<p>I’m still cheering for the Canadiens.</p>
<p>Go Rangers! Bring on ‘Le Habitants.’</p>
<p>I am watching too. Very exciting second round!!</p>
<p>I root for a number of teams, but the only remaining rooting interest is Montreal. Hoping to be able to continue to watch them after tonight. </p>
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<p>I am, too. My H is from Montreal and is a lifelong Habs fan. Even though they’re no longer all ‘flying Frenchmen’, we hope they’re all ready to fly tonight.</p>
<p>I was surprised by the Bruins-Canadiens game. Montreal competed very strongly for pucks and generally showed quicker feet. </p>
<p>1st goal was a mistake. Paille skated with his man and then floated away leaving him alone at the far post - and with the d-man Bartkowski unaware with his back to the man. Dumb play.</p>
<p>2nd goal was simply Montreal out-competing for the puck and a few lucky dribbles and then a nice pass and shot.</p>
<p>3rd goal was oops: Chara turning his skate deflected it perfectly in the place just inside the post and under Rask’s arm. It was a great shot unintentionally.</p>
<p>Bruins goal was Iginla’s great stick work. Price had the shot by Krug lined up but Jarome made a perfect deflection.</p>
<p>For the Bruins, Soderburg continued to be the best player, though Iginla was also strong. Thought the 3rd line should have played more. Chara looked pretty bad. Bruins had more shots but Montreal had a bunch of good scoring chances. </p>
<p>It was an exciting finish to a great series and I was happy to see Montreal win. The unbelievably classless behavior by Lucic in the handshake line was appalling, but unsurprising. He should be ashamed of himself.</p>
<p>I enjoyed last night’s Kings game. Although my whole family (save moi) was at the game…I did have our puppies who got excited when I did.</p>
<p>Go Kings Go!!!</p>
<p>Hey, bev, I was rooting for the Kings last night. I can’t decide which team I’ll root for in the next game, but I wanted a game 7. </p>
<p>Got tickets? :)…Think of it this way: duck a la orange or Kings…</p>
<p>I do not have tickets…If I did I wouldn’t/couldn’t sell them. Sorry…rereading my post that could be read into thep post.</p>
<p>My take on the Bruins is that they are a very good regular season team. That means they compete almost every night. Most teams don’t. They compete now and then or for a period here and there. The Bruins tended to compete every night and to send that message physically. When it’s only a regular season game, the other team may decide to back off. </p>
<p>But in the playoffs, every team competes. Teams raise their games and compete for every puck. You can’t physically intimidate in the playoffs. In fact, physical play seems to merely increase the compete level in your opponents because they want to match every check.</p>
<p>So the Bruins get taken aback when a team doesn’t respond as expected, when what worked in the regular season doesn’t work in the playoffs. The big change as I saw it was game 6 in Montreal when the Canadiens became significantly more aggressive forechecking and significantly more physical. The Bruins reacted badly, even cheaply by trying to start fights at the end of the game. It’s the action of a team used to bullying that has trouble accepting when the other team hits them. </p>
<p>I saw the same thing with the Red Wings year after year. Dominance in the regular season because they’d out-talent, out-compete every team, followed by failure in the playoffs because it’s very hard to shift your focus level up when you’re already the top dog. </p>
<p>Hockey isn’t like basketball where a single player - Lebron, etc. - can take over important games. It depends on the compete level of the whole team. When Montreal upped their compete level, the Bruins had trouble responding - except notably for Iginla and Soderburg - and were just a step slower and a bit out of focus mentally.</p>
<p>BTW, it’s so weird watching two LA hockey teams play when the city has no NFL team.</p>
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<p>Agreed. The number of hits in each game was not as uneven as some may have predicted. </p>
<p>I’m enjoying catching some of the IIHF World Championship games, too. Love the larger ice surface and really wish that the NHL would refit their arenas to allow for it here. </p>
<p>Game party here tonight! Lots of food and drink…and televisions function for the game in all rooms. </p>
<p>Is that an invitation, bevhills? :)</p>
<p>Absolutely! Last count: Mr. and Mrs. Ellebud plus31 young uns. We are running low on Vodka…plenty of beer and extra pillows and blankets (just in case) Oh, lots of food.</p>
<p>Why don’t we have an NFL team!!! We are great fans. We do have however SC Football…not pros…but we love our Trojans.</p>
<p>Not liking that national anthem singer. </p>
<p>I can hear the Ellebud clan cheering all the way here in Toronto! :)</p>
<p>Yep that was us. 
It was a good game.</p>
<p>Party again?!</p>
<p>The Kings like to do it the hard way, don’t they? They’ve won six elimination games already, and we haven’t started the third round.</p>