Playoff Open Thread for Tuesday, May 18th

Canada fell 3-2 at the hands of Tomas Vokoun and the Czechs today at the World Championships, their third loss and second consecutive setback of the preliminary round with Mark Giordano accumulating one assist and four PIMS and Rene Bourque being assessed two two-minute minors and a ten-minute misconduct for his involvement in a scrum/brawl after the game had ended. After falling down 3-1, Canada climbed to within one on a goal by Matt Duchene after Corey Perry's goaltender interference infraction went uncalled, but couldn't find the elusive tying goal as the clock quickly wound down. Gio's assist gives him three goals and four points in the tournament and Bourque, who has struggled since registering a goal and an assist in game one against Italy, has gone pointless in his last five games. Canada will face Russia in a quarterfinals rematch on Thursday (12 PM MT/2 ET on TSN), with the Russians boasting a roster that includes Olympians Evgeni Malkin, Alexander Semin, Alex Ovechkin, and Pavel Datsyuk. In other World Championship news, Sweden cruised to a 5-0 victory over the Swiss today, where Backlund again failed to register a point and took one minor penalty in twelve minutes of ice time. 

In the NHL, the Flyers learnt that they could possibly get injured forwards Ian Laperriere and Jeff Carter back for game three in Montreal, and will try to use the loud and boisterous Philadelphia crowd to their advantage tonight. It seems Flyers and Habs supporters are duking it out for the title of most unpleasant fans remaining in the post season, as news surfaced of a Montreal Gazette sports reporter having his tire slashed and Quebec license plates stolen by a group of Flyers fans after game one. Game time is 5 PM MT/7ET on CBC.

In San Jose, the Sharks will try to tie the series after losing a close one to the Blackhawks on Sunday, and Chicago will look to take a 2-0 series lead heading back to the United Centre. Both teams appear to be healthy, and game time is 8 PM MT/10 ET on TSN. 

Enjoy the games everyone, and I promise to have a more substantial post up tomorrow.