PLAYOFF BEARD DAY 5: HEY NINETEEN

by Neate Sager, Out Of Left Field

In hockey numerology, 19 is for guys who are nails in the post-season -- Bryan Trottier wore it when the New York Islanders won four Stanley Cups in a row, Steve Yzerman wore it with the Red Wings (three-time champions) and Joe Sakic wears it today, and he's got two Cup rings.

The new generation has made that number one for playoff no-shows -- Joe Thornton of the Sharks and Jason Spezza of the Senators don't have a goal between them so far in the post-season and their teams are trailing in their series. It's a complete coincidence, of course.

Plus: Sean Avery is up to more shenanigans.

Flames 4 Sharks 3 (Calgary leads 2-1): The Flames are doing their part to hold up their end of bargain -- be more deserving than San Jose and ultimately go down to defeat in seven games. San Jose, which blew a 3-0 lead tonight, had better come back and take this series or this team goes down as the all-time post-season chokers.

Dion Phaneuf's tying goal, which San Jose's Marc-Edouard Vlasic actually knocked into his own net, probably brought a tear to the eye of every man who coaches players at the horny-high-school-boy age. Every one repeats, to deaf ears, to keep the shots from the point low, and then watches their players blast rising shots that inevitably miss the net by six feet and rattle around the boards and out to centre ice -- and that's if it doesn't get blocked because it takes forever to get that shot away.

Early in the third, down 3-2, Phaneuf actually concentrated on guiding his shot on net. The rebound was knocked in by Vlasic, and San Jose was barely worth a damn the rest of the night.

Devils 4 Rangers 3 (New York leads 2-1): It was kismet the Devils got back in the series on an overtime goal by The Other John Madden. Sean Avery was up to his usual shtick again. His, uh, rather creative technique of screening Martin Brodeur, shortly before scoring the second Rangers goal was something no one had ever seen before, and almost everyone seems to think it was dirty pool. Avery wasn't even making a pretense of trying to participate in the play.



(Clip via James Mirtle.)

Bruins 2 Canadiens 1 (Montreal leads 2-1): Boston's Marc Savard -- my high school basketball coach's son-in-law was his linemate in junior hockey, no, really! -- hopped off the bench during a delayed penalty in overtime to one-time the game-winner past the Habs' Carey Price.

Flyers 2 Capitals 0 (series tied 1-1): Great success for Philly. They gain home-ice advantage in the series and Patrick Thoresen's will keep both his testicles. (No word if he tried to see if there was any way to reduce the pain, but keep the swelling.)

Send your thoughts to neatesager@yahoo.ca.