Deja Vous In the Conference Finals...?

Pittsburgh and Detroit raced out to 3-0 leads in their Conference Final series. Both teams looked poised for the sweep as they seemed nearly impossible to beat. Dallas and Philly had no intention of gettting swept, however, and each of them won game 4 with the Flyers holding off a 3rd period surge by the Penguins.

Few teams in sports history have marched back from 3-0 deries deficits, though, and I don't see either Dallas or Philadelphia having it in them to do so. Detroit and Pittsburgh don't have it in them to suddenly lose the next three in a row, either.

Get geared up for what should be a hard-fought Stanley Cup Final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.

Another Coach Looking For Work.

San Jose has fired Head Coach Ron Wilson after failing to get deep into the playoffs again. Wilson was hired by the Sharks in 2002 and helped them be a contender year in and year out. Like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Tony Dungy, San Jose felt they have the talent to go deep and win a Championship and were unhappy that Ron Wilson was unable to get them there. We'll see if the Sharks' next coach will be able to drive them to a championship like "Chucky" was able to with Tampa.

So far, the Atlanta Thrashers, Florida Panthers, Colorado Avalance, Ottawa Senators, and the Toronto Maple Leafs are also looking for new coaches. It's being rumoured that Peter Laviolette could be out in Carolina as well.

Jacques Lemaire, though, will be back for an 8th season behind Minessota's bench.

Don Waddell asked to step down as Atlanta Thrashers GM!

In a move that goes in the "very, very smart" drawer, the Atlanta Thrashers have reportedly asked General Manager Don Waddell to step down and take a differrent management position with the team.

Last season, Waddell ransomed the farm to get to the playoffs for the first time in team history. The team made it to the playoffs, and were then swept in the first round. He gave up a lot of team depth at the trade deadline to make it there and didn't re-sign any of those players.

Atlanta is already looking up.

Quenneville, Colorado Part Ways.

After meeting with Joel Quenneville today, Colorado General Manager Francois Giguere and head coach Joel Quenneville "mutually agreed that it was time to part ways."

This comes after a 2nd round, 4 game sweep of the Avs by the Detroit Red Wings. Colorado was running on a bit of a skeleton crew after having so many of it's star players out with injury.

This decision doesn't make a lot of sense to me as Colorado still got into the playoffs after having a lot of regular season injuries and still got into the second round. I guess with that lineup, they were expecting more.

Pat Quinn, Perry Pearn, Randy Cunneyworth, Doug MacLean, Paul Maurice, and the legendary Pat Quinn are a few of the big names out there looking for work who could come in for the Avalanche. Oh, and there's a rumour that former LA Kings coach and current ESPN analyst Barry Melrose-who still thinks it's cool to have a mullet-is up for the Colorado job. Call me one who'd be VERY surprised if that happened.

Maple Leafs Fire Their Coach!

The Toronto Maple Leafs today fired their coach after only 2 seasons. Paul Maurice, who was hired by former General Manager John Ferguson Jr., was supposed to get this current crop of players into the playoffs and be be perrenial competitors. He came in with a lot of plans and promise, but he never could get them over the hump.

I don't think this was totally Maurice's fault. Ferguson handed out bad contracts, most having "no movement clauses," to players who don't really fit in their system. The current GM, interim Cliff Fletcher-JFJ was fired due to the state of the Leafs, has been unable to start a real re-build process because he is unable to move those players with the "no movement clauses."

The Leafs now have no GM (since Fletcher is only there on an interim basis and according to him he's not involved in the process to hire a new one), no coach, and no captain since Mats Sundin is an unrestricted free agent looking for a home. While the captaincy issue isn't too big a deal and the coach process will be handled in time, they need to figure out who their new GM will be. They have a lot of people to re-sign and the draft is only 6 weeks away.

I understand why Maurice was fired, but Toronto is in a big hole looking a long way up.

My Panthers aren't much better, but I think they're closer to having their act together.

Incoming!

One of the best videos EVER! Had me on the floor. Good ole Ference.

2008 Playoffs Down to Four Teams!

Thanks TSN.ca (again!)

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL
Philadelphia vs PittsburghSeries starts Friday

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL
Detroit vs Dallas Series starts Thursday

-Philadelphia surprisingly, to me anyway, stomped on the Canadiens to advance to the 3rd round. They'll face the Pittsburgh Penguins for the Eastern Conference crown. I'm calling a team from Pennsylvania advancing to the Finals...HAHA! Ok, I'm actually going to pick Pittsburgh here. They're young, incredibly talented, and hungry! The Flyers are a very tough team, though, and will be hard work for the Penguins.

Penguins advance with a game 7 win!

-Detroit stomped on Colorado in game 4 to advance to the Western Conference Finals. Dallas marched ahead to a 3-0 lead in their series against the San Jose Sharks. San Jose staved off Dallas for 2 straight games until finally losing in game 6 in the seventh period! They played over two games in one night before Brendan Morrow finally potted the winner to advance Dallas. It remains to be seen how going 7 periods, with the final 4 of them being shotgun periods in that there's no commercial interruptions so they can take a break, will affect their play against Detroit. They may be a bit sluggish against a lethal Red Wings team that allows no mercy. At least they have a few days before gametime.

I'm calling Detroit in 5!