Vancouver just wasn’t skating a full 60 minutes the last three games. Minnesota deserved the victory. On with the picks.

(1) vs. (2). Kind of an odd situation this year, with the top 5 teams out in the West, and no upsets at all in the East. Anyway, I think that Ottawa is coming into this series on a bit of a high, and will feel very confident that they can beat New Jersey and take it to the next level. They will not be able to accomplish this task though. New Jersey has been there before, Brodeur is one of the best playoff goalies of all time. Jersey will win this one in a bit of a shocker, and this series won’t even go the distance. Just my prediction though. :-)

(6) vs. (7). They’re both cinderella teams, and nobody would have given either of them a chance at making the conference finals before the playoffs started (let alone both of them.) Anyway, they’re both playing really well, and it’s tough to pick a winner, but I’m going with my good friend Jacques on this one, and picking Minnesota. The guy has like nine cup rings or something stupid like that. He’s got his team playing solid defense, and taking advantage of their chances. Their powerplay is unbelievable, and Anahiem’s has been invisible. If you’re thinking that Giguere would have won that last series for Vancouver, you’re mistaken. Cloutier wasn’t given a chance to be a factor in those last three games. I’m predicting Minnesota here.

If you thought that an Ottawa vs. Vancouver final was Gary Bettman’s worst nightmare, you’re mistaken. The final that I’ve predicted is almost as bad for him. Those are two very small market teams, with pretty low payrolls. CBC won’t get the ratings, and neither will ABC.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I’m Principal Skinner, yes. And how, may I ask, did you get past the hall monitor?” - Principal Skinner

Vancouver played awful last night after about half way through the second period. Up until that point, they were flying high. I think they kind of fall apart when they get down a couple of goals - especially if the goals are off of “unjust” penalty calls (note that they’re only unjust from the Vancouver POV.) I think the first period of tonights game will tell the story - if Vancouver manages to score early, they will win the series. If Minnesota manages to survive the Vancouver onslaught for the opening 20 minutes, they will win the series.

Either way I’ll have to post my picks tomorrow, and if you’re in the pool, you should do the same.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Whoa-ho! A talking dog! What were you guys smokin’ when you came up with that?” - Otto

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a pretty decent movie, when compared to Return of the Killer Tomatoes - that’s not to say that it was a great movie, but for it’s genre, I thought it did a good job. Return went over the top by a large margin however, and I didn’t think it was worth watching.

Why am I telling you this? Because this past weekend, I noticed Killer Tomatoes Eat France in the TV listings. I’d never heard of it (and after watching about five minutes of it, I saw why…) As an example, Marc Price - who you might remember as “Skippy” from Family Ties - plays “Michael J. Fox” - pretty dumb.

Anyway, in case you were worried that there were only three killer tomatoes movies, apparenlty Killer Tomatoes Strike Back came out between Return and the France one. I have no plans of watching any of those four movies ever again, just so we’re clear on the subject.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Hey! Luigi bring-a you kids-a free pizza! Why do you hafta make-a the fun, huh?” - Luigi

The Canucks looked pretty bad in the second period last night - I think the 3-1 goal was the straw that broke the camel’s back - there could definitely have been a penalty called on the Wild for hauling Morrison down, and it resulted in a goal off the rush. Mind you, had the Canucks covered their guys properly on the rush, it wouldn’t likely have wound up as a goal, but then if they’d played some defensive hockey in the second, they might not have lost 7-2 :-)

I’ll update the playoff pool when I’m done with this post, so that people can see where they stand.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Excuse me. Do you have the Carl Yazstremski baseball card from 1973, when he had big sideburns?” - Milhouse

I’m pretty sure it’s not SARS, but I’m all sick again. End result is that I’m all stuffed up and achey all over. I apologize if I’m not coherent, but that’s the way things are sometimes.

This past weekend, I finally painted a piece of foam core board aluminium. You probably don’t care. The purpose was to see how it would behave as a screen for the projector. I think it will look good, though I don’t know what I’m going to build the screen out of. I don’t want to paint the screen we’re using right now, because I like the way it looks, and I don’t think I could do a credible job painting it, since the screen itself is behind the frame. I think the key to painting a screen is to paint it where you can “go outside the lines” which will result in a smoother finish. I’m still thinking about what I want to do about it though.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Say what you will about our cafeteria, I still think they’re the best tater tots money can buy.” - Principal Skinner

Last night was the first Ultimate practice of the year (that I could make it to) which was good. On Tuesday night, as mentioned in Jason’s site we went and picked up an arcade cabinet. It’s an old cabinet from a laser disc game called Mach 3. The game isn’t in the cabinet, not that it would be working if it were - the laser disc players were apparently quite flaky in that game.

Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I was a little bit stiff/sore from moving it into the basement - it’s a heavy heavy piece of machinery, and a couple of times I got parts of me pinned between it and a wall. End result was that said parts (namely my hands) were a bit sore the next day. It didn’t seem to impact on my Ultimate performance though, since I’d pretty much recovered by the time practice rolled around. It was good to get out there and play a little bit of the game, and do some drills. William and Erin came out to watch part of the practice too, which is good. They both need to get out of the house as often as possible, when the weather is as agreeable as it has been.

There’s really not much else new with us though. Erin’s Dad is coming up for a visit Sunday-Thursday next week, so Erin will get to put her Ikea dresser together, since it wouldn’t fit in our car on the way back from Calgary. (well, I suspect I’ll help out some too ;-)) so she’s excited about that. But really, nothing else is new.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “I understand. We all do crazy things when we’re desperate. I once destroyed Buddy Ebson’s credit rating.” - ‘Lil Vicky Valentine