No one hates this Instant Classic, Every-Game-Is-The-Greatest-Ever ESPN crap more than me. But the bottom line is that there’s no better time to watch the NBA or NHL. Here are five quick hit thoughts:

1. There isn’t a bigger wild-card in sports than a hot goalie. I’m not giving the Conn Smythe to Simeon Varlamov just yet. But the second period save against Sid the Kid was completely insane, all but giving the game the the Caps. Patrick Roy, JS Giguere, and late-90s Dominik Hasek are examples of how one guy can ride a sickening streak to the finals. It’s like a corner picking off half of the passes thrown in the Super Bowl. That big of a deal.

2. Bulls-Celtics is the type of series that builds a long-standing rivalry. Whichever team wins this series will have earned it. Whichever team loses this series will be watching tape of it for years. This is Ali-Frazier I. Who knew Joakim Noah would actually look like a lottery pick?

Coaches or CEOs? Any ideas?

3. I know where Bin Laden is: he’s a coach in the NHL. If you lined up all of the coaches in the NHL and dropped three CFOs in there with them, I wouldn’t be able to tell who was who. Other than Lindy Ruff, these are the least recognizable men in North America. And I only say Ruff because he keeps tape under his moustache.

4. Add Derrick Rose to the ridiculous influx of young stars. LeBron, Melo, D-Wade, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, and Brandon Roy. If the Bulls can knock out the Celtics, Rose will be the reason why. Sure, this series could have been over if KG was playing, but then we wouldn’t get all the weird hyphy business on the sideline. It’s like he’s trying to chin-butt the officials from twenty feet away.

5. There’s nothing you can do about Alex Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby is one of the best players to come into the league in a long time. He’s also arguably the most marketable player since Eric Lindros. But Ovechkin is a weird combination of Bryan Trottier and Pavel Bure. All the Pens’ defenders knew where he was at all times, and he still had a goal and two others that rang off the post. Throw in a few huge hits and it’s really hard to argue who ‘s the LeBron of the NHL. If he could string an English sentence together and got a couple veneers, he’d be doing a Chunky Soup commercial with his gigantic, stoic Russian mom. Add her into the coaches lineup…still, no idea.