the dwfma blog.

Left the Falcon at Wheaton Regional Park, then followed the Sligo Creek to Colesville Road.  Hit the deck soon thereafter.

[footmap]

Let us revisit the conference semifinals:
(4) Pittsburgh v (8) Montreal. Montreal in seven. Nicely one.
(6) Boston v (7) Philadelphia. Boston in seven. Philadelphia in seven.

(1) San Jose v (5) Detroit. Detroit in six. San Jose in five.
(2) Chicago v (3) Vancouver. Chicago in six. Nicely done, again.

Prince of Wales.
(7) Philadelphia v (8) Montreal. Montreal in six.

Campbell.
(1) San Jose v (2) Chicago. Chicago in six.

Original Six! The first such final since 1973 (check my math), which was … well, Montreal v Chicago.

Whew.  A quick recap, though the results are mystifying:

Prince of Wales.
(1) Washington v (8) Montreal. Washington in 5. Montreal in 7.
(2) New Jersey v (7) Philadelphia. New Jersey in six. Philadelphia in 5.
(3) Buffalo v (6) Boston. Buffalo in five. Boston in 6.
(4) Pittsburgh v (5) Ottawa. Pittsburgh in four. Pittsburgh in 6. (close enough)

Campbell.
(1) San Jose v (8) Colorado. Colorado in seven. San Jose in 6.
(2) Chicago v (7) Nashville. Chicago in five. Chicago in 7.
(3) Vancouver v (6) Los Angeles. Vancouver in six. Vancouver in 6, indeed.
(4) Phoenix v (5) Detroit. Cotoyes in seven [sic]. Detroit in 7, spelling aside.

The quick answers for next round:

(4) Pittsburgh v (8) Montreal. In the spirit of a) liking Montreal, b) hating Pittsburgh, and c) “root for the team that beats you”, I want to take Montreal here. Maybe they can pull it off, or maybe they are too tired from the Washington series. What the hell. Montreal in seven.
(6) Boston v (7) Philadelphia. Rask outplays Boucher (we’ve heard anti-33 predictions before) because Philadelphia is the only team more bruised than Boston. Boston in seven.

(1) San Jose v (5) Detroit. Haven’t we danced this dance before? Detroit in six.
(2) Chicago v (3) Vancouver. Roberto Luongo continues to choke in later rounds. Chicago in six.

Tonight dawns the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs. My predictions may or may not be worth the time of aggregation, so let us instead dive right into the latest match-ups.

Prince of Wales Conference.

(1) Washington v (8) Montreal.
The league’s best team this year against the league’s most storied, ever. Capitals goaltender Jose Theodore is in a contract year, when he traditionally does well (so well, in fact, that a team like the Capitals will be lured sign him during free agency). In the other cage, we have Carey Price, the goaltender of Montreal’s future (for now), whose drafting in 2005 essential ran Theodore out of Montreal. The Canadiens are my perennial dark horse, so this is an especially difficult series to pick. After the World Series last year, the “New York Yankees of hockey” are now 3 championships behind the North American sports race. But they have far too much to overcome — not the least of which is the best player in the league world. The Capitals take this series quickly and decisively.
Washington in 5.

(2) New Jersey v (7) Philadelphia.
We move from a regretful choice to an easy one. Yes, the Flyers dominated the Devils this season, winning five of their six regular-season match-ups. Yes, Chris Pronger is a harsh brute in the Scott Stevens mold, one who could have his way with any number of Devils forwards. Yes, Ilya Kovalchuk has taken a shift with almost every Devils player not named Yann Denis. But the Flyers have no goaltending – none – and I expect hope for Ilya Kovalchuk to take advantage of his second playoff appearance with some Pepe-esque heroics in a number of games this season.
New Jersey in six, even though that means winning game 6 at the FU Center.

(3) Buffalo v (6) Boston.
Tim Thomas regressed, not altogether unexpectedly, and the Bruins went from top seed in 2009 to sixth here in 2010. I laughed when Zdeno Chara took the free-agent money from Boston a few years ago, but he has helped this team grow past its abilities under determined captaincy. Tukka Rask is a good goaltender with a bright future, but Ryan Miller is currently the best goaltender on the planet. The last time Buffalo had a goaltender this good, he (along with the same coach and same general manager) carried a mediocre offense all the way to the Stanley Cup Finals. This squad may not make it that far, but the will come a lot closer than a first-round exit.
Buffalo in five.

(4) Pittsburgh v (5) Ottawa.
In a word, Ottawa sucks. Overall they strike … well, they are so boring they do not exactly strike anyone at all. Their goaltending is suspect (posting the second-highest team GAA of the 16 playoff teams), their scoring is middle-of-the-pack at best, especially at five-on-five where they finished behind only Edmonton, Columbus, Tampa Bay, and the Islanders, four teams nowhere near the playoffs. It hurts to pick Pittsburgh, but they have two of the best players in the league, a goalie capable of hot streaks (despite Pittsburgh having the worst team GAA of playoff participants), and most important of all, the swagger of “been there before”. On the other side, Alfie will try hard but fail, Spezza will vanish, and Cheechoo will continue his “Disappearing Man” act. Think Rangers/Atlanta a few years ago.
Pittsburgh in four.

Clarence Campbell Conference.

(1) San Jose v (8) Colorado.
Steam is lost as I head west. San Jose is a perpetually perplexing team, with their storied regular-season successes bookmarked and punctuated by catastrophic playoff appearances. Once upon a time, San Jose was the eighth seed, knocking off larger giants of the West, but here I see the series going seven grueling games. I should flip a coin to see who will win … tails.
Colorado in seven.

(2) Chicago v (7) Nashville.
This series comes down to a pair of Finnish goaltenders. If Chicago’s Antti Niemi can have a series (in place of pricey Cristobal Huet), the Blackhawks will roll, with or without Brian Campbell and regardless of what Nashville’s Pekke Rinne does. While the Predators are packed with gritty veterans and league retreads, they won’t be able to contain the youthful Blackhawks, a team already in “win now” mode due to future cap constraints.
Chicago in five.

(3) Vancouver v (6) Los Angeles.
Few will give Los Angeles a chance here, but the team is young in the right places (Kopitar, Brown, Doughty, Johnson) and gritty and scary in others (Handzus, Smyth).  The real comparison is in net, and that is where the Kings fail; Jonathan Quick may finally be the answer for the Kings, but he will not be able to outduel Roberto Luongo.
Vancouver in six.

(4) Phoenix v (5) Detroit.
Age versus … whatever you would call Phoenix at this point.  Uncertainty?  Cinderella?  The Coyotes’ run was unforeseen but it was not without merit; they have had consistent scoring from all levels, decent coaching from an actual coach (former Dallas benchminder Dave Tippett), and otherworldly goaltending from Ilya Bryzgalov.  Will it be enough to beat the oldies-but-goodies from Detroit?  Yes, though it will take a while.
Cotoyes in seven.

I’ll spare readers from any further musings.  Instead, as before, I will retroactively assign myself credit after each round, and approach each series anew.

Go Devils.

Kings defenseman Sean O’Donnell, regarding Dion Phaneuf placing a hard hit on Anze Kopitar:

“It’s just a dirty play,” said O’Donnell. “We talk about the players not having respect and why are there so many concussions. He didn’t have to do that. He plays hard, he’s not the brightest guy, he runs around a little bit.”
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=304159

Relevant, nah, but still funny.

A smarter man could make sense of this here timeline, add items as necessary, and come to some actual conclusions.

Sadly, I am not that man.

• 1999- Colorado Avalanche acquire Theoren Fleury and Chris Digman from
  the Calgary Flames, in exchange for Rene Corbet, Wade Belak, draft
  considerations, and a player to be named later.  The player turns out
  to be defenseman Robyn Regehr, born in Brazil to Canadian
  missionaries.
• 1999- Regehr makes his debut for the Calgary Flames under head coach
  Brian Sutter.
• 2002- Darryl Sutter, brother of Brian, is named coach and general
  manager in Calgary, replacing a few warm bodies who coached in between
  the brothers.
• 2003- Calgary drafts defenseman Dion Phaneuf with the 9th overall
  pick.  Phaneuf was plucked from the Red Deer Rebels of the WHL.  The
  Rebels are owned (and at that time, still coached by) by other brother
  Brent Sutter and play their home games halfway between Calgary and
  Edmonton.
• Spring 2004- Calgary Flames reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
  - Regehr tears ligaments in his foot in game five but finishes the
  seven-game series, earning praise from teammates.
  - Darryl Sutter is nominated for the Jack Adams Award, losing to John
  Tortorella.
• 2004-05- NHL lockout.  Regehr succeeds Jarome Iginla as Calgary’s player
  representative and is critical of the league’s position on the
  lockout.
• 2005- Phaneuf makes his NHL debut.  his defensive impact on games is
  likened to the offensive impact of Alexander Ovechkin.
• 2006- Regehr represents Team Canada in Turin Winter Olympics.
  - After the season, Darryl Sutter resigns as head coach and promotes
  assistant coach Jim Playfair, who is replaced by Mike Keenan one
  season later.
• 2007- New Jersey Devils pry Brent Sutter from Red Deer and hire him as
  head coach.
• 2009- Regehr ends the season injured and cheers Calgary’s dismissal of
  coach Mike Keenan.
  - Brent Sutter resigns from the Devils and toys with retirement
  before accepting the head coaching position in Calgary, reuniting him
  with brother Darryl, who is still the general manager.
  - Florida Panthers trade negotioning rights with defenseman Jay
  Bouwmeester to Calgary for equal rights with Jordan Leopold;
  Bouwmeester signs a five-year contract with the Flames three days
  later.
• 2010- Phaneuf is traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs.  A gaping locker
  room rift had opened between Regehr (bruisingly effective lunch pail
  defenseman) and Phaneuf (fauxhawk prima donna defenseman).  Despite
  their long history developing Phaneuf, the brothers Sutter decide they
  can get far more for Phaneuf than Regehr, trade-wise, and decide one
  prancey defenseman per team (ie, Bouwmeester) is enough.

In short, somehow we can blame/thank Lou Lamoriello for playing a part in this trade.  I can’t wait for Phaneuf to try his wide-open no-look hip checks here in the Eastern Conference.

Jaxx, Springfield, VA.
Friday, January 8, 2010.

Behemoth.

Ov Fire and the Void
Demigod
Shemhamforash
Conquer All
LAM
As Above So Below
Slaves Shall Serve
At the Left Hand ov God
Drum Solo
Alas, Lord Is Upon Me
Christians to the Lions
Decade of Therion
Chant for Eschaton 2000
Lucifer

Source: setlist.fm

Septic Flesh

Unbeliever
Communion
We, the Gods
Anubis
Lovecraft’s Death
Persepolis

Source: setlist.fm

Shots in the library?

No, not that kind … staff from the Student Health and Wellness Center will be offering students H1N1 vaccinations in the group study room next to the photocopy room on C level of the Eisenhower Library.

Depends on which kind “that kind” means.

That man is a success who has lived well, laughed often and loved much.
Robert Louis Stevenson.

Note to self: combine this offer with this home schedule.