Not that you asked, but I’m going to say B’s in 5.

Also, I liked this line:

It is fitting that Samsonov has found a home in a part of the country where watching someone go around in circles at high speeds for hours at a time without really going anywhere is the main form of entertainment.

The redneck/Nascar jokes are old already!!! Seriously though, looking forward to another great series!! Great write up (well most of it) LOL!! Can’t wait for some tailgating and a ROCKIN RBC Center!!

Looks like you have a great blog over here at SCoC! Cant wait for the series to start! I say Canes in 7.

I know this is a bit nit-picky, and I am sure you got your numbers from a source that made this mistake, but Cam Ward does have one SO in the playoffs in game 6.

wrong series my boy. Nice try though.

B’s in 5, Good god 8 days is too long to go, I hope the rest of Boston is on the bandwagon cause this ride is what being a fan of professional sports is all about.

i would say bruins in 5 or 6, i have a bad feeling we are going to tank the first game and give ourselves an uphill climb…it has just been way way too long off, and we don’t start games well anyways…..

Hey, moonshine is awesome. You should try it sometime!

The article above stated “Cam Ward is good but he isn’t this good.”

I’d argue that he’s at least as good as Thomas, perhaps better. They’re regular season stats are pretty close, especially when you account for Wardo playing 14 more games. Let’s not forget that Wardo is in pretty elite company in that he’s only the 3rd goalie to ever win the Conn Smythe as a rookie (along w/ Roy and Dryden). The last 6 weeks of the regular season he was the best goalie in the league. He was phenomenal in the Jersey series and I can only think of one soft goal that he gave up that entire series. Make no mistake about it Cam Ward is the real deal.

Am I wrong. but are there more posts from Caniacs than the Bruins camp here? Hmmmmm. Need to check out Bubba’s site to see if they’re following us with the same level of interest.

BTW – I love those Bruins ads with the guy in the bear suit. Great stuff!

Personally, I think there’s a lot about the Canes personnel and synergy that has been completely overlooked in this analysis. But they’ll find out soon enough. I really can’t wait to see how this plays out. If you’d asked me 2 weeks ago, I would have agreed: BOS in 6. After what I saw from our boys (inc Mo) vs NJD ( a little tougher than the habs, yes?), this one is wide open. Doesn’t get better than this.

I honestly don’t think Ward is overachieving as much as developing into the elite goalie that he was scouted to be coming out of the WHL. He has struggled with consistency over the last couple of years, but I think that’s the growing pains of a young goalie. This year was a muted breakout year for him (muted by an injury and a team in front of him that really struggled through the first 3.5 months of the season). But he really rolled down the stretch. And, you are correct that he does play his best in the playoffs.
I really like Tim Thomas. His path to where he is now is a great story. I really wish he hadn’t split so much time with Manny this year because some folks argue that his somewhat lighter workload puts a bit of an asterisk on his season (I disagree). This series may turn out to be even more of a goalie battle than our series against Jersey. My only fear is that the ‘Canes left everything we had in that series. If that’s the case, it could go Bruins in five. But my gut tells me that we have plenty of young guys with gas in the tank, and it’s going to be a great series that will go 6 or 7. If Matt Cullen’s line wakes up, look out!

the reply button isn’t working for me…..sorry for the break

The reference to Samsonov made me laugh. L

Nice write up Stanley

The only thing I know is that it will be a dog fight and I can’t wait to watch it. The Caniacs have a lot of respect for Boston and know our team has to be at it’s best to have a chance.

The problem I have is with anyone saying it took a collapse by the goaltender for the Cane’s to beat NJ. Brodeur single handedly kept the Devils in that series. Any other goaltender would have been beaten down and the series would have been over long before. The fact that two goals got by him in the last 80 seconds of the game has everything to do with relentless, dogged determination, speed, and attack by the Canes. They flipped a switch and finally got past all the clock eating techniques employed by the Devils. They finally figured it out. Brodeur didn’t lose anything. The Cane’s took it.

If you go back and watch the last five minutes of that game, there is a point he looked up at the clock. He knew his defense was starting to buckle. He knew the attack was coming and he had very little help in front of him. On those two goals two things happened. On the tying goal, the open man was found FINALLY. On the winning goal, they didn’t contain Staal on the wing for one of the few times in the whole series.

If you go back and watch the whole series, you will see that the Canes outplayed the Devils regardless of stats. Brodeur was their savior making crazy saves and being a wall.

Here’s some news for you about NASCAR. The closest track to Raleigh is in Concord, NC 3 hours away from the RBC where the Canes play. The people of Concord don’t come to hockey games in Raleigh and the people of Raleigh don’t go to Concord for NASCAR races. I know it seems fun to associate hillbilly rednecks with cars going in circles, but it really does just make the yankee saying it sound out of touch with what’s really going on in some areas of the south like the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill). We are basketball nuts for the most part though. If you wanna talk smack about how we are crazy about basketball here, have at it.