Chicago is out!

First career playoff shutout for Mike Smith. Well done Smitty! Blackhawks are out! hahahaah.

wooo chicagos gone

hoping boston sens win it next

quinvelle looked like he wanted to murder someone after the boarding call. halarious.

Will this be the last game for Patrick Kane in the Hawks uniform? Before you fail me, there was talks of him being moved this season. He was held scoreless this playoffs.

GO WASHINGTON !!!:badpokerface:

Another tweet from Dan Murphy:

Dan Murphy ‏ @sportsnetmurph

re: Vigneault. If core players tell Gillis in exit meetings that a new coach would make a difference, that's a good reason for change.

I agree somewhat with Murph. Maybe the players do want a change in the coaching staff.

Holy, just saw the highlights from NYR@OTT

Goaltending duels in the west
EPIC

Nucks are at Cactus in Yaletown...

I hope the Canucks players cheered at Cactus if they saw Phoenix defeat the Blackhawks on TV. An arch rival getting stonewalled by Mike Smith.

Penguins, Detroit, Chicago, Sharks, and Canucks all out. Bruins and Rangers fighting to stay alive. Thats some seriously high level company making a 1st round exit. Sorta softens the blow a little. Strange year.

I'm probably gonna get failed for this but anyway, I don't think these playoffs are gonna be good for the NHL going towards the future.

In the West, IMO the only good thing about the 4 teams advancing is that they're all teams that have never won the cup. The bad thing is that they're all basically carbon copies of each other. They play really suffocating defensive games and have a really good goalie.

We had the lockout in 05 because American fans stopped tuning in to see 2-1 games. The same thing is happening again - if you look at the stats from the end of the lockout till now, goal scoring is trending down and is on par with the dead puck era. These 4 Western teams are proving again that playing a defensive minded game is the key to winning - other teams will adapt a similar system and we'll have a shitty non-exciting future. I think one of the keys is reffing - I forgot the exact numbers but I read that power plays were down by 2 this season compared to last. If they're not gonna let offensive teams flourish, they're just bringing back another clutch-and-grab type hockey.

Anyways, go Philly!

/end rant

I can see Lu going to Tampa considering his wife and kids live out there..

Have u seen the philly games? There were a lot of goals......then it got out of hand (players were just basically attacking one another lol).

He's absolutely right. LA, PHX, STL + NASH defeating VAN, CHI, SJ + DET? Defense first hockey winning again.

Flyers vs Pens was an awesome series, but you might not want to get used to it.

Just got home. YEEEE Chicago is out

On to Boston getting out, and I'll be happy

Your argument loses credibility when talking about the eastern conference, but I get what you are saying when looking at the West. They even talked about this on the team 1040 today.

The post lockout NHL has more parity than ever. Once you make the playoffs, some sports media think it's a crap-shoot. There is such a small difference in skill level among teams making teams.

I still think the playoffs will be interesting. There's still plenty going on but I will admit I'm probably going to pick a team out of the East to cheer for. Probably the Flyers. Giroux is awesome. With Pronger out, not a whole lot of reason to hate them. I wasn't a huge Jagr fan before but I really enjoy him now as a wily veteran. His experience has worn away all the personality reasons people didn't like him in his earlier years and now, I just see a guy that just loves playing hockey and mentoring a bunch of kids. You can see how much fun he's having when you watch him on 24/7 and he has the biggest grin on his face.

When I read about his Jagr camp or whatever, I thought that was pretty damned awesome. I could only imagine being Braydon Schenn or Sean Coutourier and getting a first hand lesson from Jaromir-fucking-Jagr, the dude they used to watch on TV playing with Mario Lemieux.

So whose down for a Florida - Phoenix final?

That's probably the worst possible series.

Nashville vs. Philly is my pick for the best.

why would you choose florida over the sens or philly??!!

man alfie was PISSED he was benched at beginning of 3rd

Nash/Philly would be a pretty interesting final.

Y U NO SARCASM..
i think