No More Wild

Well, the Northwest Division champions are out as the first Western Conference team is now elminated from play. The Minnesota Wild lost Game 6 in Denver, 2-1, and will have the summer to think of what went wrong when the playoffs started.

The Wild were a pool favourite to win the series, getting outselected, 112-29. If they did win the series, there would be a lot of happy campers thinking that the pool lost so many excess selections, but that is not the case. The Avalanche are a team that are getting much stronger and now should be considered to do bigger & better things, since they get at least an extra day off to their opponents, heading into the second round.

On the Wild side, the most popular player to leave the sheets was Martin Skoula (Box 11). He was selected 7 times, out of the 29 total.

As for Game Winners, there were some key goals to keep a couple series alive, whilst one to knock out the Wild. In Washington, the Capitals forced a Game 6 as Alexander Semin (Box 15) scored in the third period to give the Caps a 3-1 lead, only to let one more in against to finish, 3-2. In Boston, the Bruins forced a Game 7 with a 5-4 win at home, thanks to a late Marco Sturm (Box 14) marker in a wild third period, where 6 goals were scored. Finally, to eliminate the Wild, it was a Ryan Smyth (Box 7) marker that was the final dagger in the heart, back in the second period of the game. The Wild just didn't have enough going for them going into Game 6 and there just wasn't enough heart to move back to Minnesota for Game 7.

In the early game on Sunday, the Predators will try and use home-ice to their advantage, yet again, to force Game 7 in their series versus the Red Wings. The home team has won every game in this series so far and there is no reason why this game should be any different. It sure doesn't play well for the Predators, as Game 7 will be back in Detroit, but a good showing at home could bring some serious momentum out to the Motor City. The Red Wings are likely going to start Chris Osgood (non-pool) this afternoon, while Dan Ellis (non-pool) will likely get the start again for Nashville.

It's unclear whether or not Nashville will have both Jason Arnott (Box 1) and/or David Legwand (Box 5) for this contest. Arnott supposedly missed Game 5 with the flu and Legwand was out due to his deep bruise on his knee.

At 6pm MT, the Flames will try and get themselves back to San Jose with a win in Game 6 tonight in Calgary. This series hasn't been dominated by the home team at all, so the chances are seemingly greater for the Sharks to end the series than the Red Wings in the series above, but it's still far from a guarantee. The Flames will give Miikka Kiprusoff (Box 12) yet another go against his former team, while the league's win leader in the regular season, Evgeni Nabokov (Box 12) will undoubtedly be pencilled in for the start tonight.

Finally, the late game at 8pm MT, the Ducks, who were already behind the 8-Ball once, will try and stave off elimination yet again against the Stars, this time at away in Dallas. The Stars could upset the defending champions, which would be a pretty huge upset in the playoffs and in the pool, as the Ducks have outselected the Stars, 143-44. Those who have chosen some Dallas Stars will be looking very pretty, especially if they go long into the Playoffs. Of course, the goaltending match-up shouldn't change. Jean-Sebastien Giguere (Box 12) will take on Marty Turco (Box 12) again tonight for a good share, if not all, the marbles.