Hi, this is Fred Wallace with ” Off the Wire “.
There are 5 games in the National Hockey League post season today.
The first game between the Vancouver Canucks & Minnesota Wild is slated for mid afternoon and will be followed by a sequence of pivotal games both in the Placement Round and the Qualifying Round.
Of course in these parts the primary focal point is the Toronto-Columbus series where the Leafs and the Blue Jackets have taken turns blanking each other.
Columbus won the opener 2-0.
The Leafs followed with a 3-0 win in Game 2.
With no offence to the winners, from my point of view, the Leafs weren’t very good in Game 1 and Columbus, in the words of their coach John Tortorella, ” sucked ” in the second matchup.
Which brings us to Game 3 tonight at 8 pm
Naturally, the winner tonight takes a step closer to winning the best of 5 and advancing to the next round.
Plus, the winner tonight also will exert extreme pressure on the opposition with a time crunch on the horizon.
In this condensed format, the Leafs and Blue Jackets will go again tomorrow night, leaving the loser of tonight’s game precious little time to adjust their strategy through video and virtually no time to conduct an on ice preparation session.
All things being equal, I’d rather watch a natural or normal NHL post season.
However, doing their best under the current circumstances, these playoffs have created quick and immediate drama heightening the impact of the Columbus-Toronto series tonight & tomorrow.
I’m Fred Wallace