holy overtime! playoffs get off to great start

After one day in which two of the four playoff games one went to overtime, all I can say is "Wow!"

Of course I watched the Nucks-Stars game. However, to answer what has been a very popular question today, no. No, I didn't stay up for the entire game. I actually wussed out during the first overtime, but it turned out to be a good call since the game didn't conclude for another couple of hours. By the time Henrik Sedin scored at 18:06 of the fourth overtime, it was 3:30am here. Of course this brings into question the strength of my loyalty to my "second team". I don't have an answer for that.

There is no doubt that both the Nucks and the Stars came ready to play in that one, and is should be a ton of fun to watch this series pan out. It's also clear that they're going to be calling these games tight. Tight, but balanced.

I didn't catch any of the Pens-Sens, but from what I've been told (by a hardcore Pens fan) the Pens are not ready. At least they weren't last night. Will they be able to respond in game two? Are they physically unprepared? Game three should be the real telling game in that series.

Ugh. Preds-Sharks. There were some ugly moments in that game. Chief among them was the kneeing incident involving Scott Hartnell of the Preds and Jonathan Cheechoo of the Sharks. Hartnell was given a game misconduct, but Barry Trotz disagreed with the call. Cheechoo will undergo an MRI (presumably today). He also lost a tooth and bashed up his face in the collision. There's no word just yet on whether there will be additional disciplinary action against Hartnell. According to NHL rules, what happened in the regular season is wiped clean, and your rap sheet starts over with each round.
That game also went to overtime, and the guy who could have been the goat for San Jose ended up being the hero. Patrick Rissmiller, whose turnover late in regulation allowed Nashville to force overtime ended up getting the game winner eight minutes into the second overtime.
If Cheechoo has to miss more than one game, this series will be over very quickly. They played the majority of the game without him last night, but they won't be able to do it for a whole series.