Early Line on Picks to Click

Well, the Lounge is still standing, though the trees are swaying and the wind is howling outside. Looks a lot like Seattle outside. Ah Seattle, those were the days. Petr Nedved and the Seattle Thunderbirds were on a roll in the Western Hockey League, Nirvana and Alice in Chains were starting to tear things up and the lineup of Pearl Jam was starting to come together.

I was doing a lot of coffee at various joints. Also on the playlist were stellar fries and shakes from Dick's and some seriously tasty Malaysian food from the Rasa Malaysia joint along Green Lake. Another previous life, playing in the extended darkness of the Emerald City, remembered fondly here.

OK, back to reality and the matter of hockey today in the Lounge.

Inside, we'll have Chicago at Philadelphia at 1 pm Eastern on the Center Ice package. Right after that one, the big screen will show Florida at San Jose (4 pm Eastern start). After a break for some dinner, it's time to serve up Phoenix at Carolina (7 pm Eastern) and then Ottawa at Vancouver (10 pm Eastern).

All of the above are coming to the Lounge via the Center Ice package. We'll have look-ins on Edmonton-Toronto, Boston-Montreal, New Jersey-N.Y. Islanders, Buffalo-Detroit and St. Louis-Columbus.

Out of those games, we'll take the best one and put it on an Internet radio feed for the later periods.

We'll also keep an eye on the NCAA conference tournaments and the big Minnetonka-Edina final in the boys Minnesota state Class AA hockey tournament, the last of which will be streamed live on 45.grandstadium.tv. After last night -- four OT periods for Minnetonka vs. Hill-Murray and 5 OT periods for Quinnipiac and Union in the ECAC playoffs -- we're hoping for some early decisions, albeit with good end-to-end action.

There's Pearl Jam to catch on "Saturday Night Live" and then there's the hour lost to the conversion to Daylight Savings Time. Gotta catch up on all this. Snooze, you lose.