Evening Update

Carolina Hurricanes' Eric Staal, left, celebrates his goal as New Jersey Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur and Mike Mottau, right, react during the third period of an NHL first-round hockey playoff game Tuesday, April 28, 2009, in Newark, N.J. The goal turned out to be the game winner as the Hurricanes beat the Devils 4-3 to advance to the next round. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

Tonight was a great night for hockey, as noted below. We had two Game Sevens and while one ended predictably (but NOT as I predicted… it was a very near-run thing), the other was a real shocker. The Carolina Hurricanes came back with not one but TWO goals late in the third period to beat the New Jersey Devils… at home. Eric Staal got the game winner with a mere 31.7 seconds left on the clock. This was the second time in this series that Carolina came through with last minute heroics…literally.

So… Boston gets the ‘Canes and Washington gets the Pens in the second round. I’m thinking the Pens will have an easy job of it in the second round, Boston much less so. Carolina could be the Cinderella team of these 2009 playoffs. But you could put all I know of the Eastern Conference in my left eye and it wouldn’t even water. And the playoffs are nothing if not unpredictable.

It will be interesting.

―:☺:―

Ah… it’s NOT just me (all the way at the bottom of the post). A tweet from Greg Wyshynski earlier this evening:

wyshynski: The Devils game is so exciting on NHL.com with all the buffering.

NHL.com is really blowing a good thing by not providing adequate bandwidth for these netcasts… while overcharging for the dubious “privilege” of watching games that end up giving you a headache from eye strain. That’s too bad, coz the league was sitting on a potential gold mine. Hockey fans are among the most dedicated fans in all of sports… and we’ll go to great lengths to follow our team. But I’m betting most won’t pay inflated prices for what is ultimately a piss-poor experience. Not twice, anyway.