I am certainly glad this weekend of hockey is over. None of the teams that I want to win was actually winning, and the announcement of Pavol Demitra declining a World Championships roster spot just sucks a big nut for me.

Is it just me, or are the players on the American women's team a bunch of cocky jack-asses? They certainly haven't changed much since Nagano...

The champagne is flowly freely through the streets of Pardubice as they celebrate their first league title since 1989 (when Michael Jackson was less than 30% plastic).

It was a clean 4-game sweep as Pardubice won it at home in front of a capacity crowd by a 3-2 count.

Jan Lasak was, once again, THE MAN with a 43-save performance. In every game of this series, Zlin was peppering Lasak with scoring chances and was denied almost every single time. If Lasak isn't named Playoff MVP (When they get around to announcing the award winngers), then something is seriously wrong with the world. Lasak finished with a 94.97% Save Percentage in the playoffs and a 12-4 record. Zlin's Igor Murin was in second place, way down there with 92.96% Save Percentage.

Oilers fans will be happy to know that the slick Ales Hemsky led all playoff scorers with 14 points (4+10) in 16 games. My boy, Jaroslav Balastik, finished just behind Hemsky with 13 points in 17 games (4+9) while Martin Erat also had a fine playoff performance with 12 points (7+5) in 16 games.
I'm sure Oilers fans will love to know that Jiri Dopita picked up his 7th league title...he's so clutch, ya know? :)

Back to Lasak: It's high time that the NHL gave him a second chance when the real games resume.

Lasak has proven himself to be an excellent goaltending at the World Level, the AHL level, the ECHL level, and now in Europe (Czechia and Russia).

Lasak is only 25, yet he has quite a lot of experience. What NHL team couldn't benefit from a young, cheap, quality goaltender who really does want to play in the NHL? Write a letter to your favourite team's GM and let him know that there is a quality goaltender out there that could provide, at the very least, a good backup backstopper.

If Jon Casey, Jim Carey, and Patrick Lalime were given second chances, why shouldn't Lasak? (Answer, because they aren't European)

My advice to Lasak: You need to really put on a fine performance at the WC. It seems dumb NHL scouts ignore league play all too often and put a lot of stock into very short-term tournaments (like how the U18 affects rankings a great deal). We can't be seeing any of the World Cup follies that plagued team Slovakia - It's time to bring home the bacon.

- - -

Over in Slovakia, Slovan took a 3-1 series lead with a 2-0 at home in the Satandome.

Slovan has done an excellent job of neutralizing the Orszagh-Handzus-Zednik line, and the other Zvolen lines are not picking up the slack. It really boils down to the Slovan non-NHLers outperforming the Zvolen non-NHLers.

I certainly hope this week brings better news...