Carolina beat Montreal tonight, and earned the win in decisive fashion. Montreal seemed deflated after the game four loss when they had been leading 3-0. They weren’t skating tonight, and they weren’t playing the way they had recently. For the most part, that series was very entertaining hockey, clean hockey, fast hockey. I wish the Hurricanes the best of luck against either Ottawa or Toronto. I’m hoping that Ottawa wins, because the two styles should match up well for another good series.

As to the comment that Montreal has relied on Theodore too much - perhaps that’s true, but I don’t honestly believe that is the case. Montreal played a team game all year, and yes, Theodore was an important part of that team. Montreal played a gutsy game all year long, and they didn’t always come out on top. I look for a couple of moves in the offseason, likely to pick up some size on defense, but beyond that, there are a lot of good pieces in place in Montreal. Montreal joins 23 other teams on the golf course, and two more will join them in the next 24 hours.

At the beginning of the season, not many people gave them a chance to even make it to the playoffs, let alone knock off the top seed. I don’t think they’ll be viewed the same way next year.

Here’s to next year.

Well, the Habs managed to lose another one, so now they’re facing elimination tonight at home.  I think they’ll come out flying tonight, and I fully expect them to pull out the victory.  Should lead to an interesting game 7 in Carolina.  My other predictions?  San Jose will surprise Colorado tonight.  That will make for an interesting Eastern final.  Ottawa will win game 7 in Toronto, and despite what the media will have you believe, it will not be the ref’s fault.  I’m not going to get into the whole Darcy Tucker thing, because I don’t think it needs getting into.  It happened, the Sens scored, and that’s the end of it as far as I’m concerned.  Whining about it afterwards doesn’t accomplish anything.

Ultimate starts tomorrow night, with our first exhibition game of the year.  I’m looking forward to it, though I think the first couple of games will be a comedy of errors.

Simpsons quote of the day: “Mmmm… invisible cola.” - Homer