Rite of Spring 2013 (NHL Playoffs): "You have no fear of the underdog, that's why you will not survive."

[TorinK29]

Shouldn't you be shouting "Attica" like in Dog Day Afternoon? or is some sci-fi movie a rallying cry for the Leafs now?

The only explanation for the leafs success now is that we are, in fact in some sci-fi movie plot. So I would think so.

Love you guys too. FWIW I will be pulling for Ottawa should Toronto get eliminated, however reluctantly

Congrats on making it to the second round though! Granted you didn't have to play the Leafs to get there....

I'll bet money that through some cruel twist of fate there'll be an Ottawa - Toronto Semi's, and we all know how that'll turn out.

[Coast2CoastAM2006]

While it sucks the Isles got eliminated, I'm still proud of them. They exceeded any expectations that I had this season. I figured when the season started it was going to be another basement feeder season. But then they surprised everyone and made the playoffs. At first I was iffy, figured the pens would run all over them. Yet they made this a hell of a series. The Isles looked like they could have legitimately knocked off the penguins. In the end the superior team won but I for once I feel good about my team and maybe brighter days are ahead of them.

[HedleyLamarr]

Shouldn't you be shouting "Attica" like in Dog Day Afternoon? or is some sci-fi movie a rallying cry for the Leafs now?

How about "Galaga"?

[Still MIGHTY]

Hey! Will all you Game-6ers pipe down! There's a Game 7 tonight and I don't know if I'm prepared to handle that just yet...

Game 7. 5th in Ducks history. (2-2 in the previous 4. Wins '97 WQF vs Phoenix, '06 WQF vs Calgary. Losses '03 SCF vs New Jersey, '09 WSF vs Detroit.) 2nd ever at home. (3-0 win in '97 vs Phoenix.) 1st one I'll ever be at. A win is amazing. Win a 7-game series against a longtime playoff rival. Set up a possible series for the ages with a Kings/Ducks Freeway Faceoff series. First big step towards a 2nd Cup. A loss is crushing. A Pacific Division title will be for naught. This unexpected magic season could end tonight. Saku Koivu's career could end tonight... Teemu Selanne's career could end tonight...

Can't happen.

Lets Go Ducks. Send those bastards to the Eastern Conference.

[wildwing64]

Possibly one of the biggest most epic games the Ducks will ever take part in... and I won't be able to watch it because it's at 3am.

Also it's blacked out for me anyway because of the NHL's agreement with a crappy channel over here that nobody has. you, Premier Sports.

[The_Admiral]

Hey! Will all you Game-6ers pipe down! There's a Game 7 tonight and I don't know if I'm prepared to handle that just yet...

Game 7. 5th in Ducks history. (2-2 in the previous 4. Wins '97 WQF vs Phoenix, '06 WQF vs Calgary. Losses '03 SCF vs New Jersey, '09 WSF vs Detroit.) 2nd ever at home. (3-0 win in '97 vs Phoenix.) 1st one I'll ever be at. A win is amazing. Win a 7-game series against a longtime playoff rival. Set up a possible series for the ages with a Kings/Ducks Freeway Faceoff series. First big step towards a 2nd Cup. A loss is crushing. A Pacific Division title will be for naught. This unexpected magic season could end tonight. Saku Koivu's career could end tonight... Teemu Selanne's career could end tonight...

Can't happen.

Lets Go Ducks. Send those bastards to the Eastern Conference.

Cool story bro but I'd rather face a worn-out Wings team the Hawks swept in the regular season than a pretty good and rested Sharks team (whom they also swept) and possibly later the Ducks (who swept the Hawks). So just take it into multiple overtimes and lose on some lame-ass tip-in after a blown call. It can be a moral victory.

[HedleyLamarr]

For about three hours this evening, the loud annoying shouting guy on CBNC isn't Jim Cramer.....

[DaRadniz29]

Rangers 5-on-3 for :44

Edit: Good PK by the Caps.

[sportstar1212]

Mike Green slew footed a guy into the boards and cross checked him in the face, drawing blood, and all he gets is 2 minutes.

OITGDNHL

[lordsketor]

We go to Game 7 Tomorrow Night...

[IceCap]

Shouldn't you be shouting "Attica" like in Dog Day Afternoon? or is some sci-fi movie a rallying cry for the Leafs now?

It's the crazed battle cry of a character from The League. Not the most obvious reference, but you know. I thought it was funny.

Well maybe not funny. Chuckle worthy perhaps.

But Rafi was referencing the movie. That's why Taco said something like "I don't think he'd be yelling that if he'd seen the movie".

That's the thing though, he hadn't seen the movie. He didn't even know it was a movie. Which makes the cry all the more confusing.

[Nyk33]

This is the first time I am paying attention to the NHL playoffs and I have to say that I have to commend the parity in this league. Usually in NBA if one were to analyze a 2-7 matchup or an 1-8 matchup he would pick the higher seed without batting an eye and they would be proven right in quick fashion. This postseason has seen pretty fun and surprising series in the 1-8 and 2-7 spot. The Ducks & Wings, Isles & Pens, and Habs & Pens are proof of that.

[njmeadowlanders]

The Rangers couldn't score if Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan were lying in their bed.

But Henrik was good enough tonight to overcome that. I'm a pessimist by nature though and I don't think they can win a seventh game in Washington. Of course a good bounce or two is all you need, but even still, I'd think Washington probably prevails. Hope to God I'm wrong.

[RedRenesis]

The Caps know nothing else other then a seven game series do they? Since the last lockout I can only recall two series that didn't go seven games for them.

[charger77]

Tortarella's press conferences went from mildly amusing to him just being a miserable dick.

[TorinK29]

This montage is pretty nice, thankfully different than the Nickleback fetish they had last year.

Edit: Charger, you didn't think that already?

[Kramerica Industries]

This is the first time I am paying attention to the NHL playoffs and I have to say that I have to commend the parity in this league. Usually in NBA if one were to analyze a 2-7 matchup or an 1-8 matchup he would pick the higher seed without batting an eye and they would be proven right in quick fashion. This postseason has seen pretty fun and surprising series in the 1-8 and 2-7 spot. The Ducks & Wings, Isles & Pens, and Habs & Pens are proof of that.

Three of the last four Presidents Trophy winners have been eliminated in the first round (prior to Chicago advancing this year).

That tells you all you need to know about parity. The downside is, there are no great teams we are witnessing. The 1991-1993 Penguins would slaughter their 2013 counterparts, for instance, and it wouldn't even be close.

[The_Admiral]

Yeah, it's not necessarily a good thing that all these first round series are coin tosses. It's fun every once in a while, but when it's every year, it invalidates the regular season, something you should not be in the business of doing. People are always like "THIS IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE, THROW OUT THE RECORD BOOKS, NONE OF THOSE GAMES MATTER," and personally I feel these people must lick bathroom floors for fun and leisure. Um, those games that don't matter cost like $150 to go to! per person! If you have to sell your firstborn son into slavery to take the remaining members of your family to a Leafs game, they kinda should matter!

[Nyk33]

This is the first time I am paying attention to the NHL playoffs and I have to say that I have to commend the parity in this league. Usually in NBA if one were to analyze a 2-7 matchup or an 1-8 matchup he would pick the higher seed without batting an eye and they would be proven right in quick fashion. This postseason has seen pretty fun and surprising series in the 1-8 and 2-7 spot. The Ducks & Wings, Isles & Pens, and Habs & Pens are proof of that.

Three of the last four Presidents Trophy winners have been eliminated in the first round (prior to Chicago advancing this year).

That tells you all you need to know about parity. The downside is, there are no great teams we are witnessing. The 1991-1993 Penguins would slaughter their 2013 counterparts, for instance, and it wouldn't even be close.

Me personally I would rather see as many tough and combative series as possible instead of seeing a first round of ass whippings and then the tough series starting. I can see how that could suck though for people that want super teams though.

I honestly do not know why the NHL doesn't use this parity to market itself better like the NFL.... Never mind I answered my own question. OITGDNHL (I wanted to do that! )

[The_Admiral]

Because "every team is equally average, pick one" is bad marketing. And the dirty open secret of NHL parity is that it's most often achieved by the inferior team dragging the superior team down to its level by playing five men back and waiting for a lucky transition play. Pittsburgh-Long Island was an outlier in that the Isles just fired a crapton of pucks at Fleury knowing that he would eventually let a few in, but most of these upsets are just hours upon hours of good luck and risk aversion. I mean, what is this Rangers-Capitals series, even. And God help us all if the Wild had dragged the Blackhawks to seven with their plodding brand of shot-blocking and unpenalized interference. That wouldn't have been a "hard-fought battle," it just would have been delaying the inevitable. That's the thing about hockey. In baseball, if you achieve a momentous upset, it's because you pitched, hit, and fielded better. You can't fake it with zone defense.