Penguins Open the East Final

We are in for a blast of an Eastern Conference Final everyone, as Game 1 between the Penguins & Hurricanes was a pretty good show. The Penguins held on to win the game, 3-2. The game could have easily been a hockey pool dream with a lot more goals than five, but it was the goaltending that was stealing the show as both Marc-Andre Fleury and Cam Ward were making highlight reel saves here, there and everywhere. It was a marvel to watch.

It was a big night, thanks to the Penguins effort for Steve W. in the pool, he knocked the lead down to 14 points from the 16 that Mike had over Benson to start the night, so we do have ourselves a big race coming up.

Having the big nights in the pool for Pittsburgh was Evgeni Malkin (goal & assist) and Marc-Andre Fleury (win), each of them picking up 2 points a piece for their respective pool teams. Steve, as mentioned in the paragraph before, he had both players, as did Trevor, who moved into 6th place in the Standings, so these guys are taking advantage of a good Penguins start.

Thanks to this good Penguins & Red Wings start, I do believe we have some new faces in the top 10 in the standings, but we'll hold off making any new tables until the Stanley Cup Finals. If you're in it, you'll be listed... I promise.

Game-Winning Goal
The game-winning goal bonus point was not handed out in the pool on Monday night, as it was Phillipe Boucher who eventually got credit for the winner. Boucher, who only finished with 9 points in 41 GP for the Pens in the regular season, was not at all qualified for appearing on the sheet, but he really showed everyone his stuff, as he also picked up an assist for a possible 3-point night. Thankfully, no one is going to pick up on that and wonder where is was on the sheet this morning.

Bad news on the horizon for the Hurricanes, as they lost both Tuomo Ruutu (Box 15) and Erik Cole (Box 18) to lower body injuries on Monday night. Both injuriesare thought to be knee injuries and their status is rather foggy for Game 2. Ruutu left the game in the second period after getting a slew foot and Cole took a knee-on-knee hit in the third period, both not returning to action. Standard playoff team response: consider them day-to-day.