The Two-Line Pass

The Lead

Would that we were all as outstanding as Alex Burrows was tonight.

In the Canucks’ extremely fun, outstanding 3-2 overtime win to complete a sweep of the St. Louis Blues, Burrows stood as a man among boys. He scored the Canucks’ second goal, as well as the overtime winner with just 19 seconds remaining in the period, plus did just about everything else you’d want a second-line pest to do.

In addition to the goals, he also dished out a few hits, blocked a few shots and even drew a penalty in overtime. Big night outta the kid, and not bad for a guy making less than $500k this year.

Actually, the entire game was pretty excellent, and even though it didn’t have quite the same amount of bad blood as last night’s Calgary/Chicago game (a 3-0 series deficit for the home team will do that to ya), it did have enough end-to-end action to keep Gary Bettman satisfied even though neither team is Florida- or California-based, and the game didn’t end 9-8.

A lot of that had to do with Chris Mason and Roberto Luongo standing on their heads though. The Blues should’ve won it about 12 times in OT, but Luongo made 18 saves in the extra period and 47 overall. At the other end of the ice, Mason made several ridiculous stops and finished the hard-luck loser with 33 saves.

So much for the hottest team in the NHL. Out in four games. And the Canucks, instead, are through to the next round, and they did it not because of the Sedins and obviously not because of Mats Sundin. They did it because of a guy that does hilarious impressions of Marc Crawford and spent three seasons in the ECHL.

And that, like Burrows, is pretty goddamn awesome.

Elsewhere…

Pittsburgh 3, Philadelphia 1

After Sunday’s fantastic game, you had to figure two things: 1) There would be no love lost between either team, and 2) This one would be ultra-competitive. The latter held true, the former not so much. Not that it was a love-in or anything, but the animosity that SHOULD HAVE existed because of the first three games simply didn’t. But that doesn’t mean the game itself wasn’t fun to watch. It was. Real nail-biter stuff, but the same can no longer be said of this series. Philly has three games to win, and they’d have to do two-thirds of that IN Pittsburgh? I don’t care how much they carried play tonight. It’s over. Forget it.

Detroit 4, Columbus 1

The Blue Jackets were so… what’s the word? Punchless? Disinterested? Nonchalant? Deflated? Something along those lines. They were just flatter than day-old beer. It was almost like they didn’t want to be playing at all. Oh and somehow they played like this despite it being the first home playoff game IN FRANCHISE HISTORY. All you’ll hear from Detroit fans after this, by the way? “CHRIS OSGOOD WAS SO GREAT ONCE AGAIN TONIGHT OH MY GOD I CANNOT BELIEVE IT.” Imagine what happens when he runs into an offense that actually wants to do something to put the puck behind him. Whoa nelly.

Carolina 4, New Jersey 3

Yeah, the game-winning goal came with 0.2 seconds remaining in regulation. And it never should have happened. There’s four seconds left when a New Jersey defenseman shovels the puck out of the corner in a vain and misguided attempt to clear the zone. That was Mistake No. 1. Mistake No. 2 came when Sergei Samsonov played said clear attempt with a high stick along the halfboards and it went uncalled. Mistake No. 3 came when Jussi Jokinen bumped Martin Brodeur on his way to screen him. That last one is where Marty and Devils fans and everyone who thinks goalies get a bum deal in the NHL have a beef. I’ve seen much weaker goalie interference calls this year, and even once in the playoffs. Now, if the NHL wants to say it’s open season on goalies come playoff time, I’m cool with that. But call contact if you mean to call it. Play should’ve been stopped.

San Jose 4, Anaheim 3

Hey look, it’s the San Jose power play! Wow! After going 0 for 12 in the first two games of the series, both of which Anaheim seemed more than happy to concede via stupid penalties, San Jose finally said, “Oh yeah, we DID have the best PP in the league this year,” and scored on two of its first four man-up attempts. The highlight of my night was obviously Corey Perry, who sitting in the box for a very Perry-like hook, watching Patrick Marleau’s game-winner and hanging his head in shame. I will never tire of seeing that man get embarrassed.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 1:05 am and is filed under Good night. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.