All Around the Rest of the Mulberry Bush

The prior two posts have been all about your San Jose Sharks, but let's take a moment to look in on the other series rolling right now:

Detroit vs Nashville- See no reason to hop off the Red Wings bandwagon in this series.

Colorado vs Minnesota- Two overtime games played and things are right where they were at the beginning... all tied up. This one might be an excellent candidate for a 7 game series.

Anaheim vs Dallas- Holy Goons, Batman. Not surprised at all that the Ducks came out with malice in their hearts and dirty play on their minds, but would not have expected the Stars to shove home 4 power play goals in game 1. It will be very interesting to see how Anaheim responds... and if they know how to play a game that isn't at least a little bit dirty.

New Jersey vs New York Rangers- Goodness, should be lots of angry (and for good cause) Devils fans out there. It's not often that you see NHL referees mistakenly call icing (was on the Devils, with them shorthanded), but to do so with 30 seconds left in a one-goal playoff game is inexcusable. Adding further bewilderment, the refs not only didn't provide any sort of makeup call help in the last 30 seconds, they didn't call an obviously cross-check with 10 seconds left that enabled the Rangers to clear the puck, and win the game. Crazy.

Montreal vs Boston- Les Canadiens are in fact more skilled... and are playing that way.

Pittsburgh vs Ottawa- Same story as that being played out (at least for now) in the Montreal-Boston series.

Washington vs Philadelphia- Good stuff, good stuff. This series delivered an EXCELLENT game 1 with the Caps taking the early lead, Philly coming back to be up 4-2 entering the 3rd period, and the Caps then answering with 3 for a 5-4 victory. If you haven't watched Alexander Ovechkin yet... do so.