From the Calgary Herald:

“In my mind, I thought it would be no problem to beat them because they’d be tired after coming after us the way they did,” said Bolts centre Tim Taylor. “They just come at you, come at you, come at you. That’s why I felt very confident after the first period. They don’t have too much offence, and I just thought that they’d tried to give us everything in trying to hit us.”

You know, Tim, if you are going to comment about how easy you figured it would be to beat a team, it would be wiser to do it after a win, rather than a loss, eh?

The Flames have played this style through 104 games now, and still show no signs of slowing down. If you figured one period would wear the Flames out, you havent been listening to your coach, who said to expect that kind of play throughout.

Besides, we all saw how effective hitting the Lightning that hard was in the third period. The Flames were able to use an over aggressive 3-2 forecheck numerous times in the final stanza as Lightning players continually turned the puck over fearing the big hit that was coming.

The result, Miikka Kiprusoff’s 5th post season shutout, leading the NHL, and a Flames franchise record.

As to the belief that Calgary has no offense? Calgary’s 54 goals this postseason is the most of all teams, and their average of 2.46 per game is third only to Tampa (2.74) and Philly (2.78).

But feel free to keep speaking, Tim. I have no doubt that your comments are finding their way onto the Flames dressing room wall.

With the Flames’ rampant success, and tickets for games selling out in an average of ten minutes, the profiteers have come out in full force.

While you can land a pair of tickets to finals games held in Tampa for a couple hundred dollars on eBay, tickets for the games in the Saddledome are going for over c$1000 a pair.

But one idiot really takes the cake. This twit actually wants $8000 American for a pair of club seats to game 3. Face value of these tickets are $325 each.

Gee, wondering why you have no bids yet, Sparky?

I like the Tampa Bay Lightning, I really do. If they werent playing the Flames in this final, I’d probably even cheer for them. But could someone please gag Tim “the Tool” Taylor already?

Taylor has been whining about the trap being employed by the Flames to win game one.

“Once again, a team says they are not a trap team,” Taylor said. “They are definitely a trap team. The way they play, I see us going back as a league another five or six years back to the old trap and not calling clutching and grabbing. This is a time for the league to really step up and do a job calling the game the way it’s supposed to be called.”

A couple of points, Mr. Taylor:

First, the Neutral Zone Trap is not based around clutching and grabbing - which your team was quite adept at as well on Tuesday - but on sound positioning.

Second, find me one team in the NHL that wont employ the trap up 3-0 in the third period of a hockey game.

Third, dont you find it odd that as a checking forward yourself, that you should be whining about your opponents checking you to death?

Fourth, going into the final three minutes of that game, Tampa held a 5-2 advantage in powerplays. I would suggest, Mr. Taylor, that the officials were doing exactly what you wanted them to do.

And finally, do you really want to wake the officials up? I agree wholeheartedly that the officiating could have been better. Cory Stillman leaving his feet to drill Marcus Nilson’s head into the glass would have been a major penalty, game misconduct and a suspension in the regular season. It should have been such on Tuesday as well. Andre Roy should also have gotten a major and a game misconduct for running Ville Niemenen from behind on the exact same play.

Thus, instead of being down two men for a full five minutes, you were only shorthanded one man for two. If anything, the officials allowed you the chance to try and get back in it. You didnt.

You went 4-0 vs the New Jersey Devils, Tim. Obviously the trap didnt affect you then. So why are you crying about it now? Or are you just looking for an excuse to explan why you were beaten silly in your own barn in game one of the Stanley Cup Finals?

Might I recommend that you play better tonight? Or would you prefer to spend your time trying to think up another excuse should you be outworked again by the Flames?

I sit here at 1:00 AM Mountian time, and there are still horns going off outside my window as people celebrate the Flames third Campbell Bowl victory. Quite honestly, I am still too wired, and in too much a state of shock and disbelief to go to bed, so here I am with some random factoids about the Flames playoff run that you can all use to amaze your friends with at random trivia parties. :wink

The Flames have become the first team in NHL history to defeat three division winners on their way to the final. To win the Cup, we would have to defeat a fourth.

The Flames are also the first Canadian team to make the finals since 1994.

Martain Gelinas has scored the series winning goal against Vancouver, Detroit and now San Jose. Beware the Eliminator, my Lightning or Flyer friends.

Rhett Warrener’s rookie season was 1995-96, when the Panthers went to the SC Finals. He was traded to Buffalo in 1999, helping to bring the Sabres to the finals in his first year there as well. This year was his first year as a Flame, and here he is in the finals again. I suspect 29 teams will be interested in his services in the hope that this pattern holds.

Karma is a funny thing sometimes…

In game seven of the first round, Ed Jovonoski was jumping up and down like an idiot in the penalty box when the Canucks scored their controversial tying goal. He was still in the box when the Flames won the series on a powerplay goal.

In game six of the series vs Detroit, Derian Hatcher elbowed Matthiew Lombardi in the head - Lombardi hasnt played since. Gelinas was able to win the series when Hatcher completely failed to cover his man, choosing instead to stand in front of the crease uselessly.

In game three of this series, Alex Korolyuk did a little showboating on his empty netter. Tonight, he scored another empty netter - this time on his own goal as he missed a pass that would have set Patrick Marleau up for a golden chance to tie.

Just goes to show that bad people get what they deserve.

In Calgary, they call it the ‘C of red’, a playoff tradition that dates back 20 years where all Flames fans are asked to wear red for playoff games:

In response, the Flames first round opponent in 1985, the Winnipeg Jets, began the Whiteout, a tradition that has followed the franchise to Phoenix.

But where there are fashion trendsetters, there are always copycats trying to live off the coattails of others success. In response to Calgary’s C of red, the San Jose Sharks asked its fans to create an “Ocean of Teal.” Predictably, it failed miserably. I’m sure Sharks management is baffled, but really, why would anyone voluntaraly own or wear a teal coloured t-shirt? Ooooh, intimidating!

Undaunted, the Philadelphia Flyers have chosen to hop on the fashion bandwagon, encouraging its fans to wear orange. While orange may be a more manly colour than teal, one has to wonder if the Flyers will be able to succeed where the Sharks failed.

It leads me to wonder if Tampa Bay will copy the idea as well. What colour would they wear? A “Black out” to follow home colours? I mean, Lightning does show up most clearly in the dark… Hopefully for Lightning fans, they won’t re-visit Vancouver’s crying towel tradition.

This proves a sad point in the NHL as well — traditions are so rarely born and so often copied… Be it songs played in arenas, things thrown on ice (Rats? To copy octopi? Get real!), or chants by fans. Doesn’t anyone have an original idea to build a tradition? Vancouver having the crowd sing a verse of O Canada during every game is a rare original tradition, and of course the Stars prolonged Goal horn, along with the crowd making sure to pronoucne STARS during the Star Spangled banner, are both original traditions…

Something rare, something unique… Something that foregos the clich?nd actually makes a dent in the fabric of the NHL’s history….

…which hopefully doesn’t become orange crushed.

New Jersey went out with barely a whimper in the first round. Minnesota was eliminated back in December. The Ducks even before that. Even the Red Wings and their mastery at the left-wing lock are golfing.

When you look at the remaining four teams, you notice one important thing: None of them are trapping teams in the standard sense.

Calgary and San Jose play a puck pursuit game. They are constantly after the puck carrier, forcing turnovers, and plastering thier opponents into the boards wherever possible. These two teams must be hating their upcoming series. A Sutter team vs a Sutter built team. Strong goaltending; Tough, physical defensemen; relatively balanced scoring, though the Flames have the advantage of a Richard Trophy winner. For both teams, this series will be like playing their own mirror images.

The Lightning play a similar style, but with a much better offense. They will pursue the puck relentlessly, but once they get the puck, they do not give it up easily.

The Flyers play a hybrid style. They will trap when they need to. They will beat you with hard forechecking and backchecking when they need to. They will control the puck when they need to.

But, unlike three of the four teams that made it this far last season, none of this years NHL Semifinalists play a game that are more likely to cure insomnia than they are to generate a historical series that will be remembered for years to come.

The final two rounds of the playoffs will be a refreshing departure from a full decade of trapping to success. Hopefully, it is a sign of things to come.

Well, Vancouver has become the first division winner to be pushed to the brink of elimination, as the Flames are hoping to upset the West’s #3 seed at home, in front of perhaps the loudest fans in the playoffs. Apologies to any Nashville fans out there…

The reason for the Canuck’s imminent demise is shown in the +/- rankings. Vancouver has scored one true 5 on 5 goal in five games. The resulting +/- more resembles the scores you would find at the PGA’s Greater Vancouver Open. Not a single player on the Canucks roster is a plus player. Looks like the Canucks have golf in their heads:

Sopel -5
Ohlund -5
Ruutu -3
Naslund -3
Rucisnsky -2
Keane -2
May -2
Chubarov -2

So the playoffs have finally arrived. The time of year when men are men, goaltending wins championships, and the referees put away their whistles and let ‘em play.

Somebody didnt get the memo.

More accurately, somebody did get the memo. After 1,230 regular season games where the officials ignored virtually all obstruction and interference calls, Gary Bettman apparently dropped a memo to the officials ordering them to start calling obstruction.

Why didnt you do that in the regular season, Gary?

After night one, the only game that was marred by the memo was the Calgary-Vancouver game, where 16 powerplays were handed out, 7 of the 8 goals scored were potted with the man advantage, and all flow, consistany and enjoyment of the playoffs was sucked dry.

Is this what we have to expect in this years playoffs? Confusing calls, fans on both sides in agreeing that the offiicals are ruining the game? Hopefully Calgary vs Vancouver game 1 was the exception.

Given Bettman’s history, I doubt it.

Proving that money can’t buy you everything, the New York Rangers have officially taken the title of “Longest active playoff drought”, as the Calgary Flames cliched a playoff berth, ending their seven year itch.

The Rangers will be missing their 7th straight post-season this year.

Somehow I dont think this will get copy on CNN…

Slovakian player Martin Mraz attacks an official during a Slovakian League playoff game.

Senseless violence, or every hockey fan’s dream?