Crazy first round. All 4 wild card teams advance. All 4 Cup Semi-Finalists from last year lost in the first round. Three of the advancing teams have never won a Cup (Blues, Sharks, Blue Jackets). Hopefully the Blues can finally do it.

Much better than the NBA playoffs thus far.

(04-24-2019 11:00 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  Crazy first round. All 4 wild card teams advance. All 4 Cup Semi-Finalists from last year lost in the first round. Three of the advancing teams have never won a Cup (Blues, Sharks, Blue Jackets). Hopefully the Blues can finally do it.

Hockey seems to have a lot more upsets in playoffs than any other sport. Why do you suppose that is?

I know the home ice advantage doesn't seem to be as prevalent, and that surprises me. For one, like basketball the crowd is very close and loud, which should make a difference. Two, every ice rink has different characteristics--speed of ice, how the puck bounces off the boards, so forth--and it would seem that those should give the home team a bigger advantage. So why not?

On another subject, the Las Vegas Knights still look to me like they play more as a bunch of individuals than as a team. That seems typical of expansion teams that are thrown together without a lot of time as a unit, but they have been pretty successful with it so far. But I just don't see a lot of team play or defense from them. Just a bunch of gunners. But that major penalty killed them.

The Caps blew it last night...there is no reason that the defending Stanley Cup Champion should have a two goal lead (twice) at home in Game 7 and lose like that...

Admittedly, I haven't watched a minute of the playoffs and really am not much of a hockey fan. But on the playoff front (NBA), I thought this story reeks of bad karma (basically it says the Rockets are traveling to the Bay Area tomorrow to get ready for the Warriors - even though the Warriors haven't won that series yet).

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26604...y-bay-area

It's a bit of gamesmanship I would say. If LA wins the series, the 1st game is back here in Houston, whereas if the Warriors win Friday night and we wait til Saturday morning to fly over there, it's only one day and I think we are prioritizing our team's health and rest.

Did anyone else see Mr. Trauber get run over by Danuel House last night? He seemed no worse for wear an actually helped House up.