Your TV Guide and Open Thread For Night Six of the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs

This will appear every night to inform you of the TV networks and announcers that will be covering the games during the playoffs.  Enjoy all the local and national info, after the jump.

NHL Merch; now hippie couture.

The NHL store decided to jump on the green bandwagon and of course designed some uggo merch. Let’s take a peek?

This is what 17 dollar socks look like;

made from bamboo I guess?

17 dollars for socks. I hope they wash themselves. I am so mad they are charging that much for ankle socks I can’t even type anymore about it.

it's a tree of life mannnnnnn

This shirt is 27 bucks and it’s made from…I don’t even know what. It’s “green” I guess. Yes that really says Canadiens Montreal. Just like the one that says Devils New Jersey and Capitals Washington… The person who designed this was obviously a bit high or dropped some acid. It’s the only explaination I have for that color shirt and the fact there is a giant effing tree on it. I can TOTALLY see babes wearing this with Birkenstocks and their Trader Joe tote bags. /Sarcasm.

Oh, Happy 4/20, peeps! Make sure if you plan to order a jersey from the NHL store you do it today because it’s free customization TODAY ONLY. Someone order me a Luke Schenn jersey. My birthday is next month.

Rambling with the Devils: Why Travis Zajac Saved Jersey’s Season

 

 

Travis Zajac Can't Believe we Beat Carolina in Overtime Either

 

So, if you want to throw a Devils fan into the temple of doom, take the following three steps:

1. Have our captain go down with an undisclosed injury.
2. Go to Overtime, where we are 13-24 in team history.
3. Do these things in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the Devils have lost six playoff OT’s in a row, and haven’t won in the post-season since 2002.

But yet, the Devils slowed an initial Carolina surge, and Travis Zajac followed through on a Zach Parise shot, and Brian Rolston rebound, to get his 2nd career Stanley Cup Playoff goal as the Devils somehow stole a victory in Carolina by a score of 3-2 to take back home ice and take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4 on Tuesday.  All this after a Game 2 Overtime loss in Newark.  Who’d have thunk it?

Some other observations from Game 3 and going into Game 4:

• After Tim Gleason saved their collective bacon in Game 2, this Carolina defense proves itself even more mediocre than the Devils defense in Game 3.  An inexcusable late-1st period turnover gave Brian Gionta a goal that put the Devs up 2-1.  Both defenses played poorly, though.  The two offenses spent minutes at a time in the other team’s zone, with clears to center ice seemingly impossible to come by.
• Marty Brodeur made some key saves down the stretch in this one.  While neither goalie was honestly thrown anything at them they shouldn’t have handled, Marty played well enough to deserve the win tonight.
• Now, we’re critical of Bobby Holik, but… actually we still are.  He had no business being on the ice tonight.  He made Rupp and Clarkson look like Gretzky and Kurri by comparison.  Sutter should be ashamed of himself for even giving that line a shift in the OT.
• Big props to Brian Rolston, who played as effectively with Zajac and Zach Parise as Langenbrunner could.  Is it still ZZ Pops if Rolston’s even older?  
• The Devils need to have a mentality of “Let’s go for the kill” now that they have Carolina on their heels.  They can’t be satisfied with a 2-2 split back to Jersey for Game 5.  A win on Tuesday would do wonders for this team’s confidence.  And maybe we could do it in regulation this time?

BREAKING: Pens-Flyers Rematch Scores NBC Highest Ratings Since Winter Classic

So this is an interesting one.  According to SportsBusinessDaily (reg. required), NBC’s coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs had a mixed weekend.  While the network’s Saturday coverage of Rangers/Capitals Game 2 drew a mere 1.0/3, flat with last year’s comparable Predators-Red Wings game, Sunday’s telecast of the Penguins-Flyers Game 3, drew a huge (for hockey) 1.7/4, NBC’s highest hockey ratings since the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, and likely tied for the highest non-Finals/Winter Classic rating on NBC in the network’s history.

NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff coverage continues next weekend with  Conference Quarterfinal matchups Saturday at 3:00 PM ET (Penguins/Flyers Game 6 or another available quarterfinal) and Sunday at 1:00 PM ET (Rangers/Capitals Game 6 or Devils/Hurricanes Game 6 if NYR/WSH is unavailable).

UPDATE 1:28 PM ET: According to Sports Media Watch, the game did a whopping 18.6/33 in Pittsburgh (Meaning 1 in every 3 households with a TV watched it) and a 7.0/15 in Philadelphia.  Paulsen also notes that it is a 70% jump from last year’s Flyers/Caps game, and even with last year’s Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the two teams, which drew a 1.7 as well.

Your Mid-Day YouTube Compulsory: Flyers Get Back in the Series, Canucks Are One Step Away, Devils Inch Ahead, Ducks Take 2 From San Jose

Signs of the Apocalypse

Scott Morrisonn and Jeff Marek of Hockey Night in Canada share their enjoyment of HFBoards. I'm scared.