This series isn't going to be easy.

With the Buffalo Sabres being out of the playoff picture, the only team I have left that I am truly rooting for is the Vancouver Canucks. I've had people ask me before why I decide to root for a Canadian team over an American one after the Sabres get out, but I don't have a real answer for that. I don't even know how I began to like Vancouver to tell you the truth. It was not because of Ryan Kesler. The love for the team came before the love for the man. I want them to win the Cup but then the Sabres would be the only team inducted in 1970 that would have not won a Cup yet. It's such a struggle in my brain.

Last night, the Canucks spanked the Hawks by a score of 5-1. All four lines contributed offensively which was different from the first round against the Kings. Also, the Hawks only managed to score on one of their power plays and they had quite a few of them. It's nice to see the penalty kill become progressively better as opposed to what it looked like in the first round. Michael Grabner scored his first ever playoff goal and I was pumped as hell. Watching him play this year made me realize how fantastic of a skater he is. He's the complete opposite of Thomas except they both drive to the net. That's how he scored his goal. Damn, I love these Austrians.

I'm expecting the Hawks to come out flying the next game. Last year, Vancouver won the first game of the series too...I want to see if they will be able to steal two on the road. Then I think I'll feel a little better about this series. I really hope it's different from last season.

I don't get it.

News was released today by several sources (The Buffalo News, Sabres.com and Yahoo! to name a few) that stated the decision is now left on Thomas' shoulders about whether or not he's going to play in tomorrow's game. I'm not the only one who found this to be a dumb move by Lindy to at least publicize this. Now that it's gotten out to various news sources, the shit may hit the fan tomorrow if Thomas deems that he is unable to play at the moment because of lingering soreness. The guy can't work at 90%. In his interview today, he says he doesn't want to take someone out of the lineup to put him in if he can't work at 100%. I like his attitude.

I think what really boggles my mind about this is that Lindy should know how the fans will react if Thomas says he can't play tomorrow. Especially because of this being an elimination game, they're going to be a lot worse than they would otherwise. This brings up the whole debate with some people of Ruff vs. Vanek. Allll because Lindy sat the guy in the playoffs during 2006 and look how he bounced back the next year. I don't think this is another one of those moments but surely, Lindy has realized what he's done...not very good.

Whatever, I know I'll be sticking up for the guy if it comes down to him saying no tomorrow. He will have valid reasons for not playing. It's obvious how much he wants and needs to get back out on the ice so everyone needs to chill out.

You need to believe.

After the thriller that was double overtime last night, you have to wonder how frustrated this team is and if they should be more frustrated with themselves. People are blaming bad calls (myself included), others are blaming players for not being able to score. The thing that sickens me the most is that you can tell this team misses Thomas at the moment. I'm not saying he would solve all of the problems and he shouldn't because one person, a team does not make. I guess the energy really was sucked out of everyone after he went down. They don't even know if he's going to be ready to go for tomorrow so the Sabres may be screwed yet again. I am trying to keep my hopes up as much as possible though. I don't want him to play at half health.

Another frustrating thing is the lack of scoring on the power play. Wasn't it last year where we were in the top five almost all year? I mean, Thomas had twenty power play goals and a lot of other guys scored on it too. We haven't scored once yet this playoffs on it. I don't know what the problem is, whether they aren't cycling the puck well enough or not enough traffic is in front. Then again, I don't think these guys like to even shoot at the net so guys like Goose and Thomas can't get rebounds or attempt to stuff it in. We had a good chance to end the game yesterday on a power play but didn't use the opportunity to our advantage. Meanwhile, Boston scored on a 'too many men' penalty...

This team isn't done yet. There is another chance for the Sabres to step up tomorrow and I know I am going to be on a rollercoaster of emotions. We're going to the Party in the Plaza tomorrow and I really hope the Sabres fans bring their A game. We as fans were brutal this year, the energy was not there. I would give us maybe a C on how much we cheered on the team this year. Come on Sabres fans, I know you can do it.

Ryan Kesler: Selke Finalist

The NHL today announced their finalists for the Selke Trophy, or the most defensive forward in the league. Yesterday they announced the Vezina Trophy finalists so congratulations to the Sabres own Ryan Miller for getting the nod as one. I personally think that he will either win the Vezina or the Hart but not both. That's my own opinion though.

The other two finalists for the Selke are Pavel Datsyuk (of course) and Jordan Staal. Datsyuk has gotten the award a thousand times in a row it feels, and I don't know if he deserves it as much now with Detroit not playing too well this year. It shouldn't matter team wise and I never watch the way he plays...though he'll end up winning again, I'm sure. Jordan is Jordan and has always been defensively minded. Ryan has a good chance of winning it but I'm not sure if his defensive skills are going to be looked at so much simply because he had career numbers in the offensive categories. I would absolutely love to see this man get an award but I know that the shiny Cup is a better award than the Selke. The Sabres have to win it first Ryan, sorry.

Speaking of the Sabres...I didn't pay very much attention to last night's game only because it bored me. I had known this was going to be a very defensive series but considering we've only scored six goals in the past three games...Yeah, I'm kind of concerned. Thomas is not the only offensive guy on this team and I want to know where the balanced scoring had disappeared to since the beginning of the season. I believe in this team and I know they have it in them. I just wonder if they believe in themselves.

Came back from the dead just in time.

I think after seeing the numerous Chinese comments appear in my inbox, I decided to get this thing up and running for the playoffs again. I figured 'why not?' My blogging for this year has been pretty bad, at least with having a sense of consistency. I hope I can talk about my thoughts during the playoffs this year more on here just because so far it's been a redonkulous time of playoffs.

This particular post is going to have my biased thoughts on Thomas Vanek show all the way through it. If you haven't seen the incident that happened yesterday with Johnny Boychuk then please go on Puck Daddy or YouTube. Even the Sabres website has video up of what happened. From what I could see on the replay (DOES THIS MAKE ME AN EXPERT?), Boychuk deliberately slashed Vanek's right knee and it caused him to go awkwardly into the boards. According to Mike Harrington yesterday on the good old Twitter feed, Vanek was favoring his left leg and not the right. The slash wasn't the direct cause of the pain but it lead to Vanek falling into the boards in the first place.

Ironic how Boychuk the other day complains about how he believes Tyler Myers should have been suspended on a hit he laid out on him in Game One, and then this just happens to occur. Hmm. I'm not saying he went after Thomas on purpose but my biased opinions are blinding me in the circumstance to decide whether or not that was a cheap slash. I think it was cheap. Will anything be done? No. We just have to hope that Thomas won't be out long. Lindy was quoted as saying that he would 'make the Boston trip for games 3 and 4'. He has no idea how long he could be out for though. It looked like he was in a lot of pain as he limped on his way to the bench.

Anyone who was at the game have any thoughts? I'm sure you guys saw much more unfold than the people who were watching on the televisions did. It's disappointing to see him come back and do so well only to watch him get injured again.