Around The Dial: Pens/Sens & Wild/Avs

Tonight is an unusual sort of evening of hockey at stately IPB Manor in that Pookie is at work, but Schnookie and Boomer are powering ahead with the playoffs despite her absence. The siren song of Pens/Sens Game 3 is too strong to ignore, so we’ll be watching from here, while Pookie keeps herself apprised at work by checking up on the score online. Sounds fun for her. Heh. Anyway, enjoy an open thread below, and we’ll be updating our thoughts on tonight’s action as we go along.

– CBC treats us to some footage of Senators arriving at the arena in suits. Yayson continues to prove himself the Getzi of the East, looking quite darling in his skinny suit. Heatley then proves that he is not the Vinny Lecavalier of the North, looking more sloppy than suave in his tieless get-up.

– Holy. Flirking. Schnitt. You know, when the Devils opened The Rock, they unveiled this awful, cheesy video of a faceless “hockey player” showing up at the arena on a train and then turning into an actual devil. We were mortified. Well, that video clip looks SO COOL in comparison to what the Sens have going on at center ice before the anthems. They’ve got this beefy, shirtless actor in a Roman legionnaire outfit, with the leather skirt and the red cape and the plumed face mask/helmet thing. And he’s giving some overwrought motivational “oratory”, but his mic keeps cutting out, so we’re getting just about every other word he’s saying. And when he tries to dramatically draw his sword for emphasis (not a euphemism), his helmet topples off balance, and he spends the rest of his appearance trying to keep the helmet from falling off. We are speechless. Finally, Boomer finds her ability to speak and asks, “Are you telling Pookie about this?” Schnookie: “I don’t think I can. This is indescribable.”

– The game has wild pace so far, as Fleury’s playing out of his mind, but the highlight so far for us is the safety-first PSA spot about the exposed nail. The narration is extraordinary, about how a poor little gnarled, rusty nail in a pallet no longer has a job, now that he’s twisted out of the wood and become a nasty, bloodthirsty spike. So, feeling neglected and unloved, the nail chooses not to be ignored any longer… just as someone kneeling under the pallet rises to his feet and meets the nail head-on with his balding pate. Cut to black, and there’s a gruesome sound effect of the nail rending flesh. Seriously, it sounds like the nail has just functioned as a can opener digging into his brain. This commercial is amazing.

– So, it’s a scoreless game, the Pens are up 2-0 in the series, the Sens have been shut out in one of those games, and Fleury’s stopped something like 25,000 shots by midway through the first… and the fans are chanting derisively at Fleury? Seriously, this is something the league needs to address. There is a right and a wrong way to derisively chant a goalie’s name. It’s not that hard, people.

– Now that the Sens have scored early in the second, why are the fans not chanting “Fleury”? This makes no sense to us.

– Rollie the cat, who likes Pookie best, doesn’t like tonight’s Pookieless congregation in the living room of stately IPB Manor. Midway through the second period, she makes her appearance, looking for a lap to curl up in. After surveying her options, she moves on. We thought we’d mention this to make Pookie feel better about all the hilarious Sid Gatorade commercials she’s missing.

– We’re full of insightful commentary here tonight — as the second period winds down, with the Pens having stormed back after giving up the first goal, Boomer’s assessment is, “That was a better period for the Pens.” Someone should be paying us for this! Because we could totally not be publishing this for free, you know.

– There’s something about the CBC feeds that brings out the “I could do that!” in Boomer. Every commercial we see for some kind of regional service industry, Boomer says, “I could do that!” She went through a “Maritime truck driver” phase, and lately has been in a “PEI nurse” phase, but tonight it looks like she’s moving on to become an auto glass repairman in New Brunswick.

– The announcers are trying to tell us early in the third, after two quick Pittsburgh goals, that it’s a shame the score has opened up like that, because this game has been so “evenly played” by both teams so far. We aren’t buying it. If they mean that the Sens had a great first period, barely hung on the second, and are not entirely obliterated yet now, then yes, we’ll agree. Otherwise? WRONG!

– As it turns out, we were right and the announcers were wrong. Again. Yeah, we’re getting used to it. The Pens game winds down with a whimper, and concludes with an emphatically workmanlike 4-1 win for Pittsburgh. Oh, Sens, you’ve made us so happy this Spring!

– We tear our focus — no, wait, it’s the playoffs, so we mean to say that we tear our F.O.C.U.S. away from the hockey for a while to make and eat dinner. Pookie arrives home just in time to see all hell breaking loose in Nashville as the ’08 Playoffs conspire to provide even more unexpected and amazing drama than we could have expected. We also get a good laugh at Arnott getting hurt celebrating his gamewinner. How extraordinarily Jaaaaaaaason Arnott.

– We liked the Wild/Avs series a lot more when it was in Minnesota. And when the Wild were winning. We wrap dinner up in time to be F.O.C.U.S.ing again on a 1-0 Avs lead. Booo!

– One of the disappointments so far of the ’08 Playoffs is that Pretty Ricky doesn’t lead into his VS intermission banter by saying “You’re attractive” to anybody. Of course, no one else in the studio is attractive, so we suppose it’s to be expected.

– We’ve hit the wall impossibly hard. Boomer’s retreated to bed, and Pookie is fading fast, so just as we are about to call it quits on an interminably dull Avs/Wild game, the Wild come out of nowhere to tie the game at 1 midway through the third. FINE. We’ll watch a few more minutes.

– The lesson we’ve learned about the Wild and the Avalanche is that neither one of these teams can hold a lead. Thanks a lot, guys. We all love playoff OT, but it’s Monday night. We’re beat. Would it have killed the Wild to win in regulation?

– With the television the last light on at stately IPB Manor, Bouchard nets the OT winner for the Avs, and we finish off a thoroughly delightful night of hockey. It’s always so nice when all the right teams win!

About these ads