Yesterday I was chatting with Smitty before the game. He was so sure that Vancouver would choke (they have a long history of it) that he sold his Game 7 tickets. I said to him "Come on, Linden's playing like it's still 1994, if the rest of the team matches that, they're gonna win big. It's game 7, there are no second chances anymore!"
We were both cautiously optimistic. Sure Vancouver had the firepower to win the game, but they hadn't been using it, Dallas kept their offense pretty well smothered throughout the whole series. We wanted Vancouver to win, but we both knew that the potential to choke was pretty high. My brother Steve said that Turco had more "choke karma" than Vancouver though.
I predicted then, around 6:00 that Dallas was going to score first and early and the mood in GM place would be grim... There would be a Pat-Quinn-esque stick-breaking screaming fit in the dressing room and in the second Vancouver would come out flying, and I predicted that Vancouver would give Dallas a shellacking of three or four to one. I went so far as to say that Tom Larscheid (the color guy on Canucks Radio) would make a "waking a sleeping giant" reference. I don't know if THAT part happened, as I was down at Legendz watching on the big screen, but when Smolinksi potted the second empty net goal to make it four to one, I looked around after the roar died down to see who else was still there who I had told my prediction to earlier! John had already left, so I txt'd him "WOOOOOOOOO four-one! WHO CALLED IT>???" :)
Next up, Anaheim, another defense-heavy team. Hopefully the series isn't a yawner.