Friday, June 5, 2009

Friday's Update Before Heading to the Beach

Editorial Note: At some point starting later today (Friday), there will be periods of no updates at POTG as Jackson, Fisher and I head out to Cocoa Beach for the annual Club Zion Surf Camp. It is an all day and night thing and is always a blast with surfing in the day and bands at night. I'm hoping to line up a top name, world class surfer or two for Monday's POTG Radio. I will post as I can, but will be at the mercy of poor internet service at the condo most likely. We will see what happens.

Thursday night's contest between the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins was a real turning point in this series and insured that we will have a long series going six or seven games. As in Tuesday's game three, both teams played in spurts where each side appeared dominant at times. The Pens has more good streaks than the Wings as the score reflected.

Game four was an incredibly fun game to watch. The quick turnaround from Detroit leading 2-1 to the Pens going up by one was wild. The Wings seemed to be in control and I was anticipating a Saturday night cup raise. Within a couple of minutes, I was pondering what Russ Cohen said Monday night on POTG Radio, when he said that the Pens needed to win in six, which seemed impossible at the time but now could be a reality with a great game on Saturday. Kat Kealy also is looking forward to game six.

Going in to Saturday's game five at the Joe the momentum seems to have swung to the Pens. I do think the Pens will play better than they did in the first two games but I think the home ice last change will again play into the equation giving the Wings the advantage. I think there is a real good probability that home teams may win out. So my Twtpool pick will be Detroit in game five.

Puck Daddy has a Q and A with Malkin after game four. At this point, you really have to view Malkin as the dominant force in the Pens entire playoff run, quite a turnaround from last years disappearing act in the finals. Mirtle has some comparisons between Malkin this year and past greats.

In Pred Nation...

Forechecker is also on a brief vacation but gives us an update.

Hockey Buzz's Paul McCann is now on Twitter as @PredPAPaul. Paul has a new post today.

Around the hockey World...


I am continuing to my attempts to get Bill Walker or another representative to respond to a few more questions for the Ballsillie/Make It Seven (only if Jim is involved, I assume) camp, but they appear to have their hands full, fighting on a couple of fronts. Not only are they under the gun for next Tuesday's hearing in Phoenix, they now have the new "Billion Dollar Boys" (my personal name for the second group) to deal with. Here is the latest from the Star on the new group. We are eagerly awaiting today's presser at 11:00 Toronto time for more details.

The AHL playoffs continue Saturday night as the action moves to
Hershey. The series is tied 1-1 after Manitoba's victory in game two. On Frozen Blog has a good story about their upcoming weekend road trip to Pensylvania.

Did anyone enjoy the CBC opening with the horrible music before game four? They had great video footage but the worst music selection in history. Also, why do they keep running the Don Cherry Dos Equis parody that didn't work either?

On his Versus interview Thursday night, Gary Bettman suggested that Long Islanders contact their local representatives to urge support for the Lighthouse Project. Here's an account of the situation as discussed on the NHL Hour. Mike Chen at Kukla's has an article on exactly what it is that Gary Bettman does. I'm sure we've all wondered about that.

Jim Kelly at SI has a long form article about the situation in Phoenix that is worh a read.

Jackson gives us this video on what he called the "worst fight ever". I'm not sure it even qualifies. I guess if dropping the gloves is a "fight" them maybe it does.

Anaheim dropped the Iowa Chops as their AHL affiliate a few weeks ago and things sound like they are really in disarray.

Finally, you have to see the following video to truly get the full effect. "Big Country" Shawn Lavigne of XM204 HomeIce's Hockey This Morning show is doing his "dance" when the Wings were up 2-0. He has definitely downsized recently.


More later at some point...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass

Additions...

Here's the word on the "Billion Dollar Boys" from today's press conference as it appeared in the Canadian Press, "
The team would be known as the Toronto Legacy, and would play out of a proposed 30,000-seat arena built at Downsview Park, located in the north of the Greater Toronto Area."

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