The Basketball Guru Talks Hockey Vol 2 | the guru's scrolls

Hello sports fans, I am the basketball guru, chase ruttig. I am here to talk about the NHL playoff race which heated up yesterday and the final spots will be decide this weekend with the East having the final spot up for grabs.

Last night, my favorite team, the Vancouver Canucks, who have last years league MVP and at the start of the season were poised to make a run in the playoffs this year lost to the Edmonton Oilers, who were eliminated from playoff contention by their hated in-provine rivals, the Calgary Flames. The Canucks, who have had scoring problems all last year, showed it last night with the fans cheering wildly in the Canucks 214th consecutive home sellout. Roberto luongo who has played poorly throughout the season with his wife in Florida expecting a baby, showed his dominance he had last season, but the Canucks streaky offence couldn't get the job done and the Canucks will be golfing pretty soon. I think that the GM Dave Nonis should be fired. He has had many chances to find a sniper, but couldn't pull the trigger on a deal(pun intended). They had a chance at the start of the season to get Peter Forsberg, but didn't finish a deal and he went to the Avalanche. The Canucks really miss Brian Burke as GM as he assembled the super line of Markus Naslund, Todd Bertuzzi, and Brenadan Morrision that gave the Canucks one of the leagues best offences. Now, Naslund is a shadow of his former self, Morrision has been injured most of the year, and Bertuzzi is bouncing around the league.

Now let's move on to the East, where Philidelphia, Washington, Boston, and Ottawa have a chance to miss the playoffs if they fail to win their final games. Philly is a game out, but has a game at hand over the other teams. I personally want to see a Washington-Pittsburgh first round series that will likely happen if Washington wins their final game. A Crosby-Ovechkin series would be the NHL version of Bird-Magic in basketball. With the NHL's leading scorer Ovechkin going against Crosby, the face of the NHL, and Evengi Malkin, the NHL's secon leading scorer.

I will post an update on the race Sunday and a playoff preview Monday or Tuesday.