Lord Stanley's Thursday Night OT: Stars, Preds Prevail

No doubt about it: the Stanley Cup playoffs are the epitome of sudden in sudden death overtimes.

Just as suddenly, the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators are back in their respective Western Conference semi-finals.

In no other sport can a decider seemingly come out of nowhere.

Sorta like life, itself:

No matter how good the St Louis Blues have it at any given time -- and as good as they've been in recent years, those times are abundant -- their fans can't help looking up constantly to see if a pipe is falling out of the sky.

Dudes should trademark the term so close. Stuff that was clicking in the 6-1 Star-smashing that was Game 3 just wasn't there in Game 4, which gave Dallas' talent the opening to ultimately come up big:

St Louis isn't the only Western club that can't get out of their own way in springtime.

The San José Sharks finally disposed of their annual playoff nemesis -- Darryl Sutter's tenacious Los Angeles Kings -- and took advantage of their home Tank to go up 2-0 in this series.

But as they showed last season, when they took Chicago to the limit, and this season, when they basically escorted Bruce Boudreau to the unemployment line, the Nashville Predators are no joke.

Dudes were the tune in Music City for Game 4, although it took them long enough to prove it:

So now, both of these series stand at 2-2 and have all the trappings of what the Stanley Cup playoffs do best.

Come out of nowhere to get a result.