Aura

The effort level San Jose put into the third period spoke volumes. Especially trapping possession below St Louis' blue line to score that first empty netter. Take it home and finish it, Sharks!

A proper Hawks fan will never root for St Louis... order of preference for the cup is San Jose >> Tampa Bay >>>>>>> Pittsburgh >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> St Louis. I am ridiculously impressed by Tampa. If they can pull this off, it will be the best overall series win of these playoffs. Kucherov is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-Chicago players... he has been clutch numerous times when Tampa looked to be on the brink. Let's follow suit, San Jose!

Happy birthday, biscuit bitch!

Belated happy birthday, Raffy!

Have fun, beer douche brothers!

What event or release, sir DOTU?

I would love to see a San Jose/Tampa Bay finals matchup. Naturally, both of those teams are underdogs going into round #3.... but barely, imo.

Yep. I will say the Caps played pretty damn resilient leading up to OT. Ovechkin getting undeserved blame. Feel bad for Holtby. It largely appeared that Pittsburgh's role players showed up at key times and that they overmatched Washington on even-strength through speed and hustle. Guys like Cullen and Hagelin played their asses off all series. Orpik was a serious disaster... not sure I'd want him in a Caps jersey next year. Agree with Todd - Pittsburgh is in the driver's seat now. But I still think Tampa is going to give them a run for their money.

Shame for the Isles... in the end I think Tampa's experience was a big difference. That and Kucherov playing out of his mind. I don't think the Pens or Caps should underestimate these guys. If Bishop plays mostly-consistent and their offense keeps a good pace, they can beat anyone. Hoping Dallas extends their series tonight and San Jose closes theirs out! \m/

Happy birthday, Shelly!

Haven't been watching full games this round much, more just checking in during third periods... I will say that St Louis, Pitt, and San Jose appear to be the most-complete teams right now. I don't know what's up with Washington's offense, they should've easily exploited Pitt last night with a sidelined #1 Dman. Would really like to see them push this to a game 6 or 7. Islanders also wasted an opportunity to get ahead again in their series. Tampa annoys me, they are surprisingly resilient and it shows that their deep run last year has helped with that.

Of all the other central teams still in it, I hate Nashville the least. But I'm all Sharks. Islanders look great, Tavares and Greiss are locked in. Tampa may be overachieving a little due to injuries but I still think this could end up being a close series. And lastly, HAHA DUCKER FUCKERS. Boudreau is as good as gone.

Happy birthday, my Kuma's brother!

Post-workout refeed...

Let's face it, Hawks fans have very little to complain about in the big picture. Washington needs Kuznetsov to find the spark in production he provided the first 75% of the season. I'm not worried about Ovi, Backstrom, Holtby, but this is gonna be a damn tough series. Probably the most competitive of the second round. Would so dramatically prefer to see Ovi hoist the cup over Crosby... My heart has to go for Dallas over St Louis but their D and goaltending seriously sucks. St Louis lacks offense but is such a better-balanced team. At least I can stop pretending that I don't admire Tarasenko's sniping. Gonna be fun to see him and Benn duel.

So close. Just like every game in this series. The Hawks completely negated the Blues' hot start in P1 and had them right where they wanted them at the halfway point in the game.... and then it just didn't happen. Seabrooks' slapshot ringing off both sides with 45 seconds left in the game pretty well represents what kind of a season it was for Chicago. Oh well. Not nearly as painful as 2014 WCF game 7 loss, and three things help... 1. I'd rather the team get much needed rest after 4 years of deep runs. The core guys looked tired the last month, except for Hossa and Kane. 2. I'm not entirely convinced they could've gotten by Dallas in the next round anyway. They completely owned them during regular season. 3. They pushed this series far enough to give the younger guys some good experience with resiliency, pressure, etc. Great lessons learned for Panarin, Van Reimsdyk, Gustaffson, and (I hope) Teravainen. That stuff matters long-term. Expectations will only be higher for 2017. Until then, I join the Sharks and Islanders bandwagons! Let's upset some bitches.

Tavares may have been a little quite during regular season but he sure as shit isn't quiet now. This is the most underrated series of the first round. Also I happened to check into the third period of Dallas and Minnesota this afternoon and it ended up one of the craziest 20 minutes of hockey I've ever seen. The Wild literally were millimeters away from notching a fifth goal in less than 20:00 to force OT.

I believe I just saw the old hawks' mentality reappear for the first time since we walked the cup off the UC ice last summer. If they play that way tomorrow night, they will move on. Second period was masterful. Also elated to see the Sharks purge the world of another LA annoyance. Good work, fellas! Pelveski is on another level.

Second period last night was the best hawks have played in the series. Then another fundamental collapse in the third for the second game straight. Seabrook's give-away was unforgivable. Then Crawford saves us in lieu of offensive purgatory... long enough for Showtime to decide to put this one away. Still many things looking un-"hawk"-like, but they live to see another day.

Maker's today...

What in the fuck. RIP Prince.

^I'm game. Thunderpants doing it some justice... Cannibal Corpse - A Skeletal Domain

Hawks are done. Embarrassing effort on offense (from the top two lines in particular) combined with poor coaching decisions on DMan assignments (playing the slow, more physical blue liners which falls exactly into St Louis' strategy is a pretty terribly idea). Lots of people saying "Oh look, one goal has separated them in all three losses, it's been so close." No it hasn't. The Blues are playing as-expected and Elliot is not being challenged by net-front presence at all. NO fucking way we can win 3 straight. This is not the same 2013 crew. I kind of knew this was all coming based on the regular season. The team never looked right. Incredibly inconsistent, no aggressiveness, no resilience. They fooled me the last few weeks when it looked like they might've found some old spark, but since this series started I've seen the same hesitant, underachieving group that got demolished by divisional foes (hello Dallas and Minnesota) all year.

Allison and her dad were listening to stupid XM's stupid '60's on 6' channel over the weekend and it corrupted me to start this week. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary... I don't know if it's blasphemy to listen to this in stereo but it does sound purty good

Hawks just turned in one of the worst third periods I've seen in a while. Utter choke and earned the loss. Not feeling good about this series.