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We Saw THIS Coming, Right?

April 16, 2012, 3:29 PM ET [13 Comments]
Howard Berger
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
LOS ANGELES (Apr. 16) – I have no record of playoff predictions except for my own, but I think I can make the following observations with certainty: a) given how they performed in the final-third of the regular season, I wouldn’t have bet a plug-nickel against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup tournament; b) I’m sure a couple of “experts” out there chose Pittsburgh and Vancouver to meet in the final, and c) there isn’t a living human that suggested the Penguins and Canucks might get swept in the opening round.

If someone – now deceased – offered that prediction, I hope he passed it on to a breathing relative for posterity. It might even be worth a line or two at the bottom of the poor soul’s tombstone: “Here lays a man that would have left his family a hell of a lot more had he put his money where his dying mouth was.”

Go figure the Stanley Cup playoffs… again.

Pittsburgh, with a healthy [for now] Sidney Crosby, compiled an 18-4-1 record in its final 23 games. Loaded with talent and post-season experience, it seemed as if the Penguins were building toward a third Cup run in the past five years. Having lost its leading goal-scorer, Daniel Sedin, to a cheap-shot from Chicago’s Duncan Keith on Mar. 21, Vancouver gamely persevered and romped to an 8-1 record in Sedin’s absence to wrest the Presidents’ Trophy from the New York Rangers on the final weekend. As with Pittsburgh, the Canucks appeared to be culling the emotion required for another sustained playoff drive.

Incredibly, both teams could be golfing by Thursday.

Imagine the humiliation of Vancouver and Pittsburgh fans if their heroes end up playing only four more games than Montreal and Toronto in 2011-12. Besides seeking therapy, the general manager of such a playoff dud could easily lapse into tear-down mode.

Philadelphia has man-handled Pittsburgh on the scoreboard and above the shoulders in crafting a 3-0 series lead out east. Perhaps Crosby and Co. would have a better emotional grip if they felt Marc-Andre Fleury were capable of a timely save, but Fleury couldn’t get in the way of a medicine-ball this week.

Here in the west, the under-manned Canucks are being one-two punched into early submission by Dustin Brown and Jonathan Quick of Los Angeles.

Brown turned into a wrecking-ball once the puck was dropped in the series at Rogers Centre: he scored twice, shorthanded, in Game 2, and then nearly destroyed the lone healthy Sedin – Henrik – with a spectacular open-ice hit before connecting for the only marker of Game 3 in a 1-0 Kings triumph last night. Quick, who would win the Vezina Trophy this season if Henrik Lundqvist had never come to North America, earned his second career playoff shut-out and seventh in Kings history. He has stopped 111 of 115 Vancouver shots in this series for a .965 save-percentage. It is also the first time Los Angeles has built a 3-0 lead in the post-season; Kings have been in the NHL since 1967-68.

A raucous gathering at the Staples Center included L.A. Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who sat with his family near ice level and appeared to enjoy himself. Though Kobe remains sidelined with a bruised shin, he watched his teammates knock off the defending world-champion Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center yesterday afternoon and then stuck around for the hockey game.

With the Los Angeles Dodgers off to the best start of any team in baseball – 9-1 – these are heady days here in Tinseltown.

The Kings will get their first of four cracks at eliminating Vancouver on Wednesday… the same night Philadelphia hopes to send Pittsburgh packing at the Wells-Fargo Center.

***TO VIEW MY PHOTOS OF LAST NIGHT'S GAME HERE IN L.A. (AND OF KOBE ENJOYING THE MATCH), PLEASE LOG ONTO THIS BLOG AT BERGERBYTES.CA***

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