2010 Playoff Nightcap: Where I Try To Hint Pavelski Is A Robot...

Detroit: 3 - San Jose: 4 (Sharks Lead Series 2-0)

Scene: San Jose Sharks Head Office, early morning on April 28 2009 - A Sharks meeting being held between GM Doug Wilson and head coach Todd McLellan the day following the Sharks first round series loss to Anaheim where they go over the performances of each player on the roster...

Todd McLellan: That brings us to project JP-8 who didn't...

Doug WIlson: Todd, we've been over this before, please call him by his human name.

Todd: *sigh* Fine...  Joe Pavelski.  Look Doug, I know we're in the heart of silicon valley and you've got a thing for the tech stuff, but this super android of yours that you brought here a few seasons ago isn't working out for us. He only had one measly point in six games!  The same thing he did in 2007 I may remind you.

Doug: Alright...  Look he still has a few glitches that we need to work out but I know he can be an unstoppable machine in the playoffs... pardon the pun.  He just needs a bit of an upgrade in his post-season programing is all.

Todd: And you need to remove the application that has him copy exactly what Joe Thornton does at all times.  That clearly isn't helping any more.

Doug: I know.  I already have the tech guys working on the Pavelski 2.0 upgrade and it'll be ready just before the playoffs start in 2010.  Mark my words, come next spring he'll be scoring a ton for you!  It's just a matter of tweaking the clutch goal scoring code... we thought it was figured out back in 2008 but then Marty Turco hacked him in the shin in one of those games and threw it out of whack again.  Trust me Todd, we have his regular season programing right, we just need to copy and paste that code into the playoff app.

Todd: Fine, but for the love of all things hockey please keep Drew Remenda away from this upgrade!  I don't have to tell you about the last time he tried to "help" our tech guys...

Doug: *exaspirated* You're not kidding!  He tried to make a few "tweaks" to the Marleau android smile program and it hasn't worked right ever since.  Now lets move on to Thornton shall we?

Todd: *sighs* That robot is broken as well.

Doug: But Joe isn't one of our hockey machines...

Todd: Clearly.

Montreal: 3 - Pittsburgh: 1 (Series Tied 1-1)

As hard as it is to believe, somehow there are some "media experts" that I've seen through various online outlets who have suggested that it will be indeed Jaroslav Halak who will be on the way out of Montreal this summer and not the other way around with Carey Price.  Clearly they haven't been watching the playoffs a whole lot.

And while we're on the subject of "online experts" remember the backlash when the Habs acquired Scott Gomez this past summer?  Remember eyes rolled and jokes were made at the idea of the Canadiens later signing another small-ish forwards in the form of Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta?  We believe the term most often used in describing these deals was "insanity"

Yeah well, Cammalleri leads his team in playoff points with 13 in total after a two goal game while Gomez and Gionta have combined for 15 points.  Now granted the Penguins top forwards have slightly better numbers one one less game played, but if anything these playoffs have proved that maybe Bob Gainey - who of course was the GM to bring in those three forwards - knows exactly what he's doing at all times.  Win or lose this series - and based on the last two games maybe winning it doesn't seem so crazy after all - Habs fans owe a large debt of thanks to one of their all-time greats both on the ice and off it.