Morning Skate: Last gasp

Happy Friday, folks!

We’re heading into a long weekend here in the United States, with Memorial Day Weekend usually serving as the unofficial start of summer here in New England (I don’t know if it’s the same elsewhere, I can’t claim to know your traditions).

Summer started on Thursday for the Carolina Hurricanes, while the Dallas Stars staved off summer for a couple more days.

The Stars, down 3-0 in the series, won Game 4 in OT last night to force that series back to Vegas. It seems like a technicality at this point, but you never know.

Like Kevin Millar said, “don’t let us win tonight.”

(Let’s hope that works for the Celtics too.)

It didn’t work for Carolina, who were swept aside by the Flying Tkachuks.

I know, I know — we’re bitter Panther people around here. But there’s no denying this is one of the more impressive playoff runs in recent history, right?

Going back to Game 5 of the Bruins series, Florida has won 11 of its last 12 playoff games. They’ve trounced the alleged “elite teams” in the process. Sergei Bobrovsky may never allow a goal again.

While the Bruins still should have performed better in that series, I took some joy in Carolina getting bounced with little resistance, and took some additional joy in the fact that Carolina has now been swept in their last three Eastern Conference Final appearances.

Leave me alone, bitterness is all we have for now.

Anyways, around these parts, we’re likely going to try to start up this year’s player/coach/management ratings process next week.

We’ll follow a similar format to last year, allowing everyone to vote to get a good sample. Get your judgements ready.

What’s on tap for this weekend?