BumfOnline

New Bumf

2007-05-15T18:52:00.000-06:00

I've moved over to the new -- though not necessarily improved -- Bumf.

Update your blogrolls people.

Hucker Wedding

2007-05-07T19:37:00.000-06:00

This isn't the way I thought I'd debut on YouTube, but I'll take it.

New Bumf?

2007-05-03T08:11:00.000-06:00

A reminder that my new WordPress blog is current.

Tin soldiers and Bushitler coming

2007-05-03T08:10:00.002-06:00

It’s not as catchy as a Neil Young hit, but this alternate version of the Kent State ‘massacre’ deserves a mention:

Peace protest? Legitimate democratic action? Moral visionaries? A voice of reason? Our leftist media would have us believe that about the “innocents” who led the peace protests at Kent State and elsewhere across the United States during the Vietnam Era, just as they would have us believe the same about the simmering anti-war protest today. The “official” take on Kent State is that Nixon’s war mongering police state was to blame. But who were the real culprits?

(via Shaidle)

Stinky people converge

2007-05-03T08:10:00.001-06:00

A dying ideology was celebrated yesterday when Communists, Marxists, Leninists, Stalinists, socialists, anarchists, arabists, conspiracy theorists, totalitarianists, unionists, loonies, moonies, hippies, dippies, dingbats, Democrats, pro-Guevarists, anti-Semeticists, and other agreeable sorts sang the Internationale and gathered for May Day. Urban Infidel was good enough to be able to capture all the optimism in a slideshow, and he links to another one here.

Blame kateland

2007-05-03T08:09:00.000-06:00

Is it any wonder that some of our children are behaving inappropriately online when the messages in the media celebrate vulgarity, coarseness and camp and our schools have spent years indoctrinating our children in human sexuality without the context of ethics or morals? But take heart, all is not lost, as our schools do teach one great moral lesson - to pass judgement on another is a sin.

Keeping current

2007-05-02T08:15:00.000-06:00

Just to remind you, dear reader, that I'm posting from my new WordPress site during the day and only will be adding to this blog when I get home at night. Change your blogroll if you like, or don't. I'm not sure if I'm going to stick with WordPress. 'tis okay, mind you, but it ain't perfect, and when you're as successful as I am, you demand perfection.

The real crime here is the price of their T-shirts

2007-05-01T21:48:00.000-06:00

Oh good. Rage are back together:

Stomping, shouting into his microphone, grabbing his curly hair and inciting the audience to “keep fighting,” de la Rocha powered through songs ranging from the bass heavy “Bulls on Parade” to the anthem “Killing in the Name.”

He also railed against the war in Iraq and likened Bush administration officials to Nazi war criminals.

“This current administration is no exception. They should be tried and hung and shot,” he said.

You gotta give them credit for staying true to the legacy of their hero.

Misrepresentations, and the misrepresentative misrepresenters who tell them

2007-05-01T21:47:00.002-06:00

Paul Berton of the London Free Press went a little ape-shit in today's Calgary Sun. Today, as it happens, is the fourth anniversary of the "Mission Accomplished" banner raising on the USS Abraham Lincoln where President George W Bush declared that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended." While Berton is incorrect in saying that the president himself "declared 'mission accomplished'" (in fact, he said,"Our mission continues ... Al Qaida is wounded, not destroyed"), the gesture made by the commanders and crew of the Lincoln was not the right sort of message which should have been conveyed to the American populace.

Still, Berton doesn't hold back his vitriol for the Bush administration one iota, and does his best to wrack up his bonafides with the 9-11 conspiracy crowds:

Iraq is a mess. Infrastructure is devastated.
Death and injury are commonplace.
Doctors have fled. Westerners cower behind barricades. Iraqis fear for their lives. Corruption is rampant. Sectarian violence is out of control. Terrorism flourishes. Democracy, if ever possible, is today a ridiculous notion.

Of course, this comment would have been just as valid during the Ba'athist regime, when a kleptocratic monstrosity was terrorizing its own citizens, threatening its neighbours, waging war internally and externally while creating the most revolting police state the world has seen this side of Pyongyang.

But that's just a differing opinion and Berton is entitled to his.

What is more troubling, however, is the tired mantra of the conspiracy theorists -- "Bush lied, people died" -- featured within Berton's attack: "Bush administration claims that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction have been revealed as outright lies, swallowed unquestioningly by the media."

Being wrong is not the same thing as lying outright, and every serious commentator without historical revisionism issues knows that George Bush was far from the first person to believe that Saddam Hussein was attempting to kick-start a nuclear weapons program while under the facade of U.N. sanctions.

Coincidently enough, Paul Jackson notes as much in his column opposite Berton in the Sun:

In 1998, when Democrat Bill Clinton was president, [House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi] stated Saddam "has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction" and supported the military air strike Clinton authorized "to degrade Saddam's capacity to develop and deliver weapons of mass destruction, and to degrade his ability to threaten his neighbours."

Therefore, if Berton has a beef with the 'lies' he 'swallowed', it should not be limited to Bush, but to the previous administration as well as to bigwigs of all major parties, including the Democratic darling Pelosi herself, all of whom claimed Saddam had a continual fetish for the production and use of weapons of mass destruction. Maybe Berton should focus his attention to the British government, not to mention UNSCOM and such critics of the Bush administration as Scott Ritter, who claimed in 1998:

I think the danger right now is that without effective inspections, without effective monitoring, Iraq can in a very short period of time measure the months, reconstitute chemical biological weapons, long-range ballistic missiles to deliver these weapons, and even certain aspects of their nuclear weaponization program.

Alas, this all does not matter to Berton, who, I am sure, would have fit in quite well with those brave lads and lasses who found the courage within their Orwellian nightmare to participate in this "Impeachfest" get-together in San Francisco. (Not to be confused with this "Peachfest", though the rate of illicit drug consumption was probably comparable.)

No, to Berton, what matters is that George Bush is a fascist nincompoop who is in the pocket of Big Oil and is to blame of all that is wrong in the Middle East. That both al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were both serious problems before the 2000 election (though one of them won't be much of a problem any more) is nothing compared to the fact that the Iraqi invasion didn't go as well as hoped.

What matters is that anything which could implicate the Bush administration is The Truth, even if it isn't exactly true.

Political leadership v. Hockey leadership

2007-05-01T21:47:00.001-06:00

Who would you rather have leading your Canadian national hockey team: Shane Doan; or the combined wisdom of Denis Coderre, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe, and Stephane Dion?

On Monday, opposition leaders suggested in the House of Commons that Doan wasn't fit to lead the team because of alleged derogatory comments about French-Canadians.
Doan denies making any such slurs and is backed by an NHL investigation that cleared him. He doesn't understand why his name is even being discussed at the highest levels of Canadian government over an allegation that hasn't been proven.
[...]
The incident in question came at the end of a game between Doan's Phoenix Coyotes and the Montreal Canadiens in December 2005. Linesman Michel Cormier says he heard Doan utter a slur against Francophones while skating by him.
Doan and Cormier later spoke on the phone and the matter seemed to be settled after an NHL investigation found nothing wrong.
[...]
But Liberal MP Denis Coderre wrote a letter to Hockey Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee a week later to protest Doan's inclusion on the Olympic team in Turin.
Doan has since filed a lawsuit against Coderre for defamation. Coderre is counter-suing.
[...]
The issue was brought back to life on Parliament Hill. NDP Leader Jack Layton suggested Monday that Doan's captaincy would "cast a shadow" on the Canadian team while Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Liberal Leader Stephane Dion called on the Conservative Government to comment.

Shane Doan is one of the most respected figures in our national sport, and has done nothing but display class and dignity when representing himself, his teammates and his country during his considerable professional career.

Denis Coderre is a good friend of Claude Boulay, the head of Groupe Everest and Media IDA Vision, the firm retained by Ottawa in 1998 to co-ordinate its advertising purchases, and who was a key figure named in the sponsorship scandal involving Paul Martin.

Jack Layton has advocated diplomacy with the Taliban.

Gilles Duceppe leads a party which calls the break-up of Canada.

Stephane Dion has instructed his Liberal party to vote for Canada's withdrawl from Afghanistan, despite our nation's vital role in establishing the foundations for a liberal democracy, and despite the fact that the Liberals themselves placed Canada there to begin with.

Tough choice.

Winning the debate

2007-05-01T21:46:00.000-06:00

It is an interesting paradox to see such a vigorous debator as Mark Steyn argue on the lack of relevancy of debate in the Middle East question:

Islam isn’t interested in winning the debate, it’s interested in winning the real fight – the clash of civilizations, the war, society, culture, the whole magilla. That’s why it doesn’t care about the inherent contradictions of the argument: in the Middle East early in 2002, I lost count of the number of Muslims I met who believed simultaneously (a) that 9/11 was pulled off by the Mossad and (b) that it was a great victory for Islam. Likewise, it’s no stretch to feel affronted at the implication that you’re violently irrational and to threaten to murder anyone who says so. Western societies value logic because we value talk, and talks, and talking, on and on and on: that’s pretty much all we do, to the point where, faced with any challenge from Darfur to the Iranian nuclear program, our objective is to reduce the issue to just something else to talk about interminably. But, if you don’t prize debate and you merely want to win, getting hung up on logic is only going to get in your way. Take the most devastating rapier wit you know – Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward – and put him on a late-night subway train up against a psycho with a baseball bat. The withering putdown, the devastating aphorism will avail him nought.

Fred Thompson for President

2007-05-01T21:45:00.002-06:00

In the meantime, let’s be realistic about the world we live in. Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about U.S. immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own. The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.
Russia, though, takes the cake. Here is a government apparently run by ex-KGB agents who have no problem blackmailing whole countries by turning the crank on their oil pipelines. They’re not doing anything shady, they say. They can’t help it if their opponents are so notoriously accident-prone. Criticize these guys and you might accidentally drink a cup of tea laced with a few million dollars worth of deadly, and extremely rare, radioactive poison. Oppose the Russian leadership, and you could trip and fall off a tall building or stumble into the path of a bullet.

It is a shame than no man who talks this straight has ever been elected president.

And likely never will.

Blogging 101

2007-05-01T21:45:00.001-06:00

Here’s how blogging works. First you run a site for four or five years, then one day John Malkovich turns up at your house.

I'd better tidy up the ol' homestead.

Elizabeth May worse than Saddam Hussein

2007-05-01T21:43:00.000-06:00

.... when it comes to hyperbole, that is.

Saddam Hussein, 1991, on the impending Gulf War: "If any army set foot in Iraq that they could expect the mother of all battles."

Elizabeth May, 2007, on Stephen Harper's stance on Kyoto: "A grievance worse than Neville Chamberlain's appeasement of the Nazis."

"Iraq—who, me?"

2007-05-01T06:11:00.001-06:00

Christopher Hitchens lays one on George Tenet:

To revisit these arguments is to be reminded that no thinking person ever felt that the danger posed by a totalitarian and aggressive Iraq was a negligible one. And now comes Tenet, the man who got everything wrong and who ran the agency that couldn't think straight, to ask us to sympathize with his moanings about "Iraq—who, me?"
A highly irritating expression in Washington has it that "hindsight is always 20-20." Would that it were so. History is not a matter of hindsight and is not, in fact, always written by the victors. In this case, a bogus history is being offered by a real loser whose hindsight is cockeyed and who had no foresight at all.

Ouch.

I'm overweight, I'm attracted to women - ergo, I'm a lesbian

2007-05-01T06:08:00.000-06:00

via Drudge:
Ulrike Boehmer of the Boston University School of Public Health and colleagues looked at a 2002 national survey of almost 6000 women, and found that lesbians were 2.69 times more likely to be overweight and 2.47 times more likely to be obese.
“Lesbians have more than twice the odds of (being) overweight,” the authors wrote.

The porn industry has some serious 'splainin' to do.

Disenfranchisement Opportunists

2007-05-01T06:06:00.000-06:00

Mark Steyn:

The Defeaticrats are being opportunist: They think they can calibrate the precise degree of U.S. defeat in Mesopotamia that will bring victory for them in Ohio and Florida. Contemptible as this is, it wouldn’t be possible had the administration not lost the support of many of the American people over this war. The losses are devastating for the individuals’ families but they are historically among the lowest in any conflict this nation or any other has fought. So I don’t believe the nightly plume of smoke over Baghdad on the evening news explains the national disenchantment. Rather, the mission as framed by the president — help the Iraqi people build a free and stable Iraq — is simply not accepted by the American people. On the right, between the unrealpolitik “realists” and the “rubble doesn’t cause trouble” isolationists and the hit-’em-harder-faster crowd, the president has fewer and fewer takers for a hunkered-down, defensive, thankless semi-colonial policing operation. Regardless of how it works on the ground, it has limited appeal at home. Meanwhile, the leftists don’t accept it because, while they’re fond of “causes,” they dislike those that require meaningful action: Ask Tibetans about how effective half a century of America’s “Free Tibet” campaign has been; or ask Darfuris, assuming you can find one still breathing, how the left’s latest fetishization is going from their perspective.

Making a move?

2007-04-30T08:11:00.000-06:00

Due to problems with loading Blogger on my linux machine at work, I’ve moved over to WordPress, the first major change since I moved to Bumf in July 2004. I’ll update old(er) Bumf at the end of the day with whatever I post on this site but I have yet to decide whether or not this will be a permanent move. Therefore, you are more than welcome to update your blogroll if you’re inclined to do so.

Just don’t get upset if I decide I don’t like this format and make another switch soon.

Still having trouble

2007-04-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

I hoped that by simply waiting a few days, my problems would be over. Just like how I attempt to solve all my other problems.

Anyway, I'll be doing more blogging on the weekend and next week. In the meantime, I've asked a couple buddies to fill in for me. I think they're funny but you probably won't. Then again, I think I'm funny and you probably don't, so at least I'll be continuing the theme of Bumf and all.

Hopefully, they jump on this project and help me out while I figure out my problems (my blog problems, that is).

No, I am not despondent over the demise of the Flames

2007-04-24T08:04:00.000-06:00

We have all just had a new Linux operating system installed at work and now, for some reason, the blogger web page will not load. When I attempt to do so, the netscape server on my workstation crashes. Not wishing to bother the IT department over my blogging concerns, considering how productive I've been in the past week-and-a-half, I might have to make a big switch to another web-based blogging software company. Maybe TypePad, but I don't know.

Any recommendations which don't involve installing software on my workstation at the office?

Farkin' Double A

2007-04-20T10:59:00.000-06:00

Anyone want to revise their predictions made after Game 2? The Flames made the series interesting last night at the Dome with a convincing, yet contentious, 3-2 victory over the Wings. More importantly, I was able to partake in the festivities and am only now enough over my hangover to relate a few points on the match-up.

As is becoming increasingly aware, Calgary coach Jim Playfair has been reading my keen insights on the series as he has followed my recommendations to a T. For one, it is clear that Playfair has gotten on the officiating enough so as to now have the refs calling chintzy penalties against Detroit rather than the good guys, resulting in numerous successful powerplay opportunities. For another, the Flames have finally realized that they might as well use their speed against the experienced yet considerably less fleet-of-foot (fleet-of-feet?) Red Wing defense corps. The team has also gotten its collective head out of its collective ass and stopped playing in the on-ice manner of the Keystone Kops. Rather, they are playing with an increased awareness that making tape-to-tape passes and performing the break-outs that they learned in midget hockey can be effective from time to time.

Dominik Hasek is starting to lose his marbles, to the Wings' detriment, and his confidence is beginning to shake. Detroit GM Ken Holland must be thinking that getting a perennial head-case to backstop their Stanley Cup run might have been a mistake.

I agree with Matt that the Flames are more of a top-heavy bunch than most commentators realize, and that while their defense is still prone to bungling, their forecheck more than makes up for the liabilities of their blueline.

Credit ought to go to Andrei Zyuzin for earning a regular roster rotation during the past two games, and the acquisition of Brad Stuart is looking to be the steal of the trade deadline. Meanwhile, Miikka Kiprusoff continues his MVP-like performance, and the rest of the team is finally following his lead.

The big question is, of course, can the Flames continue their run on the road. It's difficult to say; the hometown crowd is certainly the seventh man for the club, and the line match-ups are going in Playfair's favour. However, one must take into account that only one team has played progressively better in each successive game, and momentum and confidence are worth their weight in gold.

Moreover, while both the Flames and Red Wings have impeccable home records this season, neither one was absolutely perfect at home. Odds are that at least one or the other will pick up a road win before the series is out, and which ever team is able to do that will win.

Therefore, I'm guessing that the series will be over in six and, so, I'm sticking with my original prediction: The Flames will steal one at the Joe and take the series at the Saddle on Sunday.

Anyone think otherwise?

Farkin' A

2007-04-18T07:32:00.000-06:00

The Calgary Flames climbed back into the thick of things last night at the 'Dome in resounding fashion. They won their battles, they stayed quasi-disciplined, they got their shots, and they walked away with a convincing 3-2 victory over Detroit. They now trail the Wings 2 games to 1 in the best-of-seven conference quarter-finals.

Factors:

The home town crowd did seem to help jump-start the club. Why they need fans cheering for them to do well is beyond me but I'll take it for the moment;
The Flames forwards utilized their speed at several key moments, including Lombardi's goal and Iginla's burning past a pinching Lidstrom resulting in the game-winner;
Persistence for the puck was evident, as was clogging up the middle when they didn't control the play;
After a couple of bone-headed penalties (though Lord knows why Hamrlik of all people was called in the scrum early in the first), the Flames relaxed and maintained their discipline. Plus, Detroit was getting called for the cheap hooks and holds which were so prevalent to the Flames in games 1 & 2.
Iginla decided to show up.

The last point is especially relevant when you consider colour man Drew Remenda's comments regarding the key match-up last night. Instead of worrying about Nicklas Lidstrom covering Iginla, it was the opposite -- Iginla bashed and worked over the star Detroit defender and had him so rattled that he was a contributing factor in two of the three Flames markers. Lidstrom didn't do anything stupid, but he was off his game and any time you can get an opponent down from the pedestal of perfection to being a mere mortal, it is a huge victory for your side. Lidstrom will bounce back, but his confidence was shaken somewhat.

Good stuff. Next game is tomorrow night at the Saddle. Look for me there; I'll be the one wearing the red jersey.

Double Zut!

2007-04-16T10:24:00.000-06:00

It was better, like raising your math grade from 37% to a resounding 42%. The Flames played a reasonable second, controlling the play for a considerable amount of time, even though they only had a paltry three shots and one goal to show for it. In the end, however, it was not enough as the Detroit Red Wings extended their lead in the opening round series, 2 games to nil, with a 3-1 win at the Joe.

Several factors abound in this lop-sided series which have worked against the Flames. Number one is the lack of discipline which results in not only short-handed situations but, more importantly, a loss of momentum. They got to stay out of the box.

With that, Jim Playfair has got to get the refs' attention about the continual mauling of Jarome Iginla by Draper & co. Detroit's good but they're not so good as to keep the guy from getting a single decent chance at a goal in two straight games. Little tugs and grabs have been missed or glanced over by the officiating staff. That has got to change, and Playfair must call them out on it.

An overall lack of consistent effort is also hurting the club. When one line is going, the others sit back, and they take their turns at leading the club. There is no single person or line doing it for any continuous length of time.

Speed kills, but most especially when you're not using it. The Wings are completely blocking the middling with their trap. This means that there is room along the boards to move the puck up. Playfair ought to keep Lombardi on the wing and pair him up with Tanguay and Iginla. Take it up the outside and blow past Schneider and Chelios, and work it to the net. They got to have more confidence in their wheels.

Miikka Kiprusoff continues to make the case for the first Conn Smyth winner whose team is swept out of the first round, but he has got to use his head a bit. While it is difficult to lay any blame on a goaltender who has made 90 saves in 2 games, that third goal was a result of his being too far out of the crease and letting a bad rebound go to the streaking Detroit winger. It is but one flaw in an otherwise outstanding performance.

The final factor which cannot be overlooked is the near-perfection of the Red Wings so far. They have played as close to flawless hockey which I have ever seen and even if the Flames were playing well, they would be hard-pressed to win. There are too many positives going on in Motown to single any person or aspect out, but the guys are on top of their game and have the confidence to show for it.

Game 3 goes tomorrow night in the Saddle.

Zut!

2007-04-13T06:25:00.000-06:00

Buoyed by positivity, lubricated by spirit (of the Alberta rye variety) and ready to go, it didn't go quite as well for me as I had hoped as the Calgary Flames were trounced by the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 in round 1, game 1 action.

As any observer could tell you, it could have been plenty worse had it not been for the heroics of Miikka Kiprusoff, who stopped 42 off 46 shots, sometimes in spectacular fashion. 180 feet down ice, Dominik Hasek was good as he had to be -- but not much better -- as he faced only 20 shots his own way.

But let's not kid ourselves; the goaltenders were not the story -- the complete domination of the once-proud franchise known as the Flames is. Detroit outskated, outshot, outhit and outperformed the Cowtown Flarin' Horse Head Nostrils so completely, one might have been excused for thinking Darryl Sutter sent the Calgary Flames Midget 'AA' squad in their stead. Pavel Datsyuk (who will be henceforth known at "Gadzooks") was incredible in all areas of the ice, while the rest of the team followed his leadership and performed above and beyond expectations. They were awesome.

As for their opposition, aside from the occasional shots on goal -- which were most likely unintentional -- there was no reason to suspect that the men with the Flaming C in their chests could be considered anything near professional athletes.

A side-bar to the match was the gad-awful officiating. Once again, your friend and mine, Mick Magoo (he prefers "Michael") was a dreadful-looking sight throughout the game, making call after terrible call while trying to keep his helmet fastened securely to that gargantuan, thick-framed melon which someone, somewhere must call a head.

I just don't mean he was just bad for the Flames (though they got more than their fair share of ridiculous penalties), but he and his partner, who must have been infected by the contagious stupidity abounding in the officials' locker room, did everything in their power to confuse the players and disrupt the flow of their game with their inconsistent, asinine calls. It was nothing to start a fund-raiser over or anything, but the man ought to be taken out to the back and whipped until he comes up with some sort of reasonable explanation as to why he continues to be such a goddamn idiot. He could be set up at the whipping post next to the one holding the dipshit who hired him.

Game 2 will be played at 1 pm, local time, this Sunday at Joe Louis Arena. I only mention that because I hope someone from the Flames organization reads this and actually remembers to get the team to the rink this time.

Maybe it was the bus driver's fault ...

Out of my ass

2007-04-11T17:23:00.000-06:00

Step aside, pretenders. The only predictions which will have any weight come June are found below in this post. Sit back and gaze into the crystal ball that is Bumf.

EASTERN CONFERENCE

Buffalo v. Long Island

Kudos to the Isles for making a valiant run at the post-season. Battling through injuries, ridicule, and the looming spectre of trading away their number 1 goalie whose contract will be up in a mere 14 years, the team defied the odds and became the biggest beneficiary yet of the Shoot-Out Era. However, unless the Dubinator goes down and their GM puts on the gear to win the day, this will get bloody.

SABRES IN 4

New Jersey v. Tampa Bay

Two of the most recent possessors of Lord Stanley set to battle in two of the biggest hockey markets in North America (the series will be featured in TO and Montreal on HNIC). Jersey's got the 'tender and the Bolts got the firepower, creating the makings of an epic clash the likes the world has not seen since ABC took "Full House" off regular rotation. The series will be tightly fought and the betting houses can be assured of only one constant -- both rinks will sit half-empty throughout.

DEVILS IN 7

Atlanta v. New York

The forgotten series. Atlanta surprised many with their stunning start and shocked even more by hanging on to capture the Southeast, the division which spawned the past two Stanley Cup champs. Meanwhile, the Blueshirts played under the radar during the entire regular season and did nothing but perform with consistency and character throughout. I like Shanahan and Jagr, and Henrik "the Squeegee Slasher" Lundqvist is one of the best young 'tenders in the league. But the Thrashers have Bob Hartley as a coach, and Bob Hartley cheats.

THRASHERS IN 6

Ottawa v. Pittsburgh

Not only does "Sens-Pens" have a nice ring to it, these are the two most exciting young teams in the league. Both feature high-flying, offensive-minded forwards, not to mention overacheiving defense, goalies with something to prove, and experienced coaching. Eventual Hart Trophy winner Sydney Crosby and most of his young bretheren will be experiencing the playoffs for the very first time while many on the Ottawa roster wish they had never had the pleasure to begin with. The pressures on the Sens.

SENATORS IN 7

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Detroit v. Calgary

Tighter than one might think. The Flames possess one of the most talented lineups in the league and revel in the role as underdogs. With Matthew Lombardi purportedly moving to the wing on the Langkow-Huselius unit, they now have a potent 2nd line to open behind Iggy & co. The Wings offense, meanwhile, is vulnerable to a hard-hitting forecheck and a disrespectful defense, and Hasek is going to suffer a nasty injury of some undisclosed variety. Coaching may be a factor, though Mike Babcock's claim to post-season fame so far is a combination of riding oversized goaltender pads to the final coupled with an awful first-round choke. Besides, as the Flames are facing far too many UFAs at the end of 2008, this might be the last time in a few years it could be conceivable to pick them for any success.

FLAMES IN 6

Anaheim v. Minnesota

It's Chris Pronger and a bevy of talent versus a hot backup 'tender and a record skewed by OTs and SOs. The playoffs are not the best format for a team to play for a tie; there are no more shoot-outs for 2 points, and the overtime is played 5-on-5. No contest here.

DUCKS IN 5

Vancouver v. Dallas

The Canucks are this year's version of last year's Flames; sensational goaltending, a couple of stars and a complete lack of offense. A goaltender can stop another team from winning, but he cannot win games on his own. Marty Turco has something to prove, and he has a very complete -- albeit underrated -- roster in front of him.

STARS IN 6

Nashville v. San Jose

When was the last time Joe Thornton led a team to win anything of importance?

PREDATORS IN 5

CONFERENCE SEMI-FINALS

Ottawa over Buffalo in 6

New Jersey over Atlanta in 5

Calgary over Anaheim in 7

Nashville over Dallas in 7

CONFERENCE FINALS

Ottawa over New Jersey in 7

Calgary over Nashville in 7

STANLEY CUP

Calgary over Ottawa in 5