This Playoff Week In Awesome:
Awesome:

• Sami Lepisto and the Phoenix Coyotes WINNING THEIR FIRST PLAYOFF GAME VS THE REDWINGS.
• Pekka Rinne
  
  (girly moment zomg, he’s adorable)

• Mats Zuccarello Aasen, the Norwegian Hobbit Wizard signing with the New York Rangers.
  If you haven’t heard of this kid, go learn about him. He’s with MoDo in Sweden right now, and his big moment of fame came earlier this year when there was some sort of dare/offhanded comment that if his team won he would kiss the goalie AND HE DID IT. Of course now I can’t find any reference to it whatsoever, but trust me it happened. While I look, here have a video.
  

  haHA! Found it!

  
  (The caption in translation reads: “Before the match I asked him if we were fighting a bit of fun, but he is so bad in English that he thought I asked if I could kiss him. Then he said to me in that case had to do it after the game if we won … and then it became so,” says Zuccarello.)

  I’m going to go all MetricJulie and start calling him MZA. Don’t tell the Finns.

• The Hershey Bears stomping Bridgeport 7-2 in the third game of the series after a few close ones, and Andrew Gordon getting the hat trick and the first star.
  

You tell ‘em, Gordo.

Less Awesome:

• MZA signing with the Rangers. Dammit, why not a team I care even a little about?
• This smarmy looking little Swede.
  
  Clownshoulders, quit bringing your team back from the brink of destruction. Ugh. (just fyi, this is a really wierd playoff run for me, as I’m happy Fehr scored, but would sort of like to see Team NBC Loves Ovechkin go through absolute meltdown. As a fledgling Bruins fan, though, it seems odd to be cheering for the Habs. I know, let’s go with a rocks fall everyone dies approach.)
• The fact that right now it looks like the Bears are going to play the River Rats in the next round of playoffs and my innards are going to die a little because ZOMG BEARS but ZOMG OSALA. There may be tears.
  
  This makes me sadface.

Fail:

• Tuukka Rask, losing the very first playoff game he’s ever seen, uh, played in.
• Alex Ovechkin and Tarik El Bashir, the Washington Post’s hack reporter for this amazing tweet:@tarikelbashir: “Ovechkin said he noticed Halak’s hand shaking while drinking water after Fehr’s goal. Ovechkin said it was clear the Habs G was nervous.” BECAUSE HANDS NEVER SHAKE FROM FATIGUE OR ANYTHING ELSE. sheesh.
• Bandwagon fans in Verizon Center being douchebags in the 400s. This was my picture from about a month ago, but my friend Mel who sits right there in 409 on a more regular basis says that it’s becoming an epidemic. Even when you ask them nicely to sit back, they get all uppity. Don’t make me write a “How To Not Be A Jerk In Your Seat” post.
• Dan Carcillo