I meant to say

Detroit in 5
Pittsburg in 6

My picks for the next round:

Detroit in 6

Pittsburg in 6

I'd hardly say it's guaranteed. The Stars are looking good after beating both the Ducks and the Sharks and Biron is on fire for Philly. That said I think Detroit and Pittsburgh will still win, I just don't think either will be a blowout.

"The National Hockey League will not suspend any Dallas Star or Detroit Red Wing players for late game antics that occurred late in Game 2 of the Western Conference final. Stars forwards Mike Ribeiro and Steve Ott and Red Wing goaltender Chris Osgood have been fined undisclosed amounts by the NHL."

Yet another balless move by the NHL officials. It will apparently take nothing short of an on-ice death to cause the league to take penalties commited with intent to injure seriously.

I agree.
Forget about intent to seriously injure for a minute (I don't believe the intent was to seriously injure - if so he would have swung at his head).
No one should ever get away with swinging a hockey stick like that.


Is what Osgood did wrong and is it punishable? Maybe, I don't really know but that does not excuse swinging a stick like a bat.


Oh yeah, and as if that hurt Osgood.



http://img367.imageshack.us/img367/5313/example5ms9.jpg

your video is no longer available.... but really, all that padding and the ability to stop 100 mph pucks yet a stick hurts Osgood?

any ways, it was pretty poor to swing a stick like that too.

The video still workls for me.
How about this one

oh, don't get me wrong, if they had suspended Osgood and Ribeiro, while not happy, I would have at least been satisfied. And by no means do I think the swing actually hurt Osgood. The problem is, if you start swinging sticks, you never know where its gonna land. Osgood could have seen it coming too late, tried to duck and been hit in the head. In my mind, if you throw a 2-hander at someone, you mean to hurt them, even if its just a little. And that move has no place in pro sports, unless you concider the WWE a pro sport.

My answer would have been 1 game for Osgood, 2-3 for Ribeiro, and don't even get me started on Otts attempt at a Bertuzzi.

I still don't know the rules on what Osgood did, but I definately agree that swinging a stick should be a suspension.

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/7051/example5vp0.jpg





Are we going to have two sweeps?
I think so.

Penguins vs Red Wings in the final. Man this should be a good series. Personally I think it will be one of the more even, and exciting Stanley Cup finals in recent history.

my prediction

Detroit in 6
or
Refs in 7

Yeah I'm going Detroit in 6 too.

I'm picking Pittsburg in 7.

I'll go out on a limb.... Pittsburgh in 6.

Nice way for my Wings to start off the finals.

Detroit in 6

Wow Detroit is just shutting down the Penguins.

I was away for a bit.
Looks like I will not be able to participate in the last final round...And I was doing so well.

Here is how we all did in the Conference Finals - 1 point for the correct winner and another for the correct number of games.
Sticky - 4
Nikilidstrom - 3
Fotzlid - 2
m0rpheus - 2
Bees - 3
Martian - 2


Totals so far:
Sticky - 14
Nikilidstrom - 12
m0rpheus - 10
Fotzlid - 9
Bees - 9
Martian - 8

I am glad that you made your prdictions for the next round in my absence.

Here is the Bracket as it stands today
http://img388.imageshack.us/img388/17/example5id4.jpg

Three down, one to go and my Wings are hoisting the Cup again.

What a fantastic Game 5 so far (its about to go to OT as I'm posting). Pittsburgh really made Detroit look bad up until about half way into the second, then the Red Wings just dominated them for the second half. God I'm nervious for OT now.

c'mon Wings....finish it off...

Playoff Hockey is the only kind of Hockey I can watch. I gotta say that last night's overtime game was spectacular. The announcer was brilliant, he reminds me of Chick Hearn - so quick and accurate with his descriptions. The desperate sudden death action was amazing to watch.

All hockey games should be sudden death.

I agree with the sudden death. While the reg season shoot out format may be a exciting as well, I love the sudden death aspect. No 3 point games.

Which network were you watching? CBC or NBC?

NBC

I was switching between the two, to see which broadcast was better. Actually my NBC cable reception was better than CBC, so I was watching it more. Mike Milburry and Pierre MaGuire provided some good commentary between periods, but it seemed that the panel was generally in favour of the Penguins.

On CBC, Don Cherry was definitely a Penguins fan. I think the best team will win (The Wings).

Woohoo!!!!!!!!

Even playing the entire series 5 on 7, the best team won the Cup. To bad the celebration has to be wasted on the Pittsburgh fans.

GO WINGS!

Congrats to the Red Wings. I love seeing the champ come from a real hockey town, not Florida etc, just seems right. Too bad according to Tiger Woods, no one cares about hockey.

I care about the sweet sport. Who cares what Tiger thinks? Unless it the original Tiger, Tiger Williams: #22.


Oh ya, Congrats to the Red Wings. And if they can get 4 cups after a 42 year drought, who knows what will happen next year.....

This rounds Score
m0rpheus - 2
Nikilidstrom - 2
Bees - 0
Leto - 0
Fotzlid - 2
Sticky - 0 (no pick)

The final tally is:
Sticky - 14
Nikilidstrom - 14
m0rpheus - 12
Fotzlid - 11
Bees - 9
Martian - 8


By the way, the CBC broadcast sucked compared to NBC.
Too bad you guys don't have access to RDS. They are the best right now.

Go Wings!
Nice to see them put in a few firsts too.
First European captain to win the Cup, First Newfoundlander to win the Cup, and (I believe) the first European to win the Conn Smyth.

Four cups in 11 years, who says there are no more dynasties?

Although I couldn't help but laugh when Hasek raised the cup. Yeah, good job riding the pine when it counts Dominik.

Second Euro to win the Conn Smythe, the first being Nick Lidstrom.

What I thought was more odd than even Hasek raising the cup was allowing all of the rookies who hadn't even played a large number of games in the regular season (Meech, Quincey, Abdlekader) to raise it. And, as classy as it was, I really wished Yzerman would have come down for a turn, but I understand the reasoning.

Can't wait to go to the parade tomorrow, hope the weather is good.

So I know it's a week old or so but how fucking stupid is the CBC for letting the HNiC theme get scooped up from under them.

Niklidstrom,
You as excited as I am that the Wings have signed Hossa to a one year deal?

are you kidding me? It fan-freakin-tastic! I almost hosed my laptop down with cherry coke when I took a drink and read the headline on TSN. I thought we'd be sitting around all summer waiting for Sundin to gives us the finger and end up with squat. The only thing better than Detroit getting Hossa is all of the Pittsburgh fans cursing Hossa and Hollands names in all the hockey forums.

I've been having dreams of a season full of the Datsyuk-Hossa connection ever since the signing.

Yeah Hossa sort of screwed over the Pens, and that's hilarious.
Being born and raised in Calgary, of course I'm a huge Flames fan. My buddy is a huge Wing's fan. He would honestly take a bullet for Lidstrom, Datsyuk, Zetts, or especially Yzerman. The only player he hates on the Wing's (and I have to agree with him on this one) is Lilja, who is horrible! And yet he's been resigned.

I used to hate the Wing's, but his love for them seemed to rub off on me for a bit. Plus, I really really really disliked Hasek and Chellios, both of which have retired (has it been official for Chellios yet?). So now that both aren't on the ice anymore, I actually like the Wing's. They are a force to be reckoned with and will definitely continue to be cup contenders for years to come.

Hasek is official, Chelios will be resigned to play 40-60 games this season. Lilja is a bum, and I was extremely suprised to see them sign him cosidering the amount of blueline talent they have available to bring up from the AHL this year, some of whom can't be sent down this year.

The orignal Chelios trade was a hard pill to swallow as I had spent so much time hating him and the rest of the Blackhawks, especially Roenick. I have over the years grown to appreciate his talents, and anyone who hates Bettman as much as he does can't be all bad.