All over North America this morning, hardcore hockey fans are saying a word or two of thanks to the Washington Capitals and the Carolina Hurricanes. Thanks to those two teams and the guts they displayed on Sunday by staving off elimination in their respective playoff series, we'll all get to enjoy the rare treat of a Tuesday night in April: not one, but two Games 7. The Caps will host the beleaguered Rangers in Washington at 7:00 p.m., while the Devils and the Hurricanes will get things underway in Newark 30 minutes later. Needless to say, many of us will have our heads on a swivel most of the evening.
But that's not all. Tonight in Calgary and Anaheim, if the Flames and Sharks dig in their skate blades and show the same kind of heart we got out of Washington and Carolina yesterday, we'll be treated to yet another pair of Game 7s in San Jose and Chicago on Wednesday night. If so, it's hard to imagine a better way to close out the opening round of the postseason.
Of course, the fans aren't the only ones eagerly awaiting the resolution of the first round. There's little doubt that the players, coaches and front offices in Detroit, Vancouver, Boston and Pittsburgh will be lounging in front of their widescreen televisions tonight and tomorrow to get a chance to watch potential opponents desperately knock the stuffing out of one another while they relax and recuperate.
It's hard not to envision at this point what a second round might look like. If the Rangers, a team and an organization that now seems in total disarray after having the Capitals down 2-0 just one week ago, managed to recover and pull out a win in Game 7 tomorrow night, they would face the Bruins in the second round. And while that might project out to be a lot like Boston's first-round demolition of Montreal, who can resist the allure of an Original Six matchup in the playoffs, especially one that matches two cities that despise one another so much?
Or say Washington finishes off New York instead and Carolina beats New Jersey on the road? Don't tell me you wouldn't be excited at the prospect of a best-of-seven war between Pittsburgh and DC, as the Sidney/Ovie rivalry would be sure to boil over.
Out West, the potential matchups are almost as intriguing. If San Jose falls to Anaheim either tonight or Wednesday, Detroit becomes the top seed in the Western Conference and would draw the Ducks in a rematch of their brutal and vicious tangle in the 2007 Western Conference Finals. But if the Sharks come back and Chicago finishes off Calgary, we could be looking at a second-round matchup between Detroit and Vancouver that promises some serious firewagon hockey.
But before we even get there, we've still got two more days of desperation on ice. Do any other fans in the world of sports have it so good?
Every Monday morning The Ice Sheet will take a close look at everything that's happened in the NHL since Friday night at 5:00 PM -- or if need be, anything else the author wants to bleat about. To read them all, click here.
