Only a day after getting eliminated from the NBA Playoffs, the Dallas Mavericks have fired coach Avery Johnson. Johnson had a .735 winning percentage in the regular season in 264 games with the Mavs, but was 23-24 in the postseason.
Dallas lost 99-94 last night against the New Orleans Hornets that gave NO a 4-1 series victory. This is the second year in a row the Mavericks have exited in the first round. Last year they won 67 games in the regular season, but lost to the Golden State Warriors.
I’m kind of sick, so I haven’t updated the blog too much lately. I should be fine in a day or two at which point I will resume daily updates.
The Montreal Canadiens pulled out a victory over the Philadelphia Flyers, but Philly put up a fight. The Canadiens got a goal from Alex Kovalev with 28 sceonds left to tie the game at 3 and a score from Tom Kostopoulus 48 seconds into OT to propel them to a win on home ice.
In the West, Chris Osgood made a nice save with less than ten seconds to go that helped seal a 4-3 win for Detroit. Johan Franzen (his second of the night) was credited with the game-winner with a tally 1:13 into period 2. Avs goalie Jose Theodore was pulled after the Franzen score. He was then sent to the team hotel due to sickness.
Backup goaltender Peter Budaj stopped all 20 shots he faced in relief.
Following Philadelphia’s overtime win and the Sharks win over the Flames (Both were Game 7s), the second round series are set:
The Presidents’ Trophy winners, the Detroit Red Wings (Defeated Nashville in 6), will get the Colorado Avalanche (Upset #3 seed Wild in 6). While these two teams have a rivalry dating back several years, Detroit has dominated the Avs this season (4-0) including shutting Colorado out the final three times.
San Jose (Beat Calgary in 7) will take on the Dallas Stars (Knocked off defending Cup champ Anaheim in 6). The Pacific Division rivals split the season series at four games a piece. Dallas ended up with more points over the eight contests because two of their losses came in OT/SO.
The Sharks-Flames game was the first Game 7 ever played in the Shark Tank (a.k.a HP Pavilion).
In the East:
The #1 seeded Montreal Canadiens (Topped the Bruins in 7) will face the aforementioned Philadelphia Flyers (Edged out Washington in 7). Montreal swept the Flyers in the clubs’ four meetings during the first 82 games.
The series starts on Thursday, giving the teams very little rest due to extended first round series. The Canadiens only have three days of rest while Philly gets a mere two days off.
And the other two teams from the Atlantic Division, the Penguins (Swept Ottawa) and the NY Rangers (Took out NJ Devils in 5) will face off. The Rangers took the regular season series against the Atlantic Division champions, going 5-3-0 while the Pens were 3-3-2. The home team won 7 of the eight games.
