Playoff Hockey

Ahh yess its that time of year again, that smell is in the air. That smell I am referring to is playoff hockey.

I have been watching this years Stanley Cup playoffs back and forth, here and there but today I got a chance to watch one of the games live. It was Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Game 1 of the best of 7 Western Confrence semi finals between Anaheim Ducks and Colorado Avalanche.

To start the festivies off my brother in law and I went to a sports bar near the hockey rink and watched a specatluar Game 1 of the Eastern Semis on tv. This game featured two of the more explosive offensive teams in this years playoffs and they proved it. The game went back and forth with 3 goals chaning hands between the two teams in the final 1:37 inlcuding the tying goal with 10.7 seconds left in the regulation to force overtime. Then it took only 18 seconds for the underdog team to score and steal game 1 in a shocker.

Back to the game here in Anaheim. It was alot of fun to see the crowd excited for the playoffs cheering for thier team. The atmosphere was loud and electirc. The Pond employees handed out towles for fans to wave and it literally was a sea of white. Truthfully though I am a LA Kings fan but I can still appreciate fans who love thier team. The game itslef was nowhere near the excitement level of the first game however if you were a Ducks fan it was the greatest show. They routed thier opponents 5-0, putting on a clininc at times making thier opponents look like amatuers. The game though featured alot of hard hitting inlcuding one clean open ice hit (meaning in center ice with no one else around excpet the two players involved and no intenet to injure) which lead to Anaheims first goal. Overall the experince was fun up until the end when the game was over. The fans at this point disgusted me by throwing trash on the ice towards the Colorodo bench. That is a slap in the face to hockey and still shows how some adults are still children. It was extremley dissapointing to see Ducks fans tarnish a game I love so much.

I dont want to end this blog on a sour note so I will state that hockey is back in full swing despite the lockout last season and as a fan I can't be more jouyful. I hope that the excitement continues with more back and forth action.