NHL Playoffs

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Incidentally, no city has even been host to the NHL and NBA champions in the same year. And until this year, no city had ever been host to the #1 overall seeds in the NHL and NBA in the same year.

This is the Red Wings' and Pistons' year, mark my words.

[Tingkai]

Originally posted by Ninot
I did something kinda dumb.

I bought more playoff tickets on ebay

$100 per ticket.

Am I addicted to playoff hockey, or just dumb?

$100. For playoff hockey, that's cheap.

Smart move.

[Tingkai]

And in non-playoff hockey news.

Quinn gets fired.

[Ninot]

Originally posted by Tingkai


$100. For playoff hockey, that's cheap.

Smart move.

I got paid tonight too. So buyers remorse is gone

I'm going to 2 playoff games!!

[Asher]

http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=163331&hubname=nhl

Stanley Cup visits London, England

LONDON (CP-AP) - A mild case of Stanley Cup fever hit the British capital Thursday as the storied trophy returned home for the first time since its creation 114 years ago.

"I can't believe it, I can't believe it," said Jeff Brook, a London native who has been an avid NHL fan since he first saw the Stanley Cup in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto in 1998.

"It's like a dream, I'm telling you."

"This is amazing, man," said one fan from Leeds. "I saw on the telly last night that the Cup was coming to London and I just had to see it . . . look at those inscriptions.

Some 100 fans - many wearing NHL jerseys - pushed and jostled to take photos of the Cup as it stood on display outside Boodles, the upmarket jewellers on Regent Street, near Piccadilly Circus at noon Thursday.



The Cup's visit marked its first trip back to Britain since 1892 when Lord Frederick Stanley purchased it from a silver shop in London.

On Thursday, a historic green and silver plaque was unveiled at 130 Regent St., site of the silver shop where Lord Stanley bought the trophy.

Stanley, then governor general of Canada, fell in love with hockey after moving across the Atlantic Ocean in 1888 and decided the sport needed a worthy trophy. He commissioned the Cup from Collis and Co. in 1892 for $48 US.

On hand Thursday to unveil the plaque was the Lord Mayor of London and Lord Stanley's great-great grandson Lord Edward Derby.

"My great-great grandfather had no idea this would happen," Lord Derby said.

The plaque reads: "Lord Stanley of Preston purchased the original Stanley Cup from a silversmith at this site in 1892 for the people of Canada to commemorate amateur and professional hockey. The Cup is now in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto."

"Who's going to win the Cup this year?" a fan yelled out to Lord Derby who appeared surprised at the question and then laughed.

"Say Detroit," shouted another fan.

But Lord Derby declined to speculate as crowds pushed ever closer for a glimpse of the Cup.

With the formation of the National Hockey League in 1917, the Stanley Cup became the property of the NHL which awarded the trophy to winning teams from all across North America.

While players on NHL champion team get to spend 24 hours with the Cup after their triumph, the trophy had never made it to Britain.

Russian players have paraded it at the Kremlin and Swedish players have hoisted it along the streets of Stockholm.

Since 1988, Phil Pritchard of the Hockey Hall of Fame and his staff have looked after the Stanley Cup no matter where it goes.

Pritchard said a sauna party on an island in Finland with Jere Lehtinen of the Dallas Stars was the most unusual celebration he has been a part of.

"It sounds strange, but for Finnish cultures, saunas are a big part of it. You do the sauna party and everything, it's the all-nighter, and then he explains it's part of the culture," Pritchard said.

Visiting Vladimir Lenin's tomb in Russia was second on the list, Pritchard said.

In recent years, the NHL fan base in Britain been growing steadily, largely due to game broadcasts by London-based Channel 5 and NASN, the North American Sports Network - a programming move that has also been a huge hit with the 200,000-plus Canadian expatriates living in the UK.

Shortly after the unveiling Thursday, the Cup was returned to its trunk and wheeled down Regent Street through Trafalgar Square to Canada House where a reception was scheduled in its honour.

[Asher]

TSN's 4 analysts all agree:

Calgary over Anaheim
Montreal over Carolina
Detroit over Edmonton (Roloson is 3-10-1 vs Detroit in Career)
Ottawa over Tampa

Even Maggie the Monkey Prophet picked Calgary.

[KrazyHorse]

How the **** are people picking Montreal over Carolina? I don't even dare to think that yet.

[Asher]

They say the round is ripe for an upset.

For what it's worth, Maggie the Monkey Prophet picked Carolina and Tampa.

[KrazyHorse]

Tampa

[Ninot]

Originally posted by Asher
TSN's 4 analysts all agree:

Calgary over Anaheim
Montreal over Carolina
Detroit over Edmonton (Roloson is 3-10-1 vs Detroit in Career)
Ottawa over Tampa

Even Maggie the Monkey Prophet picked Calgary.

Errrr, no. 3 of the 4 + the monkey chose Carolina

[Guynemer]

Question for the Poly Canucks:

Does the CBC offer streaming live video on their website? I just realized how much I'm going to miss watching the playoffs on CBC. I needs my Don Cherry.

[Kontiki]

I'm sure the American coverage will be fantastic.

"And if you're just joining us, the object of the game is to get the little rubber "puck" into the red framed net. Hey, here's a funny 20 minute story about my last fishing trip..."

[Guynemer]

Oh hush. I'm sure I'll be getting the Detroit feed on my Center Ice package when I watch the Wings-Oilers games, which is only a half-step behind the CBC in excellence. Nevertheless, it is behind.

[Guynemer]

Ahhh, ****. Center Ice is blacked out, because the game is on ****ing OLN. Goddammit.

[Asher]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse


Tampa

(It's a monkey spinning a wheel)