Linkage to several preview articles? CHECK

Call out Woody Paige? CHECK

Call out Terry Frei? CHECK

Throwing opposing team's media under the bus? CHECK

Playoff cliches abound? CHECK

Pointing out opposing teams flaws? CHECK

Demonstrate intensity with mildly creepy fan image? CHECK

Yes sir, the playoffs, they are HERE!!

PS. I tweaked your title.  I felt it fitting for a preview thread with (3) images, (3) preview links, (2) examples of media crap links, about 2 dozen digs on Marion Gaborik and his teammates, and the coup de grace, a blockquote of your own work.  Well done sir, well done.

Here's an article ranking the playoff goalies.  Backstrom and Theo come in 10th and 11th, respectively.
Toronto Sun Goalie Article

Even if you don't agree with the article, at least todays SUN girl is pretty easy on the eyes...

but Woody trashed hockey on ATH on Monday. It's brutal to watch him, and even worse to read him. Can't we trade him to Calgary or something?

I just went home on my lunch break and there's an Avalanche flag hanging off our front porch!

Is home ice in the SCF based on seeding or points?  For example, should the Avs make it to the SCF to face the Caps, would the Caps have home ice because they were a 3rd seed or would the Avs have home ice because they finished with more points?

No McGoo in the Playoffs:

Linkage...

Of course I was born ready! I'm an Avs fan, ALL of us should be born ready for this!

GO AVS!

I get home, and my DirecTV is down. If the repairman doesn't show up in time for playoffs, I will kill a man!

Unfortunately, I love in Indiana, where apparently, bars don't buy Center Ice.

by what uniform nerds you guys are.  50 posts mostly about that?!

back on topic, I predict a loss tonight.  Obviously I hope the Avs win, but the Wild are gonna be super hyped with the home crowd and stuff.  

Next game, that's the one we take.

I've been super hyper all day, as I walk around in my Sakic jersey. Two years is much too long to go without a playoff game. GO AVS!!!!!

Yes! My cable is Back! playoff hockey for me!

...Until Margarita time!

I am blowing off all my work tonight to watch these 4 games.

The game is still more than 3 hours away and there's already 60 comments. I guess that means it's playoff time! Can't you just **feel** the electricity?

What's the record for most posts here anyway? I think it was when Foppa came back, around 200, I suppose?

The playoff spirit is definitely catching!  I wonder how I'll be able to convince Mike to switch back and forth between Preds and Avs.

I should know better than to even think that could happen...  :-)

Go Preds!  Go Avs!

You guys on board tonight?  Any Shane sightings?
Where's TacoGirl?

What jersey do I wear tonight?  Old Home (replica), Old Away (replica), our personalized 3rd (authentic)?

I'm leaning toward the 3rd, but we haven't fixed din-din yet, and if we have something sauce-based, that could spell disaster.

FUCK FUCK FUCK!

Now only half of my Directv channels are working properly, and wouldn't you know, the Center Ice Channels are the ones not working properly.

Oh well, at least I have Versus, but that doesn't help with the fucking Avs game.

That has to be the loudest I've seen Mellon arena since Lemieux led them to ECF vs. the Devils in 2001. I don't think the old igloo can take much more of this! The foundation is about to blow it's so loud!

Will your blog handle all these comments? My little scrolling thingy on the right is already microscopic, and the game hasn't even started yet!

For those of you who have Center ICe, what channel is the game on, I cannot find it on any channels?

Watching east coast hockey.  The ice is so open and play is up and down the ice with scoring chances.  The Avs used to play like that.  Here's hoping they find their east coast hearts for this Mild series.

No Center Ice for me tonight, but I did get sopcast working.

20 minutes until game time.  I have to say, this feels like a lifetime.  I wish the game would start already. The suspense is killing me!

121 comments before the game even begins.  You guys are the best.

Center Ice Online is running the Altitude feed, and it's on!  

I can't believe we all had to wait two years for Avalanche playoff hockey.

Game on!  

Coach Q is going black grey and white with the tie tonight.  

Forsberg starts the game on the ice.

Stastny takes the opening face off...and loses.

Why did Burns not get called for interference on Forsberg, who did not have the puck?

I don't know about anybody else, but my online feed is blurry and choppy.  Great.

The Wild are playing Boogaard but scratched Chris Simon.  I guarantee Boogaard will not play more than one more game this series.

Unless I'm wrong.

DIRECTV COMES THROUGH!

THEY FIXED MY TV!

Ryan Smyth takes a quick wrister from the left side, but Backstrom saves.

Avs getting out-shot 4-1 at this point.  11:45 left in the first.

It looked like Arnason got hurt on that hit.  He tried to stand up and lost his balance.  A hurt knee?

He's still on the bench, I think.

The Avs just had some good chances, Sakic-Wolski-Hejduk were putting some serious pressure on Backstrom.

No dice.

wtf wtf wtf????? How is that boarding? That was as clean a check as I've ever seen!!!!

Brunette puts the same kind of hit on a Wild player that Minnesota has been putting on the Avs all night and Bruno gets called for boarding?!

I know it's lame to whine about the officials, but the no-call on Burn's abuse of Foppa and now this---it doesn't look good.

It feels good to be back in the Playoffs.

Deserve a PK mascot for the playoffs.  But I don't have any good ideas for one.

No tripping call.  Guite gets taken down and no whistle.

And now the Wild are failing miserably to score on the PP.

7-2 Wild with less than six minutes left.

At least we killed that bs penalty off. I was so scared when Theodore looked behind him...thankfully he had it.

The comes up huge!

Stastny flips it out of play, another penalty.

That play might have been the best of the first period.  Unlucky the puck hit nothing and he took a delay of game penalty.

Stastny gets called for delay of game by accidentally clearing the puck over the glass.  Great play, lame mistake.

And Kelly was either talking to his color guy or he accidentally called Son of Stastny by his dad's name.

The Rangers whooped up on Brodeur tonight, 4-1.  That's a big win for them.

And Gary Roberts has a goal tonight for the Pens.  The Pensblog is going to go f'ing nuts.

Big win for the Pens if they finish out the shut-out.

Where the hell are the refs?  A Wild player lays on top of Theodore for 30 seconds and no call for interference?  He took forever to get up!

This is some bull.

Another good kill by the Avs, even with Stastny in the box.

Now they need to tighten up at even strength.

Eleven shots by the Wild, eleven saves by Theodore.

Minnesota got way too many chances in that period, and the Avs far too few.  But Colorado survived the first period without getting scored on, so things are good.

They play better in the second and third frames anyway.

He has looked pretty good. Taking into account that none of the Avs have looked too good offensively, he looks intense.

If the object was to just survive the 1st, they succeeded.

I have a question: There at the end of the first, Smyth chases a puck into the corner, Jones goes to a spot behind the net and Johnny-come-lately Arny coasts into the same corner as Smyth.  I swear, if he wasn't wearing a white unipron, I would have thought he was a Wild player lining up Smyth for a cross-check.  My question isn't about Arny's lazy play, but WHY WERE ALL THE FORWARDS BELOW THE GOALLINE WHEN SMYTH HAD CLEAR POSSESSION????  Ryan may grumble about his linemates, but that whole line operates like its entire purpose is to kill 45 seconds every third shift.  WTF??

Not exactly what I was hoping for.  Yeah, we survived the first period and it was, well, lackluster, except for Theo (I can't believe I just said that). I'm sure some Avs are in pain right now from being hit so much.  We need to come out in the second period and make the Wild live up to their nickname.

Joe's BFF is up next on the intermission report...

...that we need a fight. I want to see Lappy or CodyMac throw down on someone. Maybe it'll deter the Wild's physical play a bit? Cause this is waaaay too physical for our guys imo.

MARGARITAS!

Let's see some more life in the second period.  No more of this out-shot out-hit crap.

Sauer from Sakic!!!! yes!!!!!

Show of hands, who saw THAT coming?!!

1-0 AVS!!!

And AVS Score!!!!!!!!!!

4 on 4 wooooo  hoooo!!

Foppa and Burns go to the box for hacking away at each other.  Four-on-four for two minutes.

Wayyy to hot here in indiana for 10:00pm at night, can't wait to move back to Colorado when I get done with this whole Ph.D. thingy.

Oh and more importantly, SCORE KURT SAUER! As consolation to the Minny fans here, at least he is from Minnesota.

Parish looks hurt. Oh my god, just saw a replay, that looks horrible.

His neck, dear god, I hope its not broken.

Parrish goes into the boards, then down to the ice.

Fedoruk goes after Salei and Foote but it looks like a loss of balance on a fast play more than an intentional hit.

Hope he's okay.

Looked clean, one of those hits at a bad spot on the ice. Parrish couldn't recover and get in a position and went into the low wall.

Oh man, Parrish goes head first into the board by the bench. I hope he's ok. It really wasn't a dirty hit by Salei though, wasn't even much of a hit at all, he just shoved him and Parrish ran out of room. Looks similar to the hit on Smyth earlier in the season. I hope Parrish's ok.

Is flying tonight.

Bangs stick on boards He's getting walked to the locker room. I hope he recovers.

Big PK here without Hannan.

Checking anybody 1-on-1 isn't allowed this evening...

I smell a make-up call...

This game is FLYING

The Wild are playing Derek Boogaard on their power play?  Are they serious?

Salei and Liles have looked excellent this period.

The Avs are all over the Wild now.  Let's go boys!  Let's get another goal!

Try's to put his elbow THROUGH Footer's head about 3 feet away from the ref: NO CALL...

Calgary is up 1-0 on San Jose.

What's the verdict so far on Son of Stastny's first playoff game?

I think the ref ANTICIPATED a turnover and blew the whistle on the penalty instead of actually waiting for Sakic and Co. to turn it over...

A call against the Wild for slashing!

The sacrificial kitten is ready to go!

2-0 Avalanche!!

Kelly: "Liles tries to penetrate again!" lol...

SCORE MR SMYTH!

I think Smytty tipped that in! Powerplay goal!!! A kitten lives to fight another day!

Let's just hope the Avs don't decide to sit on a meager two-goal lead.  Don't pull the dagger out, twist it!

Q looks calm and collected.

"You can't win in this league without goaltending" says McNab.  No shit.

is a punk bitch.  There I said it.

Nice knee to the head of Theodore like nobody saw that.  They don't get much cheaper than that.

It's definitely the playoffs.