Illinois - State of Winners

Let us nevermind Rockford was whitewashed by Texas...
Tonight two IL teams moved on in the playoffs. Yes, yes, Blackhawks beat the Predators 5-3 tonight in game 6 and will face Vancouver next, but more(?) importantly - WOLVES BEAT THE ADMIRALS IN GAME SEVEN TONIGHT!

AND I WAS

THERE!!

Alrighty, so last night I asked the 'rents if they wanted to go to today's game. Mom said, "Yeah, let's go!" but she says that a lot, so I wasn't sure if she really meant it. I expected a note from her this morning saying something like Hey, get us some tix, but there was nothing. I had gotten up at noon and did homework for four hours straight, so I was a little... somber when Dad called. He asked what I wanted for supper then basically told me what we were having. While I was checking the pantry for some Chinese vegetable mix, he said, "Mom and I are going to the movies tonight. What are you going to do... watch the hockey game?" I didn't mean to, and I hate myself for saying it, but I said, "...Well, since we're not going to a game..." Dad said, "You really want to go to that game? I could cancel with Mom, she'd be glad if I took you to the game."
"No! Don't do that! I don't want to go," I said.
We went on arguing, we let it go, and he said he'd stop by the grocery store to get some vegetable mix. When he got home he dashed to the den and said he was getting tickets for us. I said, "I want you to go to the movies with mom." He said, "She wants to go to the game too." I said, "You called her?" and he said, "She called me!" So anyway, he decided not to order online because we'd be paying a total of $18 extra dollars for handling fees. We raced to Hammond to get Mom, Dad actually got lost in Rosemont, but we eventually found someone that didn't say, "Sorry, I am not from around here," when asked about directions to the Allstate Arena and got there having only missed about 3 or 4 minutes.

Because we were late, I missed Spencer and Peter's introductions (if Spencer even got one), which are my two favorite names to hear. Oh well, the good thing is the score was 0-0 when we got there.
We had upper level A 20s seats, but we were having a hell of a time getting through the people that looked confused as to why we were asking them to get up (come on, it's not that complicated), so we ended up in C. I had C 17 to be exact. Whatever, they were good seats.
Shortly after we arrived, Stapleton took a penalty and for the first time I paid attention to what he was doing right before he came out of the box. There was a lot of pointing Am I coming over or am I gonna play? I dunno why I like seeing these things... Then Anthony Stewart scored the first goal. Doell then scored what happened to be the game winner. Murray from the Admirals scored the only goal for them in the second period on a power play.
Pretty sure this was the period where it looked like the Wolves should have gotten goal #3, but the referee didn't call it. Later the replay clearly showed the puck squeezed under that pad of Dekanich and crossed the line. Not sure if that happened before the whistle, but judging by the boos and "Fuck you!"s, it was a bad call.
Nothing happened in the third period. No goals. No penalties.



At some point, a voice in the crowd asked, "Have you accepted Chelios as your lord and savior?" That would make a nice t-shirt slogan, eh?

Unfortunately I didn't catch/win anything, but not for lack of trying. Mom was whistling like crazy and seemed to be the only one doing so. I told her I would have been whistling if I could, but instead I just waved my arms around shouting, "HEY, UP HERE!!"

I am excited they are playing the Stars. I want to go because A) I still need to get some use out of my jersey before the season ends, and B) I have decided Krahn is my all-time favorite player since I am pretty sure I deemed him "my favorite" when I first saw him play. So even though he is playing for a team I have no interest in following, I still like him an awful lot and want to see him play.

Game 1 – Fri., April 30 – Texas at Chicago, 7:30 p.m.
Game 2 - Sun., May 2 – Texas at Chicago, 3:00 p.m.
Game 3 - Tue., May 4 – Chicago at Texas, 7:30 p.m.
Game 4 – Wed., May 5 - Chicago at Texas, 7:30 p.m.
Game 5 - Fri., May 7 - Chicago at Texas, 7:30 p.m. - X
Game 6 - Sun., May 9 - Texas at Chicago, 3:00 p.m. - X
Game 7 - Tues., May 11 – Texas at Chicago, 7:00 p.m. -X

Note to Self: UPDATE!

Deary me, I am so far behind.

Game Over

Oilers lost to the Ducks tonight, 2-7. That pretty much sums up their season.

I started a post on Thursday 'cause it was such a great night for hockey, but I'm gonna have to go over the whole week because it was pretty fucking exciting.

Heart-shattering

Done! They're done! Thrashers are officially out of play-off contention!

Erm, idk.

So, the Devils beat them 3-0 and Martin Brodeur had his 600th win and what, his 598th shutout? As was expected, Kovalchuk got booed even after he said, "I hope they won't boo me." I would have booed him after what I heard from Matt McConnell today. He said Kovy wanted to be on a winning team and do what was best for his family (money-wise). Some of us don't even make $20,000 a year, ok? But we still provide for our families. (Not saying I fall in to that category (yet...)) I think the millions he was making with the Thrashers was enough for him to pop out several more babies and still send them all to a private college in Ferarris.
Gah, I can't believe they missed 8th spot by just a couple of points. It makes me think What if they hadn't lost that one game? What if they didn't give up that soft goal, or had that stupid penalty? All those "what if?"s came flooding to my mind when I saw the final score of tonight's game and heard Matt say they were officially out of the play-offs. I'm sad. So fucking sad.

Still have my Blackhawks and Coyotes. Blackhawks broke all sorts of records tonight! Maybe I'll find the time to talk about their game against the Stars tomorrow. Maybe.

NHL Standings

Chicago 49-22-7 (3rd in league, 2nd in west)
Edmonton 24-46-8 (LAST, LAST)
Atlanta 34-32-13 (23rd in league, 10th in east)
Phoenix 48-25-6 (4th in league, 3rd in west)

Not too many regular season games left... bad news for Atlanta D: I have given up hope, so I will have to enjoy these last few games.
The Caps have won the Presidents Trophy with 114 points at the moment. They are currently playing the Bruins and I am rootin' hard for the Bs!!

Foley Saves the Day

It never fails - Pat starts repeating "shutout" and the Blackhawks score to prevent such from occuring.
Blackhawks were in New Jersey Friday night and it was not looking good for them. 0-1 for most of the game, but then Pat came to the rescue and talked about how many shutouts Brodeur would have if he shut out the Hawks,how many he would have throughout his career, etc. Shortly after, with 26 seconds left in the 3rd, Versteeg scored! Could. Not. Believe. It went to a shootout and Toews was the only one to score. So really, Foley, Steeg, Toews, and Niemi saved the day.
I think it's pretty obvious who's going to be starting in net when the playoffs begin...

There was a poll question in the postgame asking if Brodeur would go down as the greatest goaltender of all-time. 49% said no. Pft, I say YES.

Final score 2-1

Wishful Thinking is Never Enough

It was so good to see Timmy Stapleton score his first NHL goal. Even better to see it 3 times. haha I watched it on Versus, then again on Sports South because Darren and Matt obviously were not commentating on Vs (& I like to hear them! Plus, Vs. was focused more on the Caps), and I just turned it on as the 2nd period was winding down and they talked to Stapleton during the intermission and showed the replay. He had the biggest smile and it was oh-so sweet.

Too bad they lost the game. They played really well though, only allowing Washington to score twice when everybody knows they have the potential to score way more than that. I thought the Thrashers had a lot of good chances because Varlamov seemed to be showing off his rookie side. That's just my opinion. It looked to me like he wasn't making himself big in the net and didn't stray too far from the blue. Luck just wasn't on their side, s'pose. Bruins have been losing games to keep the Thrashers within two points of them, as if to say, "Come on, we're giving you a chance!" but they just aren't taking. It is so stressful seeing they have 4 games left and are facing the best of the best in the east. I swear, the Thrashers are going to be the death of me.