Wednesday, March 05, 2008

Game Day(s): Special Western Resentment Edition

On days like these (Pacific) Westerners have always taken pleasure in the East's winter misery. A recurring theme is the delays at YVR due to backlogged air traffic "back east". Perhaps its revenge for blacking out election returns, electing majority Liberal governments, foisting Bob Cole and partner on us, and scheduling afternoon sporting events that begin at 11:00 AM.

In the hockey world, the Northwest and Pacific divisions have established their dominance over their eastern counterparts (does Detroit really count as the west?) in the past three seasons. The Sharks are 6-3-0 against the Northeast, the Ducks 6-1-2, the Stars 6-4-0 and even the Coyotes are 5-3-0. Even the Luongoless Canucks went 9-1-0 against the east the year after the lockout. What was once a run-and-gun west and a conservative, trappy east have had their roles reversed. The west is filled of physical defensemen and pesky, hard forechecking forwards, while the east has moved to soft puck movers and perimeter players, respectively. Only a team pulled by the strong, muscular legs of Sidney Crosby has had much sustained success in the other conference.

As the Sens close out their road trip (tonight against San Jose, tomorrow against LA and Saturday night in Phoenix), we'll see how well they can fare against the Western Conference play without Alfred Jesusson (playing more like Judasson lately?). The Anaheim game seemed to be rolling along well until penalties took their toll. Some would call it Sabotage.

The reverse-karma special worked out last time, so let's give it another go:

Sharks 4, Sens 1 (Donovan)
Kings 3, Sens 2 (Meszaros, Kelly)
Coyotes 2, Sens 0

I'm off to the patio this weekend, happy shovelling everybody!

PPP Thursday Update: First, screw you Jay for living in lotusland where all you have to worry about is the ever increasing debt of the Olympic games. Second, here is RudyKelly's preview. I always knew Bryan Murray kicked dogs. I bet he specializes in puppies.

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