Intermission

I'll get back to the music soon. Once I've actually listened to the albums I want to write about again, I'll give y'all some music to gawk at.

But first, hockey.

And first in hockey-related news, congratulations to the Kitchener Rangers, who shocked the entire OHL by not only beating the heavily-favoured London Knights, but by nearly knocking off the Windsor Spitfires in their year of destiny and coming within one game of the OHL finals.

Nobody expected the Rangers to even get past the first round of the playoffs at the beginning of the season, so this was a tremendous accomplishment. With Skinner, Maxwell, Murphy, Landiskog, and hopefully Morin all being back and another year older next year, Kitchener stands a great shot at returning to the Memorial Cup in 2011.

For more on the Rangers, today's Record has a solid special section.

Now on to the pros. I found myself watching quite a bit of the first round, because well how couldn't I? My on-again off-again favourite team (Colorado) nearly toppling an overwhelming favourite, some Canadian teams looking good, and exciting hockey even when I didn't really care about either team.

But now? It's very hard to get into the second round (which started last night), because I can't even pretend to have a rooting interest.

Proof? Let's start in the west. Can't cheer for San Jose, because they beat Colorado. Problem is that they're against Detroit, and no self-respecting Avs fan would ever support Detroit. The other series has a Canadian team at least, but Vancouver has long been my least-favourite Canadian team, because I find them too uppity (and I've never liked Ryan Kesler). Chicago's okay, I guess, but "okay, I guess" isn't enough to get me interested.

Out east, you've got Pittsburgh against Montreal. For a while there, I thought the Habs were going to become my new favourite team--starting with my trip to the Bell Centre and carrying through. But then they brought up PK Subban from the farm, and the Kitchener fan in me can never forgive him for the 2008 OHL Finals. Subban being around was enough to single-handedly destroy any interest I had in the Montreal Canadiens. Pittsburgh's a safe bet, but I find it hard to cheer for a winner...possibly I like underdogs, possibly I just don't like being accused of bandwagoning, but I'm not going to start cheering for a team the year after they won a Cup.

Boston doesn't particularly stand out to me other than that I dislike Zdeno Chara. I've never liked Philly, going back to the days of Eric Lindros, but they do have Michael Richards, which is more than anybody else has going for them among teams remaining in the hunt.

So, um, go Flyers. And go exciting hockey, since that's the only way I'll be watching.

--Ryan