Here are some words I never thought I would utter – I hope Sean Avery is ok.

The report is that Mr. Avery was rushed to the hospital in a state of cardiac arrest this morning after the Rangers fell 5-3 to the Pengiuns. The rumor/report is that he is in with a lacerated spleen suffered during the game last night.

Hopefully when he gets out and back on the ice he’ll be a changed man. Although I am certainly hoping he doesn’t make a speedy enough recovery and become well enough to play in any of the remaining games of the Rangers-Pens series.

Ok, last year I didn’t do so hot with my predictions for the first round and with this year’s first found winding down I wanted to try my hand at it again.
Canadiens – Bruins: Canadiens lead the series 3-2 and Boston showed that they still have some fight left in them. But did they blow their wad with that 5-1 win to keep their hopes alive? Montreal dominated this series in the first two games outscoring Boston 7-3 and starting having trouble in game two in which they needed overtime to win.

Really, since the first game (a 4-1 win) Montreal has been involved in a fight with games 2, 3 and 4 all being decided by just one goal. Then Boston explodes in game 5. I predict that the trend continues to go badly for Montreal with the Bruins winning game 6 and evening up the series and possibly winning the series in 7. I say possibly … Montreal only needs to win one of the next two and they are capable of doing that.

Caplials – Flyers: Philadelphia took a 3 games to 1 lead in the series by winning in double OT and Washington has looked shaky and weak the entire series except for a five goal outburst in game 1. Huet has not been able to stop the Flyers and Ovechkin has not been able to carry the team on his shoulders. Philadelphia should win game five and the series.

Red Wings – Predators: Well, my claim that this is the series to watch still holds true as it is all knotted up at 2 games apiece heading into tonight’s matchup. Home ice has been the key to this series so far with Detroit winning the first two and Nashville winning the last two. Tonight the series returns to Detroit and the Wings will probably notch another victory. But I think Nashville wins game six and … I’ll go out on a limb here and say Nashville wins in seven. They’ve been in every game this series and I do love to see the underdog win.

Avalanche – Wild: Minnesota probably isn’t on anyone’s short list of serious Stanley Cup contenders and despite home ice advantage are in a dog fight with Colorado. Each game has been close with four of the five games ending in a score of 3-2 and three of those went to overtime to decide them. I’m not cheering against Minnesota but Colorado seems to have momentum in this series and a 3-2 lead. Colorado wins Saturday night and ends the series.

Devils – Rangers: The Rangers are up 3-1 in the series going in to tonight’s game 5 in New Jersey. The Devils haven’t been able to contain the Rangers offense and have had to score goals to win – which is not Devils hockey. The Devils are desperate, but I think New York clinches the series tonight.

Sharks – Flames: With a 3-2 lead in the series, the Sharks are up but have not dominated Calgary. Each game has been decided by just one goal except for game two which was decided by a whopping two goals. The Sharks are perhaps my favorite out of the West to advance to the finals but I don’t know if they can put Calgary away in game 6 on the road. San Jose in 7.

Ducks – Stars: The Mighty Ducks are on the verge of being eliminated from the playoffs just like the other Stanley Cup final team from 2007, the Ottawa Senators, was. The Ducks were certainly favorites heading in, but Dallas has turned the tables heading into tonight’s game 5 in Anaheim. Honestly, I haven’t seen much from the Ducks this series and they look like they are worried about missing their tee time. Dallas closes them out tonight.

Yes, and now that I have made those predictions count on them all being absolutely WRONG!

I told you, the Nashville – Detroit series will be one to watch. It didn’t matter if the Red Wings would sweep or not. And now the “or not” is true.

You want to talk about desperation? Well, aside from Ottawa’s that is? Then you talk about the way Nashville played to get a victory and stop from going down 3-0 in their series. Down 2-0 midway through the second period, Nashville took control. They scored twice in 2:08 to tie the game. Then when Detroit stormed out in the third and took the lead again 0:40 into that frame, Nashville responded late in the period scoring twice in 0:09 (Sutter & Arnott) to take a lead and then scored again in the final minute to win the game 5-3.

Will Nashville be able to win the series? I’m not saying that! I’m just reminding you that these games between these two teams are ones to watch if you like hockey.

Game three of the Ottawa – Pittsburgh series resumes tonight in Ottawa and the Penguins are going to try to break a trend of teams leading series by 2-0 allowing the opposition back in to the series.

Last night both Boston and New Jersey avoided going down 3-0 against Montreal and New York respectively by pushing to wins – both in overtime. Boston won their game against the Canadiens 2-1 while the Devils managed to get a goal in the extra frame to win 4-3.

The Penguins have the same chance New York and Montreal did and put another nail in their opponent’s coffin tonight. The question is will they? Or will they give Ottawa a glimmer of hope?
In game two, Ottawa stormed back from a 3-0 deficit to tie the game and only to loose on a late powerplay goal by Ryan Malone. Ottawa certainly came away from that game with a sense that they could indeed win and they are going to come out with even more desperation than they did in game two tonight when they take to the ice.

The Penguins have to do what they did in their last game and rack up the shots and make Gerber be “the man” once again. He broke in game two. The only reason he only let in three goals before that late powerplay goal was because the Penguins couldn’t click and make the score worse.
It may indeed take another 54 shots again tonight for the Penguins to win. And so what? They can easily accomplish that task.

The most dangerous thing is to let a wounded animal back up. And Ottawa is wounded and bleeding profusely. They might even be down another player with Spezza suffering an injury late in game two and being listed as “doubtful” for the game tonight. But the Pens can’t worry about that. They need to press offensively and keep one foot on the accelerator and the other on Ottawa’s neck.

Last night I had the pleasure of watching the Red Wings take on the Wild on Versus and I think this series has the potential to be one of the most exciting matchups of the first round. Forget that the final score was 3-1 Red Wings, it was 1-0 or 1-1 for most of the game and the Wild looked like they could take on the Wings and make a series out of it despite being the number eight seed.Ellis and Hasek keep their teams in this game and both had lots of chances to score,

The Penguins have two games remaining in the regular season. The Flyers have three. With 91 points and sitting in 8^th place overall, the once mighty team from Philadelphia that started the season so well has fallen hard. How hard have they fallen? Try being just 1 point from being out of the playoffs.

Hot on their heals are the Washington Capitals sitting with 90 points and just two games left – neither against the Pens. And you can bet the farm they are thankful for that!

Buffalo is just three points back in tenth place and also has just two games remaining. And, like the Capitals, they are damn happy neither are against Pittsburgh.

So the Penguins have a chance to spoil Philadelphia’s playoff hopes. All they have to do is win both remaining games which just happen to be against the Flyers. Although I am not holding my breath believing that they will win both, doing so would put Philadelphia behind the eight ball. They could easily finish out of the playoffs if they don’t win two of their last three and Washington wins out. Don’t even start thinking about the nail biting that will go on if they go 0-3.

Then Penguins however are still not out of the woods in the Atlantic with New Jersey 5 points back and with a game in hand. Then there is Montreal who has two games left and is tied with the Pens at 100 points atop the East. Right now Pittsburgh has the tie breaker but to finish atop the Conference they need a win tonight to help secure that fate.

The problem in the East is the only teams that are assured of a spot in the hunt for Lord Stanley’s cup are Pittsburgh, Montreal, and New Jersey. Carolina, New York (Rangers), Ottawa, Boston, and Philadelphia all could wind up hitting the links early if they don’t win another game or two.

Compare that to the West where 6 of the 8 seeds are set and already starting to think about where they will be playing come the end of the season.