They gave me the day off

Hey thanks to the Ranger and Islander prospects, I got a day off as the only one still involved in a 2nd round playoff series is Tommy Hughes and the London Knights.

The Knights looks to end the season of the Kitchener Rangers on Friday night in game 5 of their series. Feels a tad strange watching the Kitchener Rangers who wear the same jersey as the New York Rangers; even stranger when I write about the Rangers losing as a good thing.

London has a good reason to win their series as they would be awaiting the winner of the Plymouth Whalers/Owen Sound Attack. That series is tied up at 2-2.

It has been a pretty interesting playoff season in the Canadian juniors as I can't remember the last time there were as many sweeps or 5 game series as there has been this year. If London wins and in the QMJHL, the Rouyn-Noranda does as well then only the Whalers/Attack series will still be playing.

Not including the series that are still going on but in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs there have been 15 sweeps and only 1 series that went 7 games. For me why these numbers stand out is because the 3 leagues try to cram the playoffs into as few dates as possible.

Too many series have had back to back games or 4 games in 5 nights. A case can be made that the playoffs aren't about which team is the better one but rather which team can survive the brutal schedule.

Wait until the NHL playoffs get underway this year because of the lockout, you will see the same type of scheduling only theirs will be so they can get as many games on NBC/NBC Sports Net as possible.

Then again it will be hard to consider any team that wins the Cup this year as a legit winner because of the lockout.

Who is left standing?

Rangers

Michael St. Croix Edmonton (WHL)
Tommy Hughes London (OHL)
Samuel Noreau Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL)

Waiting for the Memorial Cup

Shane McColgan Saskatoon (WHL)
Josh Nicholls Saskatoon (WHL)

Islanders

Griffin Reinhart Edmonton (WHL)
Mitchell Theoret Barrie (OHL)

Neither team will be represented in the NCAA Frozen Four