Stanley Cup Playoffs, day 45: Calder Cup Final begins

The AHL's Calder Cup Finals will be the lead story for the next little while, as the Binghamton Senators get set to take on the Houston Aeros for the championship. Game one is tonight.

The series marks the first time the B-Sens have ever made the Calder Cup Finals, but the Aeros have been their twice before, winning the title in both 1999 and 2003.

The matchup I'll be watching most closely tonight is that between Matt Hackett and Robin Lehner. The two played against each other in the first round of the OHL playoffs last season, a series in which Hackett's Plymouth Whalers beat Lehner's Soo Greyhounds in five games. Each have had solid playoffs so far, although Lehner's has been the more impressive, but this series will show us how far each has come in a year of AHL development.

And as you may have heard on Twitter, Silver Seven and Hockey Wilderness, SBN's Minnesota Wild blog, have made a friendly wager on the outcome of this series between our respective teams' minor-league affiliates: The loser will post a congratulatory story praising the winning side for the prowess of their organizational depth, and shall also change their blog's tag line for the remainder of the month of June. Needless to say, a lot is at stake in the series.

But there will also be an NHL game tonight, and it's guaranteed to be the last until the Stanley Cup Finals begin.

Boston and Tampa face-off in game seven tonight to determine which team will take on the Vancouver Canucks to compete for hockey's holy grail. At this point, I hardly care which team wins this series... I just want the NHL calendar to fast-forward a month so we can get to the Entry Draft.

Join us here to talk about both games this evening, and go B-Sens!