What an opening night for the most exciting playoffs in sports as two games went into overtime.  The great thing about overtime is that teams abandon all the left wing locks and trapping in favor of putting the puck on the net.  The goalie play in these games is nothing short of spectacular. 

Take Roberto Luongo of the Vancouver Canucks for example.  In his team's 4OT victory over Dallas last night, he wound up stopping 66 shots.  The game, by the way, ended around 3am CDT.

The other overtime game was Nashville and San Jose.  This game had a lot of twists and turns, including an injury to Sharks star Jonathan Cheechoo.  Scott Hartnell was wrongly called for kneeing and bounced out of the game.  The Preds trailed by two most of the third period until they put in two goals, the last coming in final two minutes of regulation.  The game went to double OT before the Sharks finally won.

If this is any indication on what the playoffs will be like this year, I think I'll rearrange my schedule to get up later and stay up all night.

Lightning Round

• The White Sox got good pitching and timely hitting in their 6-3 win over Oakland yesterday,  Even Bobby Jenks redeemed himself after melting down on Wednesday night, although he didn't throw a pitch harder than 93.  Now it's on to Cleveland.  Bud, can we PLEASE play those in Milwaukee too?
• Speaking of Milwaukee, the people around here are serving notice that they're pretty good baseball fans.
• The Bears released their 2007 schedule yesterday.  I have them at 12-4 with two wins each over Minnesota, Detroit and Green Bay; wins over Kansas City, Dallas, Philly, Oakland, the Giants and Washington.  I have them losing to San Diego in the opener, Seattle, Denver and New Orleans. 
  
• Lost in all the Stanley Cup excitement (which I watched in split screen last night) was the big matchup between Dice-K and King Felix.  The KIng served notice that he's more than just hype.
• Good news for White Sox fans, talks have broken off between the Twinkies and Johan Santana.  If the Twins can't sign him before his contract expires at the end of next year, they probably will trade him.  He'd look really good in a National League uniform.
• Some more new coaches take command: Louisville Assistant Kevin Willis gets hired at Iona; Tommy Amaker does something my mother dreamed of me doing (go to Harvard) while one of the greatest women's coaches of all time comes out of retirement to take over for LSU.
• Wayne Gretzky cleans house in Phoenix.  Maybe he should fire the coach, too.  Oh wait, he is the coach.
• Brady Quinn believes he should be the number one pick in the draft.  So did Aaron Rodgers.
• Fred Thompson says he is in remission from cancer.  This shouldn't effect his ability to save the republican party.
  
• Welcome to the Monkey House in the sky, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.  You and Ray Bradbury are the reasons I enjoy science fiction.
• Time to stock up on canned fruit.
• Jerad makes crappy pizza.
• Looks like I won't be getting Parkinson's disease.  Now, if they could link drinking Diet Pepsi to preventing Alzheimer's and eating ice cream and pork fat to preventing cancer, I may just live to 150.