Quest for the Cup down to two

Was actually out last night watching Roger Waters in concert at Philips Arena. A great show. If you are a Pink Floyd fan and he comes to town, the music is awesome. Second half of the show was the Dark Side of the Moon album. Only thing I didn't like was the political message from him. Don't totally disagree with all of it - but don't like going to pay for music and getting political views.

So as I am listening to Us and Them, I checked the score of the game and the Ducks were up 3-0 in the second. Figured, that it was over and done, but by the time I got home, the Red Wings were down 4-2 with about four minutes to go and they are heading to the power play. Eight second later, it's 4-3 on a Pavel Datsyuk goal. Next thing you know, 12 seconds later, Travis Moen takes another penalty and send the Wings back to the man advantage. And while they had some great chances, Detroit couldn't get it done, sending the Ducks to the Finals.

Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press says that the Ducks weren't "lucky."

Hey, if you were watching the end of the game, did you see Chris Chelios skate over to the Ducks bench to shake Randy Carlyle's hand and then leave the ice? He didn't go through the line of handshakes that is customary after a playoff series is over. Hey Chris, way to show your younger teammates the right thing to do. For a great player, that is disgusting.

The line of the week and the series goes to Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, on the Red Wings failing to sell out their first eight home playoff games: “If Detroit is Hockeytown, then Anchorage is the Bikini Capital of the World.”

A friend of mine was in Vegas in October and he asked me who we should put money down to win the Stanley Cup. I told him to put 20 down on the Thrashers as a long shot, but I also told him to put money down on the Ducks at 9-1. He did and now we have a shot to cash in. They were close to getting their last year, and then picking up Chris Pronger put them atop the Western Conference.

Now they get a shot at the Ottawa Senators, who have gotten to the Finals without playing a real physical team like the Ducks.

Ottawa has two very good defensemen in Chris Phillips and Wade Redden, but they are not the tandem of Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. I would expect that the Ducks duo will be on the ice every time the Heatley-Spezza-Alfredsson jumps the boards. I like that match-up for the Ducks. Alfie has had an incredible playoff run, but he hasn't been hit like the Ducks are about to hit him.

The Sens will be coming off nine days of rest and I think that, along with the physical style of the Ducks and J.S. Giguere will put them in 2-0 hole heading back to Ottawa from which they won't recover.

Brian Burke and my pal David McNab will have their names etched on Lord Stanley's Cup after winning in five games. Wow - a California based team winning the Cup? Brings back the memories of the California Golden Seals.

BTW - a funny thing happened to the Atlanta Hawks last night. They finished third in the NBA draft lottery. Why is that funny you may ask? Well, let's see, if they finish in the top two picks they would get to pick one of two great players. If they finished fourth, they would have to ship the pick to Phoenix as part of the Joe Johnson deal. The Hawks also have the 11th pick in the draft, so they should be in good shape, no? Jeff Schultz of the AJC breaks all of the possibilities down of how the Hawks past history isn't helping the Atlanta faithful believe in them.

You think it's bad here? Check out Bob Ryan in Boston talking about how the Celtics lost Greg Oden and the continuing bad luck of the Celtics.