down 2-1 in the series...The story of the game is in tonight's non goal moment of the game: Let me take you back to the night before in a different game: baseball. Oakland was down 2 runs to the Yankees, bottom of the 9Th with two outs and the best relief pitcher in baseball, Mariano Rivera on the mound. Game over, right? Nope. First guy up gets a single, Rivera walks the next batter. The third batter hits a home run...NOW the game is over and Oakland wins. Point is that even if you are the best at what you do, things don't always go as planned. So it went for Marty Brodeur and the Devils tonight. Marty did not have a bad game...no. It was average. Average doesn't cut it in the playoffs. It's not time for the Devils to hit the panic button just yet...but the pressure is on for game 4..................

The Imus Mess.....

On the Imus affair I am of two minds and I cannot come to a conclusion. I listen to WFAN ( the Imus in the Morning flag ship station) on a regular basis, however only in the late morning and afternoon, so I did not really listen to Imus. Back in the early 1980's when I did local deliveries for a Fortune 500 company I did listen to Imus on the long gone WNBC until one day it occurred to me that he wouldn't like me because I'm fat. Or so I felt based on his "humour" So I simply stopped listening. Before I get into this further I will also note his charity work and his place in the mainstream political debate, including his hounding of the administration on the recent Walter Reed Army Hospital scandal. AND I will also note that he has made many comments that were tasteless.......

WHAT he said was wrong on so many levels. It was a poor attempt at humour. To call anybody a "nappy headed 'ho" is just wrong and deserved punishment. The fact that this was directed at the Rutger's women's basketball team is worse. IMHO we have a large gap between women's and men's sports in college and that gap comes to light after graduation. A top college male athlete can look forward to 10's of millions of dollars in pro sports. A top female? Maybe, if she is the best a couple of million in the WNBA and some endorsements. The point is that basketball got these women into Rutgers, but they know that to make it after college, no matter how good a basketball player they are, they need that diploma. So to call these girls " ho's" degrades them even further, IMHO. So yes Mr. Imus should have been punished..............

HOWEVER... There is a very strong Orwellian overtone to all this. Who can say what, when, and where all come into play here. Free speech and all that, and yes that bothers me too. As long as O'Reilly, Limbaugh, etc. still have a form, shouldn't Imus? Or Chris Rock? There is a fine line here and I'm not smart enough to say when and if it has been crossed or not, but if we are being selective about free speech, well then it isn't free is it? We have to be careful about what we wish for..........

IN the end, as in so many things about America in 2007, I think Mr. Imus' firing came down to the mighty dollar. For example Proctor and Gamble pulled it's ads not just from the Imus show, but from all the shows on MSNBC, for fear that one of their products could be rotated onto the Imus show's schedule. Similar things happened on the radio side. SO the mighty dollar speaks again. AND that is and was the BOTTOM LINE.........

IN the end I will lean towards agreeing with the firings. HOWEVER we need to examine and have healthy debate on ALL the implications of this action: racism, and censorship among the top topics. And until then all I can do is wish you all....PEACE..........................

DEVILS 2, Tampa Bay 3

Well it just looked like Tampa Bay wanted this game a little more than the Devils did. Oh well, we are now tied at 1 game each and the series now moves to Tampa Bay. The non- goal move of the game (a new feature here I think) goes to Tampa coach John Tortarello. He broke up the St. Louis, Prospal, and Lecavalier line in the second period, meaning that St. Louis did not have to go against Madden, Pandolfo, and Brylin, resulting in a goal for Tampa at the end of the second period, a period which the Devils had dominated. This is shaping up to be a classic series.......

GAME 1 DEVILS 5, Tampa Bay 3

I've started this post with about 3 mins. to go in the game, The Devils up 4-3. A couple of plays that were not goals that stood out....2nd period..Andy Green of the Devils makes a perfect poke check to break up a 3 on 1 breakaway.....WOO HOO Brian Gionta just scored 5-3 Devils...Anyway 3rd period Marty makes a great save but the rebound lands on Martin St. Louis' stick and Marty slides across and robs St. Louis......

Scott Gomez's speed set up a couple of the Devil's early goals...He brings the puck up ice as well as anyone...


IT'S OVER THE DEVILS WIN THEEEEEE DEVILS WIN........5-3 . YES!!!!!

Let the Playoffs Begin.......

Time for the NHL playoffs! Yeah! So here are some predictions for the East. I can't do justice to the West, they play too late in the evening here on the east coast!

Buffalo vs. NY Islanders: The Islanders put everything they had in just getting into the show. Buffalo is a very talented team BUFFALO in 5

Tampa Bay vs, N.J. Devils: Defence wins games. This is a classic match up. Tampa has guns but the Devils have Marty. NEW JERSEY in 6.

Ottawa vs. Pittsburgh. Experience vs. youth. OTTAWA in 5.

Atlanta vs. ny rangers. What I find interesting about this series is the fact that both teams need to win otherwise their season sucks. This is Atlanta's first time in the playoffs. It comes down to how the well the two goalies play. ATLANTA in 7.

No Posts in Almost A Month!!!!!.........

Gotta fix that. OK so here is the recap:

We took our annual March trip down to Florida. Looked into getting a transfer down to the Central Florida area, I didn't have much luck. It seems that this will be tied up by our extended contract negotiations, so unless I can work something else out it looks like I may be stuck up north for a little while. Did see a very cute house, but without the job it doesn't mean too much.

The hi lite for me was the three nights we spent at the Independent Bar in downtown O-Town. Just like the old days, black on black clothes, goop in the hair and Goth Chicks! Yeah! The music was epic, even if the DJ couldn't mix his way out of a paper bag.......

Of course we visited with family. Saw my Mom and Dad and they are doing well, even if the electronic world is a bit beyond my mother's knowledge. We helped to straighten out her digital camera, cell phone, and computer. Went to a nice restaurant in Haines City, Manny's Chophouse. We also caught up with Barbara's cousins over in St. Cloud. All was well....

When I got home I was hoping to get right on to my bike, but Mother Nature had other plans. A few days before we left for home CT. got hit with a big snow storm. I knew we were in trouble on the ride home when I started seeing snow at the North Carolina-Virginia border. It was a tough week of work, but the spring weather soon took over and now most days are 50-60 degrees.

I've been a bit off of my feed lately. All I want to do is sleep when I get home form work. I got 10 hours of sleep last night, I hope this puts me back on track, otherwise it means a dreaded blood test and a trip to the doctors......

I did manage to take the bike to work a couple of days this past week. Biggest problem is that is very cold (around 30 degrees) in the morning. First off my face is frozen and second thing is I have to carry extra clothing in my back pack, shorts for the ride home, and then I have to carry my sweats and jacket in the backpack for the ride home. I like it when you only need the one outfit......

That's it for now...Peace.....