Penguins Draw Hurricanes In Eastern Conference Final

After a thrilling game 7 overtime victory last night by the Carolina Hurricanes over the top-seeded Boston Bruins, the Penguins finally learned who they would be matching up against in the Eastern Conference Final.

And learned that they've have home ice for the series.

Things will kick off Monday night, May 18, with game 1 against Carolina at Mellon Arena.

Interestingly, there are several extra days off in over the first 5 games of the series. Game 2 is Thursday night, 5-21, also in Pittsburgh, before the series shifts to Carolina for games 3 and 4.

Game three is Saturday night, 5-23, then there are 3 days until the next game on Tuesday, 5-26. If necessary, game 5 occurs, again, 3 days later on Friday, 5-29. Then, game 6 in Carolina and game 7 in Pittsburgh, also if necessary, occur on Sunday, 5-31 and Tuesday, June 2, respectively -- a more normal every-other-day pace.

Carolina has to be pleased with this schedule, since they are coming off their 2nd straight 7-game series and probably need the rest.

While I believe some arena issues came into play, I also think the schedule dragged out a bit because the Stanley Cup Final schedule had long been set to begin on Friday, June 5 to accomodate TV, and the league can't have the teams sitting around for 10 days beforehand.

The Penguins/Hurricanes series will have some interesting storylines, not the least of which is the brother vs. brother, Eric Staal vs. Jordan Staal matchup. But there are other interesting notes between the 2 teams as well, including the fact that 2 former Penguin legends are a part of the Carolina staff -- goaltending coach Tom Barrasso and, my favorite player of all time, associate coach Ron Francis.

There will be a lot of time to dissect these and other angles in the days and weeks ahead, but before we do that, I want to just say a few final things about the epic series the Penguins and Washington Capitals just completed.

2 days after it ended, I'm still gushing about the quality of hockey that was played. The Penguins and Capitals were long rivals before this series started, but the new generation of players on each squad -- led by #'s 87 and 8 -- added a whole new spin to the history between these two franchises in this series.

There's no doubt that it was one of the most talked about series' in NHL history and the best part is that it exceeded all the hype bestowed upon it. Sports fans everywhere -- not just NHL fans -- were talking about this series and that's just great for the league.

Crosby and Ovechkin were other-worldly in this series and deserve all the credit and more.

I couldn't be happier about the way the matchup worked out for the good of the game and, of course, the good of the Penguins.

Here are a few more great articles celebrating the excitement that those 2 teams, and Crosby and Ovechkin, brought during the last several weeks. One of the pieces was written 10 days ago after 2 games of the series, but it's still good enough to post:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=422692

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=422701

http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/Playoffs/Pittsburgh/2009/05/14/9462086-ap.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/cup/2009-05-05-sidney-crosby-vs-alexander-ovechkin_N.htm

Think Alexander Semen (sp) is going to keep his mouth shut in the future?

Okay. Enough about the Capitals.

Time to focus on Carolina.

I'll try to get a series preview up this weekend or, at the latest, on Monday.

Let's Go Pens.