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The third period was absolutely brutal for the Montreal Canadians last night who haven’t won a Cup since 1993 with Patrick Roy in net.

I picked Tampa at the beginning of these playoffs and yesterday picked them to win the Finals in six games. I’m not feeling good about Montreal winning those two games just now. But here’s the thing about hockey, you can’t knee jerk. You have to believe in yourself and what got you past Toronto down 1-3 and what got you past Vegas in the conference finals.

You go back to the film and look at how Tampa scored their five goals and what can be changed. You sell your team on the fact they played okay for forty minutes then allowed the Lightning to go on the powerplay in the third period and one of your own defensemen scored a goal for them as well.

I don’t care how good you think your penalty killing units are…you’re playing with fire when you give Nikita Kucherov additional time and space. You cannot let that motherfucker breathe with possession of the puck. That is not a winning formula for success.

First goal was soft from my view and Price usually makes that save. I thought the second goal was a somewhat legit goal. Third goal was a powerplay goal. Fourth goal… #8 a defenseman for Montreal actually hand passed in mid air mind you the puck into his own net. That cannot happen as well. Fifth goal was another power play goal… I believe.

Game 1 was over at 4-1. It was piss on the fire and call in the dogs because this Montreal team is limited offensively.

Here’s my analogy if you’re a non-hockey person. Tampa is Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs while Montreal is Jared Allen and the Buffalo Bills.

It will be tough for the Canadians to score four goals in a game. They have to win games at 3-2 or 2-1. They have to find a way to steal three goals a game.

Montreal has to forecheck better and create one turnover goal a game. They need to get Corey Perry or someone else in front of Tampa’s net and either jam a rebound or redirect a shot from the point. And they need to score a powerplay goal themselves here and there.

The Buffalo Bills actually have a glamour offensive weapon in Sheldon Diggs. These Canadians don’t even have a Sheldon Diggs let alone a Tyreke Hill…if you know what I’m writing on here.

Nikita Kucherov=Tyreke Hill

And here’s this thing, this isn’t Tyreke Hill playing for the dumbass Mullet King Mike Gundy who never got him the ball. This is Tyreke Hill with a coach in John Cooper who may be the best coach in the NHL. This is a coach who dreams of ways to create time and space for #86.

Here’s another thing… If you could remove Kucherov from the equation this Montreal club would at least have a puncher’s chance in these games.

I wouldn’t necessarily say you put a bounty on Nikita Kucherov, but I would make it clear every time he touched the puck you drive him hard into the boards with ill temper and try and exact a toll on his body.

I guarantee that’s better than anything Barry Melrose said after last night’s game.

I think Al Pacino needs to pay a little visit to the Montreal locker room before Game 2.

This is the ultimate example of a coach creating space and time for a superstar albeit the other team’s best offensive threat. Bob Stoops is cool. He’d at this I’m fairly certain.

When these Stanley Cup Playoffs began three rounds ago I said yes and I’m still saying yes.

I like Tampa in six games to repeat as the winner of Lord Stanley’s Cup minus the Lightening getting decimated by injuries.

They not only have the best powerplay in hockey, they in my view have the second best goalie in Andrei Vasilevsky. The best goalie in hockey is the Canadians’ Carey Price so what we have here is the potential of an epic goaltending Finals.

Do the Canadians have a puncher’s chance?

Yes they do. They have Carey Price in net, a nice array of defensemen, the hottest penalty killing unit in these playoffs and an interesting assortment of forwards who aren’t the glamour boys of Tampa, but an interesting group with the ageless Corey Perry once again in the Finals after his run with the Dallas Stars in last summer’s NHL Bubble Tournament.

On my note sheet before the playoffs began I had 1 Tampa, 2 Colorado, 3 Vegas, 4 NY Islanders, 5 Boston, 6 Washington Caps, and 7 the Montreal Canadians.

I had Montreal at 7 for one reason…Carey Price. He’s Montreal’s best player and the adage in hockey is simple…’you build your team from the net out.’ A stud goalie, a defensive defenseman, a two way defenseman, and a guy or two who can play the point on the powerplay.

You then put a roster of guys together who can skate, check, pass and read and react all over the ice in the various situations such as even strength, short-handed, and powerplay.

Simple game.

But if you have the No. 1 stud in the entire NHL in your net you can do some glorious team things if the other nineteen on the team pull their proverbial links on the chain.

This is about doing your job on the ice.

This should be a very interesting series for those who love hockey.

I can’t wait.

I don’t really care who wins now that Colorado and Boston have flamed out, but I do want to see a great seven game series. I want to see Montreal play their asses off and give us a show. So this is for Carey Price, Corey Perry, and the Canadians…let’s go boys. Simple game…it’s always about two things—space and time.

I have to correct this from yesterday. I love the scene from Terms of Endearment with Garrett getting Aurora drunk drinking bourbon in a Houston bar.

But I lost myself by not listing this as the greatest Jack Nicholson scene of all-time. I even forgot the Here’s Johnny scene from the Shining as well.

The rain had me in a state of mind yesterday. The little tumbler gears in my mind weren’t functioning.

So this needs to be corrected on here before I move onto Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals tonight in Tampa.

A pretty good game until Trae Young tweaked his ankle late in the third period by stepping on an official’s foot.

From that point forward not a very good game as Atlanta became unhinged offensively and couldn’t score the basketball with enough consistency to hang with a very solid Milwaukee team.

The Bucks are just a better team. For this Atlanta team to win games in this series they have to play well for forty-eight minutes. They can’t lapse and play substandard basketball.

Give Khris Middleton credit for playing clutch in the fourth period scoring 20 points and on the night almost notching a triple double with 38 points.

I would say if Khris Middleton scores 25 points or more in a game against these Hawks the Bucks are winning the game with a comfort margin for error.

Game 4 in Atlanta on Tuesday. If Giannis can mitigate his free throw issues the Bucks could win a ring. I’m not sure how that will work against Phoenix though in that the Suns have multiple players who they can rotate to defend Giannis.

Milwaukee vs. Phoenix should be our NBA Finals.

Two interesting teams with two cities hungering for an NBA championship.

I don’t think Phoenix has ever won the championship although former OU coach John MacCloud led the Suns to a six game Finals matchup with the Boston Celtics.

I’m old enough to remember the Kareem team in Milwaukee with coach Larry Costello which won the NBA championship in the early seventies with Bobby Dandridge, John McGlocklin, and Oscar in decline.

These should be our two teams unless injuries become an issue for either the Suns or Bucks.

More rain coming to Deer Creek in a few hours.

Time to start thinking about the Stanley Cup Finals pitting Tampa vs. Montreal on Monday night.

Game 3 in Atlanta. Big game no doubt. Trae Young sucked in Game 2 with a tough shooting night and nine turnovers. It happens. He sucked. He has he to put that behind and reboot tonight.

Both teams have won nine games so far in the tournament. It takes sixteen wins to claim the NBA Championship. So…both teams are just a bit more than halfway there.

I love the Cinderella aspect of the Hawks. We’ll see. Milwaukee has the better team and quite frankly I have a lot of respect for the manner in which Giannis, Middleton, Holiday, and PJ Tucker approach the game.

They play hard and with professionalism.

The tree is down and stacked in the burn pile. While I was riffing on the chain saw it clearly came to me…Jack Nicholson telling Shirley MacLaine she would would need many drinks to remove the bug out of her ass is the more iconic scene.

I would say this is an absolute must game for Atlanta if they want to keep livin’ the dream.

Or…..

I’m fairly amped about tonight’s game. I don’t know if it was the Terms of Endearment restaurant scene or the chain saw. But I’m amped. I haven’t played this in a while on my blog. My hair is all white now and this Jimmy Page look is what I’m striving for this summer. No Mike Gundy Mullet King look, but the Jimmy Page look on the shoulders.

I have fun on my blog. I’m not one of the Edmond white fanboy dredges who spread their legs for Sam Presti, Royce Young and the Daily Thunder. Like I wrote on here before…if they ever gave me a media pass…it would be revoked at the end of Day 1. But I can assure that would be one motherf–king interesting press conference.

They’re playing basketball…they’re not recreating the solar system.

I try not ever to take myself too seriously.

Since the ice storm in October its been quite a project cleaning up the tree damage here on the densely tree-lined ranch. A journey, a process, a life experience. I feel like I’ve grown spiritually from it.

This lacebark elm will actually be the only tree which bit the dust among around fifty trailers of limbs removed so far to the burn pile. The rest of the trees have been salvaged.

Your chainsaws become an extension of you like a guitar to a musican or a putter to a golfer.

Rain looks like it’s going to break in Deer Creek finally.

I meditate and thenlisten to a warmup song like a hockey player before I start my chainsaw.

Time to go to work.

Have a nice day. Embrace the journey.

It’s still raining out here in Deer Creek in this series of monsoonal rains. I have about 3.7 inches of precip in the official Deer Springs rain gauge so far.

Stanley Cup Finals don’t start till tomorrow night. I don’t watch non-major golf events… nor do I watch regular season major league baseball games. The Hawks host the Bucks, but that’s not until tonight.

I need something to kill about thirty minutes till I can get outside on the ranch with my chain saw and fell what’s left of a lacebark elm which was destroyed in the October ice storm. I was hoping the tree could be salvaged, but that’s not the case. Might as well do it today while it’s relatively cool outside.

So what is the greatest Jack Nicholson movie scene of all-time?

At my Aunt V’s recent 91st birthday dinner…my cousin Taylor and I narrowed it down to two selections. I nominated the diner scene from Five Easy Pieces and he nominated the restaurant scene from Terms of Endearment.

I’ve given quite some thought to this since the party two weeks ago and I’m still locked in internal debate.

Sometime later today…I feel as if I need to resolve this for my own inner peace. Maybe firing up the chain saw will bring me to terms with my choice.

#1 Terms of Endearment Restaurant Scene

#2 Five Easy Pieces Diner Scene

No one…and I mean no one uttered the possibility of either the Suns or the Hawks doing what they’ve already done in these NBA Playoffs. I’m still watching every game in the Road To The Stanley Cup which is now down to defending champ Tampa and the Montreal Canadians.

That’s an interesting matchup, but I have to admit…these two basketball teams have captured my heart a bit with their improbable runs.

Sam Presti…get with it, buddy. You can’t tank next season or else the Thunder will become hopelessly and probably permanently irrelevant in this market. 6 or 16 to 18—you need to locate a couple of ballers. Losing shamelessly by design won’t sell this upcoming season.

People dream their life aspirations through their favorite teams. Always have and always will.

Maybe hiring a proven NBA head coach wouldn’t be a bad idea at this point either.

Yo… Butkus!

The Phoenix Suns won an old school hard ass basketball game on the road in LA to take a commanding 3-1 series lead in the Western Conference Finals.

Phoenix head coach Monty Williams is one game away from advancing to the NBA Finals with Chris Paul and their basketball team.

When we all saw the original bracket with LeBron and AD looming in front of these Suns… nobody predicted this happening. I even questioned if they could be considered legit contenders.

And yet here we are in what is evolving into a beautiful human story.

I saved this video from 2016 when Monty Williams’ wife was killed in a tragic car accident in south Oklahoma City.

It touched me then, it still touches me now.

I play it from time to time to refocus myself.

We all fall down in life. That’s part of life.

It’s how we pull pourselves back up which defines us.

Hope you take the time to watch the video. You won’t regret taking the time.

I was born in San Diego as a Navy kid. I have mixed feelings about this series.

The Chris Paul-Cam Payne stories tug at me. But so do the Paul George-Patrick Beverly-Reggie Jackson storylines.

And of course the Monty Williams human story of of making a life for his kids after the tragedy in Oklahoma City. I know some things I can’t write on here. What a great guy… Monty Williams.

I’ve always loved Patrick Beverly as well.. He was born to be a hockey player.

I’m not really sure who I’m for in my heart, but I love seeing both of these teams having this success.

Why would would any elite black NBA player rather play in LA than in the domestic terrorist racist Oklahoma City market?

Sorry OKC mayor David Holt who claims to be purple. This is why, buddy.

This is why.