I think we all have to look at Roberto Luongo and say WOW! He stopped a lot of pucks in this round, phenomenal performance in goal. Then look at the other end of the rink and say WOW again, because Giguere was no slouch himself. Very impressive on both ends and I hope that Vancouver will be smart and add some depth at both skating positions for next season, that would have really helped in this series.

Then we have to say thank you to Brad May, even though I still think he is an ass, he kept the puck in his skates setting up the entire play. He may not be the most gentlemanly hockey player, but you know he has the experience. Thornton, Shannon or Parros would not have been able to do what he did on that shift. I saw enough of him though, thank you for the one good shift, now please let that be all.

The 2nd line was awesome this entire game, they drove the Canucks defense crazy. On one shift they were even able to sustain pressure long enough to one-by-one change up. That is going to be a battle going to next round, who is going to want to go up against those guys?

Defense in this series was outstanding, especially from Anaheim, but you have to figure that would be the case anyway. It seems like the only time the Canucks got a sniff was when Pronger blew that one attempted chip along the boards in game 2 and when DiPenta and Huskins were on the ice. Randy Carlyle figured that out after the tieing goal and in overtime he split those two up and paired them with one of the other four. He should have his hands full in the next round trying to negotiate those situations.

The dueling Norris’ pretty much end up on the ice each minute of the game. It must be really nice to end a series in 5 games, because with each of them playing 30 minutes a game, they will have 5+ days between each series to rest, negating the fact that they play so much. Bad news for whoever comes to town next round.

Now that Anaheim is in the conference finals, the hockey media will HAVE to start talking about them. They love to ignore them even though the team is as good as it is. Southern California jealousy? Not a hockey market? Whatever, it may not be a hockey market, but we have a damn good hockey team in Orange County. Time to get to work, I will write some more later, but I will try to break down opponents for next round, giving them each a post. Enjoy the weekend, drink up, be merry, welcome to the Western Conference Finals!

PS: Sammy, good luck with the Selke, I am pulling for you. You deserve it and an even better contract then what you just signed!