Hump Day Open Thread

Ok, so last night wasn't as good in hockey as I would have liked, but earlier yesterday was just fine. The Ilya Kovalchuk-less Devils shut the door on the Flyers very well after giving up an early goal, coming away with a 4-1 victory to tie their Eastern Conference Semifinal series at 1-1. The Devils played a very solid defensive game and were able to take advantage of Philadelphia miscues. Tonight, we'll untie the other Eastern Conference series and what kind of a distraction yesterday's fun was on the Western series which resumes tonight.

New York Rangers (1) vs. Washington Capitals (7) - 7:30 NBCSN: The story of this series has switche dfrom the emergence of Chris Kreider to Alex Ovechkin's ice time. Caps' coach Dale Hunter continues to use his best player as a role player while Washington consistently gains and then loses leads. On Monday, they lost a 2-0 advantage only to see their captain gain it back with less than ten to go. This series is looking very close. We'll see if New York can gain back their home ice advantage as they play the next two games at the Verizon Center.

Blueshirt Banter (Rangers)
Japers' Rink (Capitals

Phoenix Coyotes (3) vs. Nashville Predators (4) - 9:00 CNBC: Phoenix eked out a Game 1 win and pounded out a Game 2 victory to head into Nashville with a chance to take the Predators by the neck and start the worrying process. Nashville is struggling through some (surprise!) team cohesion issues as two of their best offensive talents will be out of the lineup tonight because they decided that chasing booty in Glendale on Saturday night was more important than resting and focusing on their Game 2 matchup. Nashville will be playing an entirely different game in this one; can Dave Tippett have his Coyotes ready to weather that storm?

Five for Howling (Coyotes)
Section 303 (Predators.