Since probably no one saw it live I thought I would make sure everyone knew the Anaheim Mighty Ducks won the Stanley Cup last night. Anaheim worked the Ottawa Senators all series and won the series 4-1. A few key notes to mention from the series: the Mighty Ducks have been in the league for 14 years, the Cup will reside in a western home for the first time ever, and a team from Canada hasn’t won the Cup since Montreal did in 1993.

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The Atlanta Thrashers made a huge pick up before the NHL trading deadline last night with the St. Louis Blues.  Atlanta gets veteran forward Keith Tkachuk in return for sending St. Louis forward Glen Metropolit, first round pick in 2007 and two other draft picks down the road.  Atlanta is currently sixth in the Eastern Conference, but four teams are within two points so this addition could be huge for the Thrashers. 

The Buffalo Sabres are on FIRE to start the 2006-07 NHL season. They extended their team record to nine straight wins to start the season and are within one victory of tying the 10 straight wins the Toronto Mapleleafs achieved in the 1993-94 season. The Sabres play in Long Island this Thursday against the 3-3-2 New York Islanders with a chance to tie the NHL record.  Last night Chris Drury scored his tenth goal of the season in the 4-1 vicotry over the Montreal Canadiens. It’s definitely early in the season, but Buffalo at this time looks like they are really hungry to win a Stanley Cup.

Game Recap: Buffalo Sabres

While getting their ass handed to them on Wed. night, the Oilers self destructed, and decided to be a bunch of thugs instead of playing hockey. I wanted the Canes to win the series, but now, I want them to walk them with authority in games 3 and 4, just like they are tonight. If the Oilers would play hockey, instead of wasting their energy headhunting, they might not have been embarassed in such a fashion. Have a nice trip back to Canada losers.

The last time Edmonton won the Stanley Cup was 1990 and that was the fifth time they had done so in seven seasons.  The years with Gretzky, Messier, Kurri and others have long since been gone though and so was Edmonton’s prominence until now.  Last night Edmonton became the first eight-seed ever to make the Stanley Cup with a 2-1 victory over the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.  The Oilers won the series 4-1 and relied heavily on their goalie Dwayne Roloson.  The Ducks outshot Edmonton in every game including a 33-25 performance last night, but Roloson stopped all but one of them.  The Stanley Cup normally ends up over the head of the goalie who gets in the zone during the playoffs and right now Roloson looks like that man.

Well, the Carolina Hurricanes didn’t want to fall in the same hole they did at the beginning of their first series. They thoroughly pistol-whipped the New Jersey Devils on Sat., 6-0. The Devils have been on cruise control over past little stretch, and having no trouble in the first round. Well, Carolina applied the brakes behind a balanced scoring attack, with 5 players scoring the 6 goals. New Jersey also hurt themselves, as 5 of the 6 goals were scored on power plays. Can’t win giving the other team that many opportunities. You have to think the series won’t be quite this easy for the Hurricanes, but it helps to start off on the right foot and not be pushed against a wall.

Eric Staal finally got the Hurricanes a win in their series with Montreal. Wednesday night, Staal scored an OT goal to net the win for the Canes 2-1. So far in the series, the road team has won every single game.