Haircut, FACT!: new King St. Capers

It's been a while - but please help me welcome back the Kings Street Capers! There's a new character in here, I'm taking suggestions on a name.

Hope you like it!

Fun playoff all-star teams

Because watching the playoffs hasn't been that much fun - how about making fantasy all-star teams from the remaining rosters? This might be proof that this was too much long weekend, ;)

USA has a major presence in the conference finals this year. Finland has gone AWOL, there are hardly enough Swedes or Russians left to even make a line, let a team. The Czechs still have a strong presence and Canada looks good, too - but everyone should be impressed with the Americans this season!

Best starting lineup?
Brad Richards, Mike Richards and Dustin Brown
Drew Doughty, Dan Girardi
Henrik Lundqvist

All-Star playoff team
Line 1 Dustin Brown, Mike Richards, Brad Richards,
Line 2 Anze Kopitar, Jeff Carter, Ilya Kovalchuk,
Line 3 Shane Doan, Chris Kreider, Zach Parise,
Line 4 Marian Gaborik, Dwight King, Brian Boyle,
Defense 1 Drew Doughty, Dan Girardi,
Defense 2 Matt Greene, Keith Yandel,
Defense 3 Marc Staal, Anton Volchenkov,
Goalies: Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick


Team USA
Line 1 Dustin Brown, Zach Parise, Chris Kreider,
Line 2 Ryan Callahan, Brandon Dubinksy, Brian Boyle,
Line 3 Trevor Lewis, Derek Stepan, Cam Jansen,
Line 4 Ryan Carter, Stephen Gionta, Mike Rupp
Defense 1 Keith Yandel, Ryan McDonaugh,
Defense 2 Rob Scuderi, Matt Greene,
Defense 3 Alex Martinez, Stu Bickel,
Goalies: Jonathan Quick, (better not get injured!)
Team Canada
Line 1 Mike Richards, Brad Richards, Shane Doan,
Line 2  Jeff Carter, Dwight King, Adam Henrique,
Line 3  Jarret Stoll, Colin Fraser, Dustin Penner,
Line 4 Justin Williams, Travis Zajac, Ray Whitney,
Defense 1 Drew Doughty, Dan Girardi,
Defense 2 Willie Mitchell, Marc Staal,
Defense 3 Michael Del Zotto, Adrian Aucoin
Goalies: Martin Brodeur, Mike Smith,

Team Russia
Line 1 Ilya Kovalchuk, Artem Anisimov, Andrei Loktionov,
Defense 1 Slava Voynov, Anton Volchenkov,
Defense 2 Maxim Goncharov,

Team Sweden
Line 1 Jacob Josefson, Carl Hagelin,
Defense 1 Adam Larsson, Henrik Tallinder,

Defense 2 Anton Stralman, Oliver Ekrman-Larsson,
Defense 3 David Rundblad,
Goalies: Henrik Lundqvist, Johan Hedberg,

The rest of Europe 
Line 1 Anze Kopitar, Patrick Elias, Ruslan Fedotenko,
Line 2 Alexei Ponikarovski, Petr Sykora, Dainus Zubrus,
Line 3 Marian Gaborik, Mats Zuccarello,  Martin Hanzal,
Line 4 Mikkel Boedker, Lauri Korpikoski, Radim Vrbata,
Defense 1 Marek Zidlicky, Rusty Klesla,
Defense 2 Michal Roszival,

Round 3 picks

My picks: LA v. NJ for the finals. 

Fate's likely response: Phoenix v. Rangers 

Now that the Rangers are officially their way to the third round, it's time to say that my worst fears were realized. Every team I preferred to win has lost, and so that makes me either 100 % upset, or 100 % right. (first time for everything).

I was going to say that late games are the worst for me, and I won't watch any of them, because I just won't stay up too late when I've got work in the morning. HOWEVER, it looks like in the schedule for the two teams, only two games between them will be played before an 8 p.m. start.

05-13		Kings	v.			Coyotes		‎-8:00 PM (ET)‎
05-14		Devils	v.			Rangers		‎-8:00 PM (ET)‎
05-15		Kings	v.			Coyotes		‎-9:00 PM (ET)‎
05-16		Devils	v.			Rangers		‎-8:00 PM (ET)‎
05-17		Coyotes	v.			Kings		‎-9:00 PM (ET)‎
05-19		Rangers	v.			Devils		‎-1:00 PM (ET)‎
05-20		Coyotes	v.			Kings		‎-3:00 PM (ET)‎
05-21		Rangers	v.			Devils		‎-8:00 PM (ET)‎
05-22		Kings	v.			Coyotes		‎-9:00 PM (ET)‎
05-23		Devils	v.			Rangers		‎-8:00 PM (ET)‎

THAT's a bit ridiculous, but .... perhaps I didn't want to watch these games anyhow?

Los Angeles v. Phoenix 

I think I'd prefer watching the players on the LA Kings play in the finals rather than the Coyotes. LA had a bit of a round-about season, but once they reunited Richards and Carter, finally, they seemed to get their act in gear.

So ... will rooting for the Kings give Phoenix the bump they need to make it to the finals? LA has only lost one game in the playoffs, and Phoenix has only lost three. So one of these teams is going to lose more games in the next two weeks than they have in the last two rounds.

New Jersey v. New York 

I've come to really like the Devils in the playoffs. I think they're the disciplined team that has enough game-breakers that they can sneak through the playoffs really well. They had some trouble with consistency in Florida (who were genuinely heart-broken to lose that playoffs round). NJ was much better against Philly. I was hearing one analyst saying that this matchup has the potentially to be more crazy than the PIT v. PHI series (if you can believe that).

I really appreciate what NJ has been doing, I'm keen for Brodeur to have a big push to wrap up his career, and I just like how mean Kovalchuk plays. I think this series could be a lot of fun to watch. Too bad all the damned games start at 8 p.m. again - (I won't watch a third period of any of these series!)

My picks: LA v. NJ for the finals.
Fate's likely response: Phoenix v. Rangers

Before the second round wraps up

Before the second round wraps up and I'm back to laying out the worst possible finale to the season, I'd like to make an observation.

It always seems while a team is winning games in the earlier rounds that they're unbeatable, that they're destined to win, because everything they're doing is leading to them not only winning games, but making significant progress in the post season.

We always seem to say: "Well, if they keep playing like this they'll win it all," YET no sooner does the next round start, and they stop playing like "this" and wind up losing the next series (and eventually the Cup).

I guess what I'm saying is, a team looks great while it's winning, but totally mortal when it's losing - and when you're picking between two teams that are both winning, it can be difficult to guess which one is going to make the about-face and stop doing what made them successful.

Look at Nashville in the first round - they looked "unbeatable" and analysts were saying "if they keep playing like this," etc. etc, but of course by the time they were two games into the next round they were already write-offs. Same with St. Louis.

Philadelphia was a totally different team in the next round - the only teams that seem to be balancing the tight-rope of stinking and succeeding have been NYR and WAS - and of course they've both been walking that line for 14 games each in the post-season.

In any case - it should be interesting to see which teams are most likely to lose their identity in the next round. Who's the more veteran team that's likely to stick with their game plan and stick to what's made them successful?

......... NJ just might be the team to beat now.

Super moon tonight