MHH Playoffs Live Thread! April 19, 2012

Game of the Night: #2 Tim Thomas at #7 Barack Obama, Gam

(passed a sheet from off the desk) Oh, right, I see.

Game of the Night: #2 Boston Bruins at #7 Washington Capitals, Game 4, 7:30 Eastern, NBC Sports and CBC

I've been informed that other storyline is irrelevant BS. I honestly have watched almost none of this series, but as far as pretty good hockey is concerned, this is supposed to have been a good one so far. One of the revelatory surprises this postseason has been Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby (although he may be less of a surprise to Justin@The Goalie Guild than the rest of us). Holtby's .942 Sv% and 1.77 GAA in three games, although two were truthfully in losing efforts, have helped keep the Caps in it. Of course, on the other side you have Tim Thomas, who, not to be outdone, has a .943 Sv% and 1.47 GAA. Well o ho ho I'm off to play the grahnd piahno. Washington will be without the services of Nicklas Backstrom, the NHL having chosen not to rescind his match penalty for a high cross check late in Game 3.

Boston leads the series 2-1. I'm looking forward to making sure I catch Game 4 in this one. The series so far:

	STATS
3	GP	3
2	W	1
1	L	2
1	OT	1
0	P	0
0.667	P%	0.333
2.00	G/G	1.67
1.67	GA/G	2.00
0.0	PP%	11.1
88.9	PK%	100.0
34.3	S/G	29.3
29.3	SA/G	34.3
50.2	FO%	49.8

That Other Series Where They Chase All The Goaltenders: #3 Florida Panthers at #6 New Jersey Devils, Game 4, 7:00 Eastern, NHL Network and TSN

New Jersey took a quick 3-0 lead in Game 3 and chased former Av Jose Theodore; backup Scott Clemmensen, being a former backup to Fat Marty, took his revenge by shutting the Devils out the rest of the way and Martin Brodeur himself would be chased. New Jersey blew the 3-0 lead all the way to a hilarious 4-3 loss. That gave Florida an unlikely 2-1 lead in the series. It was a reasonably exciting game, and I'm not just saying that because blah blah blah do Avdroids dream of Zach Parise.

The Unofficial MHH Adopted Team vs. The Quebec Bettmen: #3 Phoenix Coyotes at #6 Chicago Blackhawks, Game 4, 8:00 Eastern, CNBC and TSN

Blah blah Raffi Torres blah blah bag of blah blah rusty spike. He's been Shanabanned indefinitely pending a hearing on Friday in person at the NHL offices. (The hearing was delayed at his and the Players' Association's request due to logistics.) As will completely come as a terrible shock to you all I'm sure*, he went headhunting on Marian Hossa, a flying late headshot that sent Hossa to the hospital on a stretcher. Hossa would leave the hospital under his own power and is being monitored at home. Torres's play would go unpenalized, and the immediate response of Brandon Bollig meant Chicago would be down two men on the play, one for penalties and one being Hossa.. The game would (of course) go to Overtime, where Phoenix would net the game winner on a play that was immediately recognized by everyone as eerily reminiscent of the 2010 Cup winner. Glendale leads the series 2-1. Many MHH faithful joined Chicago's party over at Second City Hockey again, since Chicago's team is fun to watch and has a lot of good guys (especially with Dan Carcillo being out for the season with a knee injury) on it, while the Coyotes erm meet neither criterion.

*lol jk and I move to consider deigning him [little redacted]. Repeat offender who sees no problem with his lack of respect for other players.

The (Very) Late Game: #2 St. Louis Blues at #7 San Jose Sharks, Game 4, 10:30 Eastern D:, NBC Sports and TSN

The NHL hates sleep. Also St. Louis went into the Shark Tank in Game 3 and played very, very well, going up 4-1. Then they tried real hard to piss that lead away and ended up hanging on to win 4-3. They lead the series 2-1 after dropping Game 1 at home. Kevin Shattenkirk is playing a solid game, Brian Elliott has been good backing up Halak's injured body, and Chris Stewart has a little bit of ice time (we think). Daniel Winnik and TJ Galiardi have looked good in their respective roles for the Sharks, but their bigger story is their bigger line. Patrick Marleau and Joe Pavelski have combined for a big fat 0 points. San Jose isn't going to pull out an upset if the only points out of that line are Jumbo Joe Thornton's assists.

Speaking of the bandwagon: