Habs beat Caps in Game 7, other hockey notes

The (8) Montreal Canadiens beat the (1) Washington Capitals 2-1 tonight in Washington, D.C. I typically cheer for teams from Canada in the NHL since one of them hasn't won a Stanley Cup in quite some time. However, the Habs are big rivals with my favorite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs and I really love the hockey loving atmosphere that is present in D.C. The Caps sold out every game this year and people were rocking the red all year and all series long. I think it's really cool that a U.S. team has that kind of atmosphere at their home games and I think it's good for hockey. It's too bad their season ending in such a disappointing manner.

Here are the scores from the past few days in hockey:

Sunday:
Game 6 -- (4) Phoenix Coyotes 5, (5) Detroit Red Wings 2 (Series tied 3-3)
Game 6 -- (3) Vancouver Canucks 4, (6) Los Angeles Kings 2 (Canucks win series 4-2)

Monday:
Game 6 -- (6) Boston Bruins 4, (3) Buffalo Sabres 3 (Bruins win series 4-2)
Game 6 -- (8) Montreal Canadiens 4, (1) Washington Capitals 1 (Series tied 3-3)
Game 6 -- (2) Chicago Blackhawks 5, (7) Nashville Predators 3 (Blackhawks win series 4-2)

Tuesday:
Game 7 -- (5) Detroit Red Wings 6, (4) Phoenix Coyotes 1 (Red Wings win series 4-3)

I said last week that the road teams win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs more often than they do in the NBA Playoffs (in fact the Capitals led for less than 7 minutes in their four home games of their series), but I didn't mention that I also thought that in Game 7 home ice was a huge advantage because the pressure is on both teams and the crowd can help out. However, in both Game 7s in the first round, the road teams won so it's not an end-all, be-all type rule for sure.

Here are the second round matchups for the Stanley Cup Playoffs (remember the NHL is different from the NBA in that the highest remaining seed plays the lowest remaining seed rather than a strictly bracket style tournament):

Eastern Conference:
(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens
(6) Boston Bruins vs. (7) Philadelphia Flyers

Western Conference:
(1) San Jose Sharks vs. (5) Detroit Red Wings
(2) Chicago Blackhawks vs. (3) Vancouver Canucks

Here's Thursday's schedule:
Game 1 -- (5) Detroit Red Wings at (1) San Jose Sharks, 7 p.m. MT (Versus)