Chicago: 5 - Vancouver: 2 (Blackhawks Lead Series 2-1)
Look, I'm all for team and fan traditions, so while coming out to "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2 is kinda lame by hockey standards, I can forgive that because in reality Vancouver is a U2 kind of city (I'll let you figure out if that's a compliment or a slam, I guess it depends on your actual opinion of U2) ... But this white towel thing always bugs me.
The white towel thing was started by Roger Nielson in the 1981 playoffs - against the Blackhawks believe it or not - when after a series of bad calls, "Captain Video" put a white towel on the end of a stick and waved it as a sign of a white flag surrender towards the refs. A few of his players on the bench followed doing the same thing and the following game back in Vancouver, Canucks fans started waving towels as well.
Safe to say the tradition of whine has continued ever since, led by their "captain" Roberto Luongo who had his arms up and head looking directly at the refs after every single Hawks goal tonight.
it's becoming more and more obvious that Luongo just isn't a big game, clutch goalie. Did he have a ton of traffic in his goal mouth? Of course. Should the fifth Hawks goal when both Patrick Kane and Dustin Byfuglien bull rushed into the Canucks goal? Probably. But lets be real here, Luongo couldn't control his rebounds, the Canucks D has no answer for the Hawks constant crashing of the net and until either one of those things is fixed, the Canucks will keep losing games just like this.
Maybe the waving of white flags towels at this point is very fitting. The only thing left to do is attach one to each of Luongo's arms so he has something more to wave than just his hands after every goal he lets in.
Boston: 4 - Philladelphia: 1 (Bruins Lead Series 3-0)
This playoff series has been all kinds of disappointing and I say that in a strange kind of tribute to the way the Bruins are playing which in a word is stifling. It's not that the Flyers have been playing poorly - in fact I would argue that the series could have easily been 2-0 for the Flyers if they had a few more bounces in the first two games - and even tonight I think you could say all four Bruins goals had an element of luck involved.
But I am a firm believer that you create your own luck on the ice and the Bruins certainly have done that. They aren't giving the Flyers any room to work once they cross the red line with the puck and the Bruins forecheck has arguably been the best of any of the teams in the playoffs.
We all kind of had a feeling the Bruins would be too much for the Flyers in this series, I just don't think anyone thought they'd have this kind of command over the B's.