By Sean Gallagher
As you're surely aware by now, in order to have a built-in excuse to keep ignoring family duties and watch more hockey, we've decided to pick a couple teams that we don't really care about to pull for. Brad Lee, for his part, decided to root for the Canadiens based mainly on the strength of their fans, who displayed some witty reparte as we live-blogged the Blues/Habs game this year.
I, on the other hand, decided to take whomever is playing Detroit. Obviously, that puts me in a bit of a shitty position, as I'm technically 'rooting' for the uninteresting Predators and their "Do You Bleed Mustard?" marketing.
What is also obvious at this point is that fans of the Preds and Habs probably wish they weren't getting our help. Both teams could be eliminated today as the Bruins have forced a Game 7 in Montreal while the childPredators face a must-win Game 6.
The Habs fans are, shall we say, freaking the fuck out. Big time. The Predators fans, well, they didn't really expect to win anyway, so a chance to push Detroit to an all-in Game 7 is about as good as they hoped for before the series. Want to know how things are going for the Preds? Captain Jason Arnott probably suffered a concussion or whiplash in Game 3 after he scored the game-winning goal and was slammed into the dashers by his own teammate, Alexander Radulov. Check this video from the 1 minute mark:
So, we're up against it on Sunday. If the Predators can force a Game 7 you might see some sort of pseudo-optimism from us, but we actually expect this series to be over by 6 pm central time.
As for the Habs and their fans, if they join the ranks of No. 1 seeds that get knocked off by No. 8 seeds, well, we'll just welcome you to the club. Back in 2000 the spunky Sharks knocked off our President's Trophy winning Blues.
And yeah, we were pretty bummed, too.