Playoff Weekend Roundup

What the hell is happening here?

Chances are if you are a fan of the Pittsburgh Penguins or the Vancouver Canucks you are asking yourself this question today.

While both team were picked by many hockey fans to represent their respective conferences in the Stanley Cup Final both are down 3-0 in their respective series and are one game from elimination.

There are many reasons why both teams are down 3-0 in their series and I'll have plenty of time to cover those in the team eulogies that I'll be writing later this week unless something changes.

What Pittsburgh and Vancouver need to do is just go out and win game four of the series and get it back to home ice. A 3-0 deficit is not impossible to come back from. Philadelphia proved that two years ago.

As long as they can play the style of hockey that was successful in the regular season and not get caught in the extra-curricular activities (I'm talking to you, Pittsburgh) they can extend their season by another game. 

Bad Blood: 

While the playoffs have not lacked drama there is a lot of bad blood between teams in their respective playoff series.

Some were to be expected (Pittsburgh-Philadelphia) and some weren't (New York-Ottawa). Either way the nastiness of these series is overshadowing what has so far been a pretty exciting post-season.

To me the fault lies at the hands of the NHL officials and Brendan Shanahan.

From what I saw yesterday's game between the Flyers and Penguins made the movie Slap Shot look like it was rated PG.

The referees let things get out of hand early on and but the end of the game had lost total control. I'm willing to bet that referees Eric Furlatt and Francois St. Laurent will not be working many more playoff games after the 1st round is finished.

As for Shanahan I blame him only because he had the chance to set the tone all season and failed to do so. He was inconsistent during the regular season about who was fined and who was suspended for their actions.

On the opening night of the playoffs he had the opportunity to send a message to all the players that on ice shenanigans would not be tolerated by suspending Shea Weber for taking Henrik Zetterberg's head and trying to shove it through the glass.

Shanahan decided to fine Weber instead.  I guarantee every player in the playoffs took note of that. If Weber was suspended for the hit I think a lot of the chippyness and dirty play would not be happening.

I like a good fight as much as the next hockey fan but there is a point where enough is enough.

Panthers end drought:

Fifteen years.

That's how long it has been since the Florida Panthers won a playoff game.

On April 17th, 1997 Florida shut out the New York Rangers 3-0. They went on to lose the next four games, being eliminated in the 1st round. The Panthers would return to the playoffs three years later only to be swept by the New Jersey Devils.

On Thursday Florida hosted their first playoff game in twelve years against New Jersey. It was a game the Devils won 3-2 extending the Panthers post-season losing streak to nine games.

On Sunday Florida finally ended their playoff losing streak thanks to two goals by Stephen Weiss giving the Panthers a 4-2 win and tying the series 1-1.

Once Tomas Fleischmann scored the empty net goal to clinch the victory for Florida there was nothing left to do but break out the rats.

There still is a ways to go for the Panthers but for one night in Florida it felt like 1996.