I have to admit it.
I'm a big Sami Kapanen fan.
I don't know what it is. I just dig the Flyer. He's tough. He works hard. He contributes. And I love him on the power play.
So it was a trip watching him play Toronto as a defenseman.
The winger is filling in on the blue line for the injured Kim Johnsson.
The Flyers are pretty thin. It's crazy that they converted a player during the playoffs. But he did OK. He finished the game with over 21 minutes of ice time under his belt and a +1 rating.
The Flyers beat the Leafs 3-1 in game one of their series.

What can you say about the Flames?
Game one against the Wings wasn't pretty but it sure was admirable. Outshot and outmanned, all Calgary did was hang on for 60 minutes, holding Detroit at bay.
And of course, once you're in overtime, just about anything can happen. Which is how Martin Gelinas found a sliding Marcus Nilson to put Calgary up over the Wings 2-1.
Game one goes to the Flames, who didn't look so hot last night. They didn't have much speed. They looked asleep through the first. Luckily, goalie Miikka Kiprusoff took his NoDoz.
After Detroit got past Nashville in the first round, everyone thought they had put the ghost of that first game sweep by the Ducks last season behind them.
Now, I'm not so sure.

New York Sports Express has the postmortem on the Islander and Devil losses.
It looked like a low point for Devils goalie Martin Brodeur and a high point for Islander goalie Rick DiPietro.
In fact, this playoff loss could actually represent the beginning of a string of successes for DiPietro:

DiPietro showed that he has the fundamentals to be an NHL starter, though. And he proved that his greatest value to the Isles will be as a trade chip. His ultra-aggressive playing style is the natural extension of Brodeur's legacy. Where Brodeur plays like a third stay-at-home defenseman, DiPietro plays the puck like a third offensive defenseman. He moves the puck well, finding openings for his teammates. The big problem in the playoffs was that his forwards didn't know what to do with the puck once they had it on their sticks.
But imagine if DiPietro played for a fast Western Conference team like Colorado, Vancouver or Calgary. Imagine DiPietro coming out to the faceoff circle to play a puck and making a perfect pass over his blue line to a waiting defenseman, who then uses a single pass to hit a forward about to fly into the opposing team's zone. All within the space of a few seconds, perhaps while their opponents are in the middle of a line change.

To the surprise of no one, the Senators fired coach Jacques Martin.
GM John Muckler hinted at some on-ice changes, too. I'm guessing goalie Patrick Lalime is on the way out. He was pretty useless both during the season and in the playoffs.
But the real issue for the Senators was that they didn't play a physical enough game to survive the playoffs. There was a lot of talent and finesse, but not enough grit. Martin never toughened his team up.
Also, Martin never game youngster Jason Spezza a chance to shine during the playoffs. You have to wonder if there was a personality conflict there. Otherwise, why wouldn't you give ice time to a young, talented forward?

Am I the only one who feels horribly off-kilter between playoff rounds? Like there's something I'm supposed to be doing, but I'm not?
Luckily, the second round starts up tonight.
Goodbye Xanax, hello Cujo.

Wow. The San Jose Sharks, soon to meet the Colorado Avs in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, are really high tech.
They use TiVo-esque digital recorders on the bench to crunch video on the fly. They even have a monitor for the players to watch on the bench. Plus, they can call up video of opposing teams to see their tendencies. Think of being able to see that on a penalty shot.
Apparently coach Ron Wilson started using this kind of technology with the Capitals.
All in all, I think hockey moves way too quickly for this to be horribly effective. But it's still pretty neat.

In honor of Boston's loss to the Canadiens, ESPN's Page Two has a nice list of some of the Stanley Cup playoffs' other notable choke jobs.
Michael Holley at the Boston Globe says GM Mike O'Connell walks the plank for this. O'Connell is always rumored to be on his way out, though, with the Devils' Lou Lamoriello always rumored to be on the way in. Someone will be right one day, eventually.
I think you have to blame coach Mike Sullivan, though. The injured Joe Thornton averaged over 20 minutes per game. He was injured, though. That was way too much ice time for him. Plus, it took away ice time from someone healthier. Thornton played less than 15 minutes in game one. That should have been his average time over the series. I can think of worse things than having Thornton on a third line. It would have taken the pressure off Thornton and given Patrice Bergeron or Michael Nylander a chance to dominate. Ultimately, Sullivan believed in Thornton too much and the rest of his team not enough.
Kevin Paul Dupont, also from the Globe says the Bruins needed an energy player. I seem to recall their unceremoniously unloading one earlier in the season — PJ Stock, now with the Philadelphia Phantoms.

Mike Danton has always fascinated me.
One of the first things I ever wrote for PuckUpdate was about his changing his name from Mike Jefferson.
Now Danton stands accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill an acquaintance.
Danton has always been volatile, both on and off the ice. He pissed off the Devils no end when he played there, to the point where they wouldn't play him or trade him, possibly a gambit designed to make Danton's life miserable.
He seemed to be holding up better once the Devils finally did trade him to the Blues last season.
A lot of reports are saying or hinting that the man Danton wanted to kill was his boyfriend. If it turns out Danton is gay, I really hope it will cause other gay NHLers to out themselves. Being gay and an active professional athlete is still a very big deal. As far as I can tell, there are no active NHL players who identify themselves as gay. That's their right. One can only imagine how difficult it would be for an openly gay professional hockey player. But at the same time, it seems that if Danton becomes the face of the gay hockey player, it will be even harder for other players to come out. If Danton is gay and guilty, gay players will be perceived as criminals. If Danton is gay and innocent, people will still remember that he was accused of the crime, even if he didn't do it. And if Danton isn't gay, then things will go back to normal, with a sizable chunk of the league still afraid to reveal who they are to their teammates and fans.

I've been saying there's something to Montreal keeping the gritty Darren Langdon in the line-up. There's just something he's bringing, mostly in terms of luck or energy, that really propels the Canadiens.
Saturday night, he even scored a goal, helping the Habs beat Boston 5-2 to force a game seven.
It was Langdon's first goal in over two years.
Coach Claude Julien is finally realizing that when the playoffs come, certain players make the team better, just by being in the line-up. It's not that Langdon is a great player. He's just a great player for Montreal right now.
Yanic Perreault, who's also occasionally been a healthy scratch during the playoffs, also had a goal Saturday night.
In Montreal, it's not about lines and Xs and Os. It's about energy.