One Game 7 Down... Two to Go.

Well, the storybook series has come to an end and it came to an end rather abruptly. Those expecting a hard nosed, back-and-forth affair saw that for only about 5 minutes before the Penguins started going to town on the poor Capitals, who ended up losing the game, 6-2.

The Penguins were led by Sidney Crosby in Game 7, just who Pittsburgh should be looking to in a situation like that. He finished the game with a pair of goals and an assist for a 3-point evening. Other Penguins having good nights in Game 7 were Evgeni Malkin, Bill Guerin and Marc-Andre Fleury, who all finished with 2 points for the pool. Malkin had a pair of assists, Guerin scored the winner and Fleury picked up the win.

The elimination of the Capitals took away 137 selections from pool teams, but they were not the favourite between the two teams, as the Penguins move on with 140 selections, but it was just that close in the series... except for Game 7. Alex Ovechkin led all Capitals in pool points with 22 in the playoffs, 15 against the Penguins in Round 2. Mike Green was the most popular Capitals player on the sheet with 30 selections to his name, but unfortunately, he wasn't the player that he was in the regular season and only managed 9 points in the playoffs. The team will be missed.

The Penguins not only beat the Capitals, but they received some great news on Wednesday night, as Sergei Gonchar returned to the line-up, meaning that his knee injury was not as bad as once feared. The Pens rearguard has been good in this post-season, scoring 2 goals and 8 assists, plus he's picked up a game-winner bonus point in the pool, for 11 points. Going forward, the five teams who picked up Gonchar should pleased at his arrival.

Tonight's Games

Well, Thursday night will be a night of elimination. The Ducks & Red Wings go in the first scheduled game of the night, seeing a 5pm MT start on CBC. The Red Wings allowed for a Game 7 to happen after they couldn't bring their A-game to Anaheim and beat the Ducks there. The Ducks, on the other hand, are out to make them pay for their mistakes. An Anaheim victory tonight would be a major upset in the pool, as the Red Wings, who have 91.3% of their possible selections, would be eliminated by a team who only have 15.3% of theirs. Ouch.


Another possible huge upset will get going at 5:30pm MT on TSN, as the Hurricanes will look to upset the pool favourites, the Bruins, and end their best year in a long time. The 'Canes have somewhat rolled over for the Bruins in the last couple games, after being up 3-1 in the series, they have failed to close the whole thing out, giving the Bruins the momentum. The Bruins will try and bring out all of their guns again tonight, as they don't want to leave any doubt or give Carolina a chance to get into this game, so it should be a doozy.