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Man, it's been a while. 3 years since my last WHL playoff game. Time to go crazy....

East Conference:

(1) Calgary vs. (8) Edmonton

Fuck this series.

(2) Saskatoon vs. (7) Lethbridge

WWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Blades rule. They have a 3 good lines, 4 good D and the top goalie in the Conference. That being said, they do lack a gamebreaker up front... only captian Derek Hulak and Czech winger Milan Kyntar averaged about a point per game and that was just barely (76 in 72 for Hulak, 64 in 65 for Kyntar). With virtually no playoff experience, they could be ripe for an upstart team to knock off... which would be a shame. They actually are a fun team to watch for once. I'm starved for a long playoff run, and it'd be cool to see this city excited about the Blades for once.

(3) Brandon vs. (6) Kootenay

Brandon scares me. They kept in the division playoff race with the Blades right until the second last game of the year.... they just kept winning but eventually ran out of games. I can't say much about Kootenay... they're small, don't have a top end player, and have average (at best) goaltending. Should be easy for Brandon.

(4) Swift Current vs. (5) Medicine Hat

The Trans-Canada battle! Swift is a good team this year, and hopefully there's a Saskatoon-Swift Conference Final at the end of the day.

The "Other" Conference:

(1) Vancouver vs. (8) Prince George

Go Cougars!

(2) Tri-City vs. (7) Everett

I've never been to the Tri-City area, but I have been to the Wal-Mart at/near Everett. It is my favourite Wal-Mart in the world.

(3) Kelowna vs. (6) Kamloops

If this were the 1990s, this would be a clash of the Titans. Kelowna's a nice town (even if it's for old people), so I'll side with them.

(4) Spokane vs. (5) Seattle

Man, what happened to Spokane? I've driven this stretch of road a few times now and feel an attachment to these places. The Thunderbirds are a rarity in junior hockey... a franchise in a huge market with little success. Since they don't have a NHL team, I don't get angered by them, though.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Very, very pumped for tonight. For some reason, though, the Blades have decided to go with a "white-out". The team's motto is "Bleed Blue". I can't be the only one that sees a problem with this.

With the Blades in the playoffs, I am refusing to let the Habs get me down for the reaminder of the year. Let's just put it bluntly... we're on a break.

Go Blades!

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Well, tonight is Game 7. I've been to all the home games so far... and the road teams have won 2 out of 3 games in each team's rink.

Got tickets in the front row right on the blueline, close to the Lethbridge penalty box. I don't know if any of you Westerners have seen any games... this series is being broadcast by Shaw. You should tune in if you can. A good friend of mine is doing camera work for the series, so he's pumped it went 7 because he got 4 games to work.

Swift is out, unfortunately. All of Sask's hopes are riding on the Blades now.

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

i can't watch any of the games, i have telus tv! boourns!

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

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Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

Very unfortunate result last night. Holtby let in two softies on PP's in the 3rd (particualrily the Sbisa goal) and they couldn't stuff home the game tying goal in the final minute... 4-3 Final.

Over 10,000 people at the game. Proudest moment as a Blades fan: the crowd booing Kyle Beach loudly when he was giving an on-ice interview after the 2nd period. Brilliant moment.

I am very mad at both Philly and Minnesota right now. Fuck you Philly for sending back a clearly NHL caliber d-man in Luca Sbisa to a team that was barely making the playoffs. Lethbridge has to be the best 7th place team in the history of 7th place teams in the WHL. Their powerplay featured 3 NHL 1st round picks from last year in Boychuk, Sbisa, and Beach. We were completely robbed for finishing 2nd... Finishing 3rd would've been much easier. Kootenay (6th place) sucks.

And Minny... for not sending Gillies back at all this year even though he CLEARLY isn't NHL calibre at all. What a fucking joke. He really could've helped this team go on a long run. The Blades' forecheck wasn't good enough, especially having to deal with Sbisa moving the puck back there. Although Gillies wouldn't have hleped the Blades' ghastly PP, he would've helped the PK a lot.

A lot of my favourite Blades disappeared in this series. It was quite disappointing. Islanders draft pick Jyri Niemi was the best Blade in the series. He and Beach had a huge battle throughout, and both were supsended for Game 2 as a result. Niemi is the only part of the Blades' PP that was making good decisions.

Ugh. I think this makes 43 years now.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb

If not for the Foote trade (which I'll admit I heartily endorsed at the time, though I was a bit worried about the price in draft picks) Sbisa could have been ours.

Feck.

the local television for WHL playoffs is weird in Vancuver , our local PBS covers junior hockey. Im expecting Big Bird to do the ice level interviews and Julia Childs to do the play by play or something. They covered the Blades round 1 series oddly and now are covering the Giants Chiefs series.. game 7 is tonight.

nice to see it end before my bed time! bring on the rockets

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"if your parachute doesn't open up while skydiving, don't worry, you have the rest of your life to figure it out"

Ugh. Vancouver/Kelowna vs. Calgary/Bradon.

Kill me now.

_________________
Injustice? Cobain died and Eddy Fucking Vedder lived to haunt us with his shitty fucking voice, trite lyrics and his Eddy Vedderness.



- Ancient Chinese Proverb