Weekend Worth of News

On Saturday night, it was an evening of eliminations and the Senators were the first team on Saturday to take the fall.

The Pittsburgh Penguins managed to come back from a 3-0 deficit midway through the 2nd period to take the game in the first overtime period, 4-3. Pascal Dupuis was the biggest point-getter in the game for the Penguins, scoring the overtime winner and adding an assist for a 3-point night.  Marc-Andre Fleury made 28 saves for his 4th win of the playoffs, while Jordan Staal also picked up a pair of assists in the win.

By no means were the Senators supposed to make it out of the first round, according to the picks in the pool.  The Senators only managed to have 16 selections in total between the 56 teams in the pool.  Milan Michalek, who was injured early on in the series, was the most popular Senators player taken in the pool.  He was taken a total of three times.  Injured before the playoffs even started, Alex Kovalev was even taken twice.  Believe it or not, there were three teams banking on the Senators to upset the Penguins, making up for more than half of the 16 selections in the pool.  Gerald, Brian and Yvette all gambled and lost with this series.  They would have been in pretty good shape if the upset came through.

The scoring leaders for the Senators were Daniel Alfredsson and Matt Cullen, each picking up 8 points.  Alfredsson wasn't picked at all, but Cullen had a pair of selections to his name.

Next up on the chopping block was the Colorado Avalanche, as they lost out to a struggling San Jose Sharks team on Saturday night, but I guess they were not really struggling if they came through with the win.

The Sharks managed to put an exclamation point on the series on Saturday night with a 5-2 win in Denver.  When the big stars for the Sharks were not playing the team from San Jose could rely on Joe Pavelski, who scored his 2nd winner of these 2010 playoffs and had a 4-point night to lead the way. Evgeni Nabokov collected his crucial 4th win of the playoffs, only having to make 16 saves to pull it out.

By picking standards, this was not a very close series at all. The Avalanche only had 15 selections in total in the pool, with Brett Clark leading the way with four selections to his name.  Scott Hannan and T.J. Galiardi each had three selections as well, but they were not going to come close to the 138 selections that the Sharks had going into the series.  Another three pool teams picked Colorado for the upset, as Clayton, Gerald (again) and Rachael all lost three players from their teams from this series.

Goaltender Craig Anderson led the Avalanche in pool scoring with 7 points in the series, but wasn't taken at all.  Paul Stastny and Brandon Yip each had 5 points as well, both having some selections in hte series. 

There was one more game to report on from Saturday, but it was in the afternoon.  The Blackhawks managed to take a 3-2 series lead from the Predators, thanks to an overtime win, 5-4.  The Blackhawks managed to score with 13 seconds left in the 3rd period to send the game to overtime, where Marian Hossa won it just over four minutes into the extra frame.  Hossa also added an assist to lead the game with a 3-point night in the pool.

The Blackhawks now have the ability to close out the Predators, but they will have to give it a try in Nashville on Monday night.  The Predators have been able to stay with the Blackhawks in most of these games, so I don't expect them to roll over and just hand the Blackhawks the series.  I wouldn't be surprised if this series needed a seventh game on Wednesday.

Also in Game Five of that series, Hossa picked a 5-minute major for boarding Dan Hamhuis of the Predators in the 3rd period of the game.  He didn't get the game misconduct for his major penalty and he escaped further suspension, according to a statement from the NHL on Sunday.

Only two games went on Sunday and both of them involved the Western Conference.  In the afternoon game, the Phoenix Coyotes had to go through Detroit to avoid elimination and force a 7th game in their series and that they did.  The Coyotes took the game in a decisive manner, winning 5-2 over their Central Division opponents.  Ilya Bryzgalov made 31 saves to help the Coyotes to their win, while Radim Vrbata ended up getting credit for the winning goal and Keith Yandle had a pair of assists in the pool.

The Coyotes will get a chance to use their home-ice advantage on Tuesday night, as they will get a Game Seven in their building.  That should prove to be one hell of a game, don't you think?

On Sunday night, we had ourselves another elimination, as the Canucks patiently waited through Game Six in Los Angeles to pounce on a Kings team that couldn't hold onto a lead in the 3rd period and the Canucks score three to take the win and the series, 4-2.

The Kings did well to have a couple of leads at the end of both the 1st and 2nd periods, but Daniel Sedin had another great 3rd period, scoring the winning goal and adding an assist for another 3-point night. Roberto Luongo had to make 30 saves for the victory, including a massive glove save on Ryan Smyth in the 2nd period, which eventually shifted the momentum in favour of the Canucks.

For the pool, the Kings were a mildly popular team, with four teams in the pool (Liam, Madison, Tim L. & Wayne) picking them to upset the Canucks in the 1st round.  In total, the Kings had 26 selections in the pool, which is in no way a massive pull, getting 15.5% of their maximum allowable picks.  Alex Frolov, Wayne Simmonds and Jack Johnson were the most popular Kings in the pool, having five selections each.  The Canucks did have the lowest number of picks for the favourite teams in the West, having only 74.4% of their maximum allowable picks, so there wasn't a lot of faith in them as a whole.

The Kings top players in the series were their two young franchise defensemen, Drew Doughty and Jack Johnson, each having 7 points in the pool.  You could almost say that having two defensemen as your leading scorers in the series is a sure-fire way to lose, since most teams really need their forwards to score, as it is their job.

Game-Winning Goals
Okay, time for the bonus point recap for the weekend.  Pascal Dupuis eliminated the Senators with his goal, which was good for the pool.  Joe Pavelski scored his 2nd game-winner to knock out the Avalanche for this year.  Marian Hossa came out of the penalty box from his major penalty to help the Blackhawks to a series lead.  Radim Vrbata picked up his first game-winner of the playoffs to force Game Seven in the Coyotes' series against the Red Wings.  Daniel Sedin picked up the last dagger in the heart against the Kings for the Canucks. 

After the weekend, there is a tie for the bonus points lead in the pool again, as both Russ D. and Carl D. each finished up with 9 winners a piece.  Both teams are sitting right next to each other in the standings, 14th & 13th, respectively, so they'll need some more bonus points if they want to move up to the top of the standings.

Tonight's Games
Three elimination games on Monday night, meaning we'll probably see some picks fall to the wayside when it's all said and done. Opening up the evening, the Canadiens will try and work their magic again against Washington, looking to force a Game Seven at home in Montreal.  The Habs were able to stave off elimination once, but twice is really tempting fate.  They will have to get another solid performance out of their defense, trying to keep the offense of the Capitals to a minimum.

The Sabres also managed to save themselves once from the brink of elimination, but they go right back to the pan, trying not to fall into the fire. Game Six in this series goes in Boston, so it's a home game for the Bruins to try and eliminate their division rivals. The Sabres were favourites in this series, but there are plenty of Bruins picks to really make it interesting. If the Sabres can manage to get past the Bruins on Monday night, they will be able to close out the series in Buffalo on Wednesday.

Finally, the Nashville Predators now find themselves behind the 8-Ball, after their thrilling overtime loss to the Blackhawks.  Nashville has played pretty well in this series and likely will put up a pretty good fight on Monday night, but you may want to argue that they should be one's in the driver's seat in this series, after possibly getting the raw end of the deal in the Hossa/Hamhuis situation.  The good news is that Hamhuis will be in the line-up for the Predators on Monday night, so he'll be out to settle a score.

David Legwand leads the Nashville pool players with 8 points in this series, while Patrick Kane leads the Chicago pool players with 6 points.