Your Sunday Evening Open Thread & NHL Second Round Partial Preview

So, it’s the strange NHL COVID circumstance that the second round will play out like the first – with intradivisional matchups taking place. It has actually made for quite fun hockey, as the animosity that built up over the season is coming out in the shape of gritty play, the annual Nazem Kadri suspension, and double OT games that end 6-5. I’m sure Grapes is sitting at home slowly dying inside.

No one misses this.

So, even though Boston & the Islanders played yesterday, today marks the start of the [DFO] observance of the NHL’s second round of hot playoff action!

Central Division Final: Tampa Bay Lightning (3) vs. Carolina Hurricanes (1)

Tampa’s strategy of keeping Kucherov out all season, but active on the roster so as to save his playoff spot, paid off as he was one of the catalysts that helped get them past a surprisingly strong Florida team. His fresh legs seemed apparent as he seemed able to find another gear that other players didn’t have. The result was a series that seemed closer than it was, and the ‘underdog’ Lightning came out streets-ahead & ready to keep defending their 2020 title.

The Predators let me down. They seemed able to hang with the not-Whalers at first, but let too many leads slip away and left too many ‘Canes open during overtime for them to do the Lord’s work & send Brind’Amour’s bo’ys ho’me. So, it’s time to face the fact that Jordan Staal & Sebastian Aho might be the actual leaders I ignored they might be. The Hurricanes do have some great alliterative names in Nino Niederreiter, Teuvo Teravainen, and Max McCormick, and all-time Canadian name Dougie Hamilton. I slept on the success that was not-European goalie Alex Nedeljkovic (Parma, OH), because I assumed any team with James Reimer & Petr Mrazek on their roster wasn’t going very far. I still don’t want them to win, but analysis shows a few things to like.

This series should be high-scoring, given the on-ice firepower, but if one of these goalies starts riding a heater, it could be over quick.

Prediction: Lightning in six.

———————————————

West Division Final: Vegas Golden Knights (2) vs. Colorado Avalanche (1)

The NHL got what it wanted here. Two flashy offences; two solid defences; two goalies trying to write enhanced narratives for themselves. If this were a Cup final Bettman would have an erection you could see from space, as it would vaildate his two-pronged strategy of taking teams out of Canada and expanding into non-traditional markets. (Don’t mention the Coyotes.)

If anyone had doubts, the first round put them aside – Nathan MacKinnon is the real deal. He’s still on his second contract, so the Avs are able to bulk up on talent while he’s still on the discount. They have 2-3 more years before they have to make the costing decisions that usually price teams out of their championship window. And boy, is he surrounded by weapons. Donskoi, Landeskog & Soderberg are all dynamite pieces to this offence. The sleeper on this team is Mikko Rantanen – he’s a 6’4″ Finn, and has a nasty streak reminiscient of Esa Tikkanen. The defence has three rock-solid pairings, and Grubauer has been ridiculous in net. They are the class of the Western Conference, and should be the favourites to challenge for the Cup.

But Vegas, baby.

They faced a tougher challenge from Minnesota than was expected, almost blowing a 3-1 series lead. But they showed they still have all of their weapons when it counted. Led by Mark Stone, they still roll three interchangeable lines, although not as frequently as they did during their inaugural season when it was a new thing that flummozed most teams & led them to the Cup final. Jonathan Marchessault looks to be rolling into form, and Max Pacioretty provided their Game 7 spark versus the Wild. Their defence is a solid mix of vets & young players, and they suffer few mental laspes. Speaking of mental lapses, their goaltending tandem of Marc-Andre Fleury & Robin Lehner haven’t shown one yet, but since Fleury is guaranteed to have at least one case of the yips, having a solid backup on Zoloft is the best you can hope for in the playoffs.

If Gary Bettman did indeed sign that deal with the Devil, this series goes seven games and each one ends 7-6 in OT. I don’t think it’ll go that long, but it’s clearly the marquee series, and hopefully is the showcase for the game the league desperately needs.

Prediction: Avs in six.


Tonight’s sports:

  • NHL:
    • Tampa Bay at Carolina – 5:00pm | NBCSN / Sportsnet
    • Vegas at Colorado – 8:00pm | NBC / CBC / Sportsnet
  • NBA:
    • Nets vs. Celtics – 7:00pm | TNT / TSN4
    • Clippers vs. Mavericks – 9:30pm | TNT / Sportsnet360
  • MLB:
    • Braves vs. Mets – 7:00pm | ESPN / TSN
  • Futbol:
    • Liga MX:
      • Cruz Azul vs. Santos Laguna – 9:15pm | UNI / Fox Sports 2 / FOX Deportes
    • MLS:
      • Portland vs. Philadelphia – 7:00pm | TSN3
      • Seattle vs. Austin – 9:30pm | TSN3
  • Left turns:
    • NASCAR Cup Series: Coca-Cola 600 – 6:00pm | FOX / TSN5

Tonight is good, but tomorrow will be great – GAME 7, BAY-BAY!

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Beerguyrob
A Canadian man-child of indeterminate age, he stays young by selling alcohol at sporting events and yelling at the patrons he serves. Their rage nourishes his soul, and their tips pay for his numerous trips to various sporting events.
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BrettFavresColonoscopy

Evening. Getting a lovely reminder of how badly LAX sucks

Dunstan

Something I haven’t missed about this last year.

BrettFavresColonoscopy

Took about 20 minutes to get from terminal 1 to terminal 5.

Gumbygirl

Is there a finer Anglo-Saxon word?

facebook_1622438473194_6805000177874012852_34235692172718.jpg
Dunstan

Fucked if I know.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

One of the dumbest things you can do is have one last drink right before you go to sleep.

I’m about to do that.

Dunstan

Ah, but if you have another drink after that, then this one won’t BE the last one.

TheRevanchist

I made pulled pork. And, as my usual, Carolina mustard bbq sauce to go with. Served on Hawaiian rolls.

I’m so fucking full right now.

Dunstan

What sous vide device are you using? My Joule crapped out this weekend; it does fine with short cooks but is 50/50 on anything lengthy. I’m thinking it’s time to order a new one, and I haven’t checked out what the options are.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

We have one made by the Instant Pot people that has done very well. The longest I’ve used it for is 7 hours or so.

Brick Meathook

I really like this post because I recognize all the words yet I have no idea what any of this means.

SonOfSpam

Oh, the Clippers are wearing “gang member” script on the uniforms. No wonder they’re winning.

Dunstan

Brisket was a little salty, but nobody seemed to mind. And yes, I took a bite out of the corn before I took the picture. I’m very low class.

brisket.jpg
Viva La Tabula Raza

Did any of your dinner guests mind the bite out of their ears of corn?

Last edited 3 years ago by Viva La Tabula Raza
Dunstan

My dinner guest was Mike Tyson, so he got a chuckle out of it.

SonOfSpam

“Ouch”

-E. Holyfield, wondering why he said that

herodotus450

HUGE BLUNDER there buddy; now anyone could get an accurate impression of your dental records and frame you for a myriad of crimes.

Dunstan

I have a solid alibi for those hobo disappearances in Ontario.

Gumbygirl

Is there no butter? I roll mine in a stick of butter until it drips all over…it’s turning into a Dear Penthouse letter, oopsie!

Dunstan

The brisket was rich enough that I didn’t bother. I usually just do salt and pepper on corn anyway, occasionally a small bit of butter.

ballsofsteelandfury

CRUZ AZUL NO CRUZAZULÉO!!

Last edited 3 years ago by ballsofsteelandfury
Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I have prevailed in my war against the bamboo. I shall celebrate with many mint juleps.

SonOfSpam

Enjoy your drinks, colonel.

Brick Meathook

Bamboo never loses

Viva La Tabula Raza

Unqualified election re-counters in Maricopa County rejoice.

SonOfSpam

Can’t he simply ask the others to not stand so close to him?

ballsofsteelandfury

They’re carefully watching every breath he takes.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I believe his opponents were informed to take it relatively easy on him, but an antiquated method of sending the message was used, so it’s unclear as to whether it was received.

SonOfSpam

To read said message, you can turn on any light, doesn’t have to be red.

SonOfSpam

He’ll be driven to tears.

ballsofsteelandfury

Because he’s so lonely.

herodotus450

If HBO isnt working by the time I finish this drink…. I might go get another one.

SonOfSpam

Never been a gearhead, but watching Indy and now Charlotte today, holy fuck these guys have massive balls. (Chose to watch NASCAR as opposed to joining Mrs in the other room binge-watching Mare of Easttown. Not a good husband, but the right decision.)

ballsofsteelandfury

WOOOOO!

herodotus450

Avs 6th goal: “(hold my high altitude beer)”

Gumbygirl

I watched that a couple of days ago. That is such a funny movie, and could never be made today. The 70’s were fun!

herodotus450

I haven’t seen things get out of hand like this in Vegas since that time Mandingo tried to get a handjob.
*:game is actually in Denver.

blaxabbath

Pitched a tent last night, cooked on the grill, blasted the chimenea, and fed the kid some s’mores. Whole “intro to backyard camping” thing was surprisingly successful (we did sleep inside— I’m not risking my sleep on account of trying to get a two year old to lay outside all night) so I’m happy with that. Kid has been going all afternoon now — pool, grocery store, helping us cook (wife is showing me how to make her pizza from scratch. Little is known about my pie other than, it will suck.) I’ve got some wings going and I’m going to use Frank’s for them. I have never had Frank’s so I am a excited to see what the fuss is about.

All in all, it’s a pretty good Memorial Day weekend so far. As I’ve always said, I prefer being a Veteran’s Day object over a Memorial Day one.

blaxabbath

Here’s the pizza.

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Gumbygirl

I like Frank’s for wing sauce, and anything that uses tons of butter is ok by me. I have a lemon pound cake cooling right now, it calls for 10 tablespoons. My arteries are clogging like an Appalach!

Gumbygirl

Like this

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ballsofsteelandfury

Sounds like a great day!

ballsofsteelandfury

That’s two Mandingo references in one thread and it’s not even Sexy Friday!

herodotus450

Maybe this is a hoser thought, but I wonder if a 2 or 3 line “superteam” would be viable in the nhl. Just not even having the typical roster size so you can sqeeze out at third line of like Toews Eichel Barzal

ballsofsteelandfury

You have to have at least a couple of enforcers otherwise that team lasts you five games tops.

herodotus450

Ah but that’s the best part: you just trade their injured cap hit to cellar dwellers like Arizona and Ottawa every 5 games to steal their best players, and the superteam persists!

blaxabbath

On this weekend I say, Screw Dan Crenshaw. That dick is only semi-Memorial Day.

yeah right

Just had my first VR experience. Fruit ninja or something? Pretty damn cool.

It plays much different than it looks to the non players.

herodotus450

Every anthem for every sporting even should simply be replaced with this version, at 4:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKa7jQVW0ko#t=4m05s

herodotus450

We should’ve seen it coming, what what that little flourish he does at the last “for” smhdhgh

Game Time Decision

The second thing wrong with the NHL after Bettman is that Don Cherry was employed and listened to. What a POS

Brick Meathook

Bettman and Don Cherry are the best things in the NHL since Eddie Shore and Toe Blake. And maybe goons and fighting too. Otherwise, hockey is more boring than golf.

ballsofsteelandfury

Bettman is for sure a POS. Why the Don Cherry hate?

My understanding is that he’s Canada’s old uncle that says racist shit on occasion but most people ignore it because the rest of what he says is either funny or what people really think.

ballsofsteelandfury

Yeah, that’s just self reflection there. People didn’t want to admit they were a little racist, I’m sure.

Brick Meathook

I loved when Don Cherry would bust on “the You-ka-rainians” who were taking all the hockey jobs from Canadians. Ukrainians are pretty white so I don’t quite see how that’s racist.

Game Time Decision

I’ve always thought he was a blowhard and that the racist stuff was brutal. Trying to hide it in game scenarios made it worse for me. And when you look at his record, it’s not like he won much

Brick Meathook

The very few times I ever saw Hockey Night in Canada (and this was in L.A. years ago when my housemate had a hockey subscription and all the New England & Canadian USC film school mafia would party at our house which really was a party house with a pool table and a foozball table and generally a keg once a week) I thought Don Cherry was the best part.

ballsofsteelandfury

If that was in the late 90s, you and I had some common friends.

Brick Meathook

It was exactly in the late 90s.

ballsofsteelandfury

Too funny. A big chunk of my friends at the time were at USC film school. I even acted in some of their films even though I didn’t want to be an actor and wasn’t in film school.

Brick Meathook

They were all over at my house getting high and watching hockey.

ballsofsteelandfury

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ballsofsteelandfury

Hikaru really knows how to take a damn sexy picture.

ballsofsteelandfury

I really like athletic women. Wowza.

ballsofsteelandfury

I’m still not clear on how that works. Why can’t AEW put together a decent women’s division?

ballsofsteelandfury

Is there a possible merger in the works or are they just helping each other?

herodotus450

If sprots were so great, the number of teams would increase as the playoffs go on, to give us more of the most exciting part.

ballsofsteelandfury

Current setup:

TV 1 – Hurricanes v Lightning (aka Bettman’s wet dream)
TV2 – Nascar Coke 600
Laptop- First Wave Extended Memorial Day Weekend (Sirius XM)
Phone- DFO

I need to go get some Taco Bell and the setup will be complete.

ballsofsteelandfury

And now we are complete.

ballsofsteelandfury

I’m watching the Coca Cola 600 (Nascar) and they just showed a dude in the stands wearing a Prince Purple Rain t-shirt.

What kind of thought process leads you to that decision?

ballsofsteelandfury

As a Kings fan, it’s weird for me to want Vegas to win yet that’s what I’m reduced to. I don’t like the Avs. Never have. They should have been an expansion team like Vegas instead of getting ripped from Canada.

In short, fuck Gary Bettman.

Last edited 3 years ago by ballsofsteelandfury