Bring on the Poultry!

God I love playoff hockey.

And, more importantly, I love the warm feeling I get inside when I see all of those sad fans in Columbus with their Ohio State hats and sweatshirts. Ooooh, so sad! Nahht. It just makes me feel good to see them whining about a too many men on the ice penalty in the closing minutes. Suck it, buckeyes. You don't even deserve a hockey team, so be grateful you get to watch a guy like Rick Nash every night.

If you couldn't tell already, the mighty Red Wings took care of business last night, winning in a tight but loose 6-5 game where every time I checked the score, another goal was scored. I couldn't watch the entire thing while I was working, but I can tell you it was frustrating to see the score go from 3-1 to 3-3 to 5-3 to 5-5. I didn't like the way Osgood played, but in all fairness, none of the goals were really all that bad. I don't think it'll affect him in any way going forward. The more important thing to take away was his play in the first three games. He's got it goin' on folks.

And that goal to win it in the final minute was awesome. You just knew it was coming when the penalty was called. And it was the right call, no matter what way you look at it. If you read my column about BU beating UNH in the NCAA hockey tournament, you'll know that I absolutely go crazy when a penalty is called in the last couple minutes of a tie game. It's dumb. But in a case where the rule is so ridiculously obvious that the referee has no choice but to call it (like this one), it must be done. If it was a discretionary call, like a hooking or interference penalty, I'd feel dirty after a win like that. But it wasn't. The Columbus player coming off the bench made a stupid play to touch the puck when it was epically clear that his teammate wasn't off the ice yet. Sorry, that's just a blatant violation of the rules.

And you know what? I'm glad it happened that way. Columbus didn't deserve overtime. The series was over; they needed to face their fate as immediately as possible. Have fun golfing, BJs.

In other playoff news, the Ducks are also taking care of their business against the all and powerful San Jose Sharks. The Sharks remind me of the wizard in the Wizard of Oz because every year, they seem like this giant, scary team that will win the Cup and squash everyone in their path but in reality, they're nothing but a choke-prone team that hides behind a bravado that they built up in the regular season. Haha...it's funny becuz it's trwoo.

Alright, I have to go. The Wings will have a week off before the play the Ducks in round two (sorry San Jose, you're not climbing out of a 3-1 hole with Evgeni Nabokov as your playoff goalie). I'll be back before then with something creative and an update on my first-round playoff picks.

Game 3 Catch 22

Problem: The Student Organizations Awards Banquet is tonight at 7 pm. Game 3 is scheduled to start at 7 pm. I never want to miss a second of Red Wings playoff hockey, but it wouldn't exactly look very good if TNH won Org of the Year and next year's leader was off somewhere yelling and cursing at little hockey players on a television/computer screen. And the only way I can avoid that and still watch the game is to somehow jailbreak my iPod touch and stream live TV on it. Not gonna happen. Looks like I'll have to make due with frantically refreshing the score all night becuase I know I'll bite the bullet and go to the dinner.

While my Wings will play on with one fewer viewer, know that I'm not happy about it. Not one bit. If the chance to leave early arises, I'm jumpin' on that like I would have jumped one of the Titanic lifeboats. Oh, don't give me that look Women of the World. You're the ones who wanted equality, so don't judge me if I want to throw the people's elbow to one of the girls on the boat who can't spell 'equality'...it's just natural selection at work. Let it happen. Back to tonight's game.

It's simple: Wings win, the series is over. Wings lose, it's just beginning. I'm confident that the first period will be the deciding factor. Not the second. Not the third. The first. If the Wings can get a lead or even keep the score even after one, the game is theirs. But if they fall behind and those BJ "fans" get all antsy in their pantsy, I'm predicting a game three defeat.

However, I really don't want to see that happen, so show up tonight boys. Please. As A2Y so aptly points out today, the stress rockets up a few notches if the Wings are clipped tonight.

Final thoughts: Drapes is still out, Cleary's still in and the Blue Jackets are playing the sympathy card.
I can't really harp on the story itself, but I will ferociously attack the Blue Jackets' logo and mascot once and for all; the stupidity behind their choice never ceases to baffle me.

First, you're the Blue Jackets. Simply put: that doesn't exist. Unless you mean this, and that's not a mascot; it's an article of clothing. Second, if you want to claim that a "Blue Jacket" is really just a yellow jacket that's blue, then your freaking mascot shouldn't be GREEN. Finally, what the hell is your logo? First, it was this. Now, it's this. Neither makes any sense! A star with a State of Ohio flag swooshing through it? That doesn't tell me your team mascot is the Blue Jackets. All that tells me is that you're an Avalanche-imitator that wants to seem more American. It may look better than this or this, but it's wayyyyy dumber on the accuracy scale.

The sheer lack of intelligence in Ohio is staggering. Go Wings. Recap late tonight.