Saturday's Playoff Action

Well, I'll be honest, when I picked the picture out this afternoon, I thought Henrik Lundqvist's 4 points was going to be enough to stand alone for the honour of having his picture on the page today. Much to my surprise, two other players also completed the feat of 4 points on Saturday, which included Chris Osgood and Marc Savard. I don't think anyone has all three of these guys, but if you did, that would be 12 points between three players. That would surely be a huge boost to any team.

Lundqvist made 35 saves in a white-knuckle win against the Capitals to earn the shutout. The Rangers went up 1-0 on the Capitals early on in the first period and managed to hang on, thanks to the stellar play of their number one goalie.

Osgood made 25 saves, but his day was a little easier against the Blue Jackets, as he earned the second win in the series for Detroit.

Having a huge day for the Bruins was Savard, who was in on four of the five goals in Boston's 5-1 win over Montreal. Savard had a pair of goals and a pair of assists in the win. Now Boston has a 2-0 series lead, as they head to Montreal for next week.

In the day's other game, the Blackhawks managed to come back again from a 2-0 deficit and beat the Flames 3-2 for a 2-0 series lead. The Blackhawks and Flames will now travel to Calgary for Game 3 on Monday night.

Game-Winning Goals
There was only one goal in the Rangers/Capitals game, so it just had to be the winning goal as well. Ryan Callahan, taken only once in the pool, earned the bonus point for the Rangers. It's always good to see a bonus point given to one team that takes a chance on a guy. In Detroit, it was also the first goal that turned out to be the winner, but it wasn't the only goal scored in the game. Brian Rafalski opened the scoring for the Red Wings and they never looked back. Rafalski was taken 11 times in the pool and gave a solid bonus point out to the pool. It turned out to be a bit more of a scoring game in Boston, but the bonus point was not claimed by a player in the pool. Chuck Kobasew did not have enough among the rest of the depth on the team to make the Playoff Pool sheet, but he has been great for the Bruins so far in the playoffs. Finally, the comeback in Chicago was capped off by Jonathan Toews, who already had a goal scored in the game. Toews managed to put a big smile on the faces of eight of his team owners.

The Bruins got the long-term injury news that they didn't want to hear, but Matt Hunwick will now be out of the line-up indefinitely, as he did have his spleen removed on Saturday afternoon, because it had ruptured that morning. Hunwick will be questionable to start the regular season as well, as it could take months to be 100% from a spleenectomy.

The Canadiens are trying to do something right, but the moves to swap Sergei Kostitsyn into the line-up for Tomas Plekanec was not enough on Saturday night. The coaching staff need to make something happen if the Canadiens are to pull a win out of this series. Between the two players on the Sheet, there are only four selections, meaning that they won't have a big impact either in or out to the whole pool.

The Rangers were happy to have Chris Drury back in the line-up on Saturday afternoon, since he missed Game 1 with an undisclosed injury. Drury is a key member of the Rangers forward unit, both offensively and defensively. Drury has been selected only once in the pool, so his return doesn't have a big impact on the pool.

Tonight's Games

Sunday's schedule is again four games deep... seeing three series going into Game 3, while Game 2 will be played in another series. Sunday will get started nice & early again, at 1pm MT, as the Penguins will be in Philadelphia for a hostile reception against the Flyers. The Flyers also have their backs against the wall, down 2-0 against the Penguins, so this has the makings of a rough & tumble game with plenty of entertainment. The second game on the schedule is at 5pm MT, as the Canucks travelled to St. Louis to get a complete leg up on the Blues. This series has been very one-sided, thanks to the likes of Roberto Luongo in net for the Canucks. At 5:30pm MT, the Carolina Hurricanes will host the New Jersey Devils in Game 3 of their series, the only series currently tied at one. The Hurricanes won Game 2 to even out the series and will look to use home ice to their advantage. Finally, in the late game, the Sharks and Ducks will finally get to play Game 2 of their series. The Ducks earned a good first game win on Thursday night and willl try to start the upset train on it's tracks to uprooting the President's Trophy winner.

Should also be a good day for the pool!