Game Two in Vancouver, a Quick Preview for the Pool

With a couple days off in between, this series is already beginning to drag. I don't think it is quite as bad for the players, who get some quality practice and rest in, nursing some injuries and such, but for the fans and the poolies, the wait is excruciating.

Saturday night will see the two teams back in action, the Canucks leading the series 1-0 after Wednesday's thrilling, last second 1-0 win. Both teams matched each other for tempo and physical play in Game One, but one costly turnover at the Boston blueline sent the series the wrong way for the Bruins.

Both Tim Thomas and Roberto Luongo were busy and very good on either end of the ice, Thomas easily facing the most difficult shots and was up to task for most of them.

Neither team was very good on their power play on Wednesday night and that would likely be the first thing that either coach would be looking at in the video room, looking to make improvements with the man-advantage.  With the number of penalties taken in the first two periods, a working power play will be a must.

For both sides, it's hard not to expect the same sort of game in Game Two as it was in Game One, but if the costly mistake comes much earlier in the game, I could also see this one getting a little out of hand on the scoresheet.  With emotions and tempers running quite high already, I think Game Two will also be full of fireworks, no matter what the score ends up being.

	Langdon River Dogs	Tryst'n'Grant	All She Wrote	Superstar	Kalenab	Granny Smith	seaherwet	Thieves on the Cheechoo Express	Pucking Luck	Hollywoods Heroes
	284 points	-1 point	-16	-27	-27	-28	-28	-28	-29	-29
Daniel Sedin (1)	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x	x
Henrik Sedin (2)	x	x	x		x	x	x	x	x	x
Ryan Kesler (3)				x			x
Roberto Luongo (12)	x	x	x	x	x	x		x		x
Patrice Bergeron (13)						x	x
David Krejci (14)	x					x	x
Nathan Horton (16)	x				x			x
Michael Ryder (18)				x	x				x
Brad Marchand (19)				x				x		x
Tomas Kaberle (20)			x
Zdeno Chara (21)		x	x	x	x				x	x
Johnny Boychuk (23)		x
Tim Thomas (24)	x	x	x			x	x	x	x	x

In the pool, the top 10 teams didn't change in Game One, but the positions did see some shifting. Pucking Luck and seaherwet fell out of the top five, dropping down to 9th and 7th, respectively, thanks to not picking Luongo and/or Ryan Kesler.  If the Canucks go on to do some real damage, Luongo was picked as one of the players that will break these two teams and Game One was immediate proof of that theory.

Saying that, if Thomas can pull off something similar in Game Two, both Superstar and Kalenab will have the same problem, likely dropping out of the top five as well.

The top three look pretty safe, but if Boston can get on the board in Game Two, the real games begin.