Welcome to the Hotstove! As always, I'm your host, Travis Yost.
A quick entry for today -- one that will gauge your thoughts on the three (!) game sevens set to take place tonight. I've compiled polls below for each of the three matches, but I'd like to hear your thoughts on tonight's action and why you think the teams you're voting for below are heading into round two.
I think, of the three games tonight, the one that far and away intrigues me the most is the one between San Jose and Los Angeles. For my money, these are two of the three best teams in the National Hockey League, and even before the puck dropped on game one, you knew it was just absurdly cruel that one of them was going to be bounced in the first-round.
What makes it more intriguing now is the way someone's going to exit. Either San Jose's going to choke away a 3-0 series lead (and despite being amongst the league's elite all year long, they'll never hear the end of it), or Los Angeles' effort to push the series to a game seven will all be for naught.
I'll take San Jose, but I don't feel comfortable about it.
As for the other match-ups, I like New York at home -- Philadelphia's actually impressed me with how well they've played in spurts against the Blueshirts in this series, but I still think New York's the better team -- and Minnesota on the road. It's kind of insane to me that the Wild/Avalanche series is tied at three. Minnesota's been better, but Colorado's been opportunistic.
So, who do you have tonight?