Very surprising first evening of games!!
Don't believe the score of that Ottawa/Tampa game. Tampa absolutely owned that game through two periods as they looked like they really wanted it and were going to go out and take it while Ottawa was looking like they were just waiting for it to happen just blindly firing pucks on net.
I think Tampa got a little gassed and started taking bad penalties though and it didn't take long to unravel; but they really played great for most of it and Grahame was spectacular in the first two periods
The big surpise in the Anaheim game was that Bryzgalov took to the net not Giguere who reportedly strained a groin in practice yesterday
I guess people who didn't see the game I mentioned in my predictions would say another surprise was that Anaheim not only stood up to the physcial play but did their fair share of initiating too... hey there was even a fight!! Of course the other was the continuing truism of Stnaley Cup Playoff hockey; it is all about your role players. Tonight Darren McCarty and Kirk Maltby were overtime heros not any of the star players.
Good to see that they supposed continuation of the close calling of stick fouls actually happened too. Though watch for this wierd new emphasis the league has made the referees aware of which is to allow "no agressive slashing movements" with the stick. I've always wondered why this isn't called really but the standard "I didn't slash him I just tried to break his stick in half!" excuse now will get you nowhere. Vinny Levavalier was called for this exact thing, didn't get the guys wrists or even fingers, but was called for slashing.
Interestingly another "clarification" along the same line of reason as "slashing doesn't have to connect to be called" is that now hooking doesn't actually have to involve a hooking motion either
now they are planning to call if you put your stick in a guy's chest and and push as a "hooking" call now. I guess they decided that sounds better than "slow motion semi-spear/jabbing" 
The teams all got a refresher course and new update of all these things before their games I guess... we'll see how it holds up as a series moves along.
](./images/smilies/wallbash.gif "Brick wall"){kind=small}
that had infected the league before the lockout. Penalties aren't on a sliding/conditional scale so the "if it's a penalty in the first minute it is a penalty in the last minute" standard seems to actually be working. 
Talk about standing on the tracks when the train is coming through! 
I also kept hearing Don Taylor from EA 2002 was it? "Suffice it to say, that if he was a jelly donut? There would be jelly everywhere." 
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I think it was a miscalculation/lack of big game experience showing through. It seemed that their attitude was "We pressured and were all over them causing them to take penalties and we scored four on the PP so this time we're going to go out there and play even harder/give them less room!" On the ice though I don't think they handled the emotion/pressure that approach brought about and that "we'll really get 'em this time!" approach became a million bad decisions to hold and hook guys and San Jose just buried them 
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