East Preview for Wednesday Night

The Habs and Penguins are up for a massive Game Seven on Wednesday night in Pittsburgh, as this series has been destined to have a Game Seven from the end of Game Two, where the Canadiens managed to work their way past the Penguins with some good old fashioned work ethic (and good goaltending).  The series has been truly back-and-forth with neither team getting away from each other beyond one game, so picking the winner in Game Seven isn't as easy as saying so & so is the better team.  There are plenty of reasons on both sides as to why these teams have made it this far.

Both teams are 2-1 at home, so home ice does have some play in this series, but the Penguins have lost at home and that should give the Canadiens enough hope to want to continue. The Canadiens have also won a Game Seven in these playoffs already, beating the best team in the NHL (in the regular season), the Washington Capitals.

Scoring in this series has been pretty even in this series. Marc-Andre Fleury leads the series in pool points with 8, Sergei Gonchar, Mike Cammalleri and Brian Gionta each have 7 points, while Jaroslav Halak has 6 points. I don't think there is much difference there, except two players that should be scoring for Montreal are carrying the load and will have to continue that into Game Seven if the Habs are to make it through.

This one is just too even to call at the minute.

This is preview number three with the Flyers behind the 8-Ball and the Bruins are really tempting fate in this series, letting Philadelphia hang on like this.  The Flyers can now force a Game Seven of their own with a win at home tonight against the Bruins, which you can watch the end of, if you're watching the Penguins and Canadiens play early on, as they've been staggered by an hour.  The Flyers have been scratching and clawing their way back into this series that has been full of injuries, to which they will have to look another big one square in the face again.

Brian Boucher will not be getting the start for the Flyers in this game, since he is now done for the playoffs with MCL problems in both of his knees.  Michael Leighton will now take over as the Flyers number one goalie and he's fresh off the Injured Reserve as well and poised to steal more points away from the pool, if the Flyers can continue through. 

I am going to go out and say that I would like to see the Canadiens beat the Penguins tonight and the Bruins to finish off the Flyers as well, just so we can have ourselves a proper Eastern Conference Final with a couple of good Original Six teams. That would make for some proper hockey watching through to the Stanley Cup Finals, with a chance of an all Original Six match-up there as well.  That would be mighty exciting, if you asked me.  The traditionalist in me would really like that to happen, just for the sake of a good story to tell.