Son of a motherless......

Ouch. Yesterday's game was, if nothing else, a wake-up call for the Canes--and for my fellow fans, some of whom were arrogantly calling a sweep while others (like me) knew better. Some fans that went to Game 4 were stupid enough to bring brooms--hopefully yesterday's game knocked some sense into them, especially since the Canes got pushed around a bit (which has some of the more cerebrally-challenged in the Caniac Nation (est. 1997) screaming and whining for somebody to start burying sticks in the heads of various Devils players--yeah, let's get the whole team suspended. There's a great idea, right there).

I have a sneaking suspicion that the Devils will win tonight, and the Canes will close it out at home on Tuesday. Would be nice if the Canes close it out tonight, but we'll see.

In other news:

Mark Knudson of "The Coloradoan" is pissing and whining about the playoffs--specifically, the fact that the Avs and Red Wings are no longer in them--and blames the salary cap for bringing about "mediocre hockey" (i.e. the fact that the Edmontons and Carolinas of the NHL aren't just bending over and letting the "elite" teams put it to them) and a decline in ratings.

I'm sorry, what? Edmonton didn't change a whole hell of a lot from the season before the lockout (except for adding Chris Pronger, who was dumped by the Blues specifically to make the team more attractive to a buyer, and taking on serial malcontent Michael Peca after the Isles let him go)--and look what they did.

The Avs didn't do so hot in the last couple seasons leading up to the lockout, and I thank blame the Malik Effect for the Red Wings' inability to get it up since 2002--can we blame the salary cap for that, too?

Have you watched any playoff games this season, Markie-poo? There's been some pretty damn exciting hockey played...of course, this assumes that you know anything about the sport (which knowledge clearly is not in evidence).

As for the ratings....the NHL made their own bed with a metric assload of help from Bristol on that one, who kept pushing the same five teams over and over and over (NY Rangers, St. Loo, Colorado, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Detroit) because they were more "marketable" even when a good many of their games were boring as hell to watch compared to some very anger-filled Nashville-Columbus or Carolina-Washington games. Of course they're going to get bigger ratings--when you see them all the time, you come to expect them and wind up putting on blinders to some damn good small-market teams. You can't blame the salary cap for that without looking like a former beisbol player who sniffed the pine tar in the back of the clubhouse a bit too much a complete and total toolbag.

Stick to beisbol, Markie-poo, because it's painfully obvious that you know dick-all about hockey.

Go Canes.