More Fisticuffs, A 2012 Playoffs Special

It seems like almost every series has had its fair share of fisticuffs and bruhahas on the ice and on Sunday afternoon/evening, it really didn't look like anything was going to change.  There is just so much hate between the teams that are taking the ice and for those series that haven't boiled over, there has been little bits of nastiness that add some flavour to the joy of the playoffs.

With the NHL coming down on Rangers forward Carl Hagelin for three games and one game for Senators defenseman Matt Carkner, the league is showing that they are watching for those certain offenders with the same mentality in mind as what they had in the regular season, although some would like to debate that they are not.

Nevertheless, it looks as though the Stanley Cup has never been worth more than it is now and teams are scrapping and clawing, just to get a chance to play for it in June.

Game Three in Detroit between the Red Wings and Predators was generally about the road team on Sunday afternoon, as Nashville really came out with a big head of steam and put the gears on their hosts and had some finish to their game as well.

The Predators were able to close off the Red Wings at every turn, making life difficult for their superstars and they were also able to find ways through the Detroit defense for some quality scoring chances and fast breaks to the net.  Nashville took an early 1-0 lead in the 1st period, added an early goal in the 2nd and never really looked back, surviving a late Detroit push for a 3-2 win in the end.

In the pool, defenseman Kevin Klein had a goal and an assist, Sergei Kostitsyn scored the winning goal and Pekka Rinne made 33 saves for the win.  On the other side, Pavel Datsyuk made the post with a goal and an assist of his own.

Nashville will now carry a 2-1 series lead into Tuesday night, Game Four, back in Detroit.

In the line-up, the Predators finally inserted Box 7 forward Jordin Tootoo for a little extra spunk on the road, but the grinding forward was only limited to just over six minutes worth of ice-time in the game.  Tootoo has now become a real fourth-liner on the team, almost a fringe player, with all the healthy scratches he has had to sit through down the stretch.  He doesn't have a great deal of value to the pool this year.

How entertaining was the Flyers and Penguins game on Sunday afternoon?  This game had just about everything that you could have ever wanted from this series... 12 goals, 158 minutes in penalties, superstars throwing punches, plenty of barking, poor sportsmanship and some great post-game interviews.

In the end, the Flyers are in full control of this series, after thumping the Penguins, 8-4.  The 3-0 series lead now puts Pittsburgh behind the 8-ball, with no signs of hope or life on the bench.  Even in Game Three, the Penguins lost the desire to skate very hard, as the Flyers continued to pump goals behind back-up goaltender Brent Johnson in the 3rd period, after Marc-Andre Fleury got yanked.  Still the name of the game was all the post-whistle gatherings and dust-ups, to which there were many.  If the Penguins are going to go down in flames, it looks like they may try to take some of these Flyers down with them.

In an 8-4 drubbing, there were far more points to be had and for the most part, a lot of them were collected by the pool.  For Philadelphia, Matt Read scored a pair of goals, including the winner, for a 3-point afternoon to lead the way, along with Daniel Briere, who had 2 goals and an assist and Jaromir Jagr, who had 3 assists.  Braydon Coburn, Wayne Simmonds, Max Talbot, Claude Giroux and Ilya Bryzgalov all had 2 points each in this game as well, so you could have done really well, if you had the right combination of Flyers in this one.  For the Penguins, James Neal had 2 goals and an assist, while Jordan Staal, Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin each had a pair of points as well in the game.

With all of that in the books, the Flyers can close out the series as early as Wednesday night, as Game Four will go at the Wells Fargo Center, in front of their own home crowd.  It's hard to believe that a sweep was really possible in this series, as most were definitely hoping that it would go seven games, but I suppose there is always a chance of a major push back from the Penguins.

In Florida, the Panthers and Devils were only playing in Game Two of their series, one that isn't gaining much steam in the conversation forums, but after watching the 3rd period of this one, there is actually some life in these two teams and they may be able to provide an adequate finale to the first round of the playoffs, if it does go the distance.

Game Two played out a lot like Game One, but with the teams and their fortunes reversed for the most part.  The Panthers got out to 3-0 lead by the end of the 2nd period, but the Devils made a bit of a push back in the 3rd period, scoring two quick goals in less than three minutes early in the 3rd and made the Panthers sweat out the remaining portion of the final frame.  The Panthers added an empty-netter to finish the game with a 4-2 result and the series is now tied at one game a piece.

As for pool scoring, Stephen Weiss scored his first 2 career playoff goals, while Jose Theodore made 22 stops for the win, each picking up 2 points on the evening.  Neither Weiss or Theodore were picked in the pool this year, so this ends up being rather moot.

In a series where it may have been thought that the Devils would roll over the Panthers quite handily, it turns out that there could be a real contest in here yet.

Well, other than the large number of critics that are out there for the Canucks, who would say just about anything, including the Kings were going to sweep Vancouver, there didn't seem to be a real consensus about the actual possibility of a sweep, especially since the Canucks were one of the Cup favourites going into the Spring Dance.  Well, the Kings, in front of their superstar keeper, Jonathan Quick, are now on the verge of eliminating the President's Trophy winner and this series could be done as early as Wednesday night.

The Kings weathered a much better effort from the Canucks on Sunday night, as the visitors were far more disciplined (for the most part) and the efforts were stronger in front of Cory Schneider, who got the start instead of Roberto Luongo.  In the end, it was quite the goaltending battle, as there was no score into the 3rd period, but just after the 6-minute mark of the 3rd, the Kings pounced on a rebound that came out from Schneider and one goal was all the Kings needed in front of Quick.

Quick was perfect, making 34 stops on Sunday night, where the shots were of mixed quality, some of which were of reasonable difficulty, while the Kings kept the Canucks out to the perimeter and the lanes were open for their goaltender to see them.  This was a solid 4-point effort for Quick, to which three teams in the pool cashed in on in the end.  Dustin Brown was the only goal scorer in the game, picking up the bonus point for the pool.

The Canucks are now stuck behind the 8-ball in this series, with a huge hole to climb out of, if they can at all.  The likelihood is very improbable and should not be counted upon to actually happen.  Game Four will go in Los Angeles on Wednesday night as well, as it turns out the middle of the week looks like the best time to start eliminating teams in these 2012 playoffs and the Canucks could very well be the first or second team to go this year.

Game-Winning Goals
There really hasn't been much of a race in the bonus points side of things in this pool this year.  Sergei Kostitsyn of the Predators, Matt Read of the Flyers and Dustin Brown of the Kings registered all the winners in the pool on Sunday night, while Marcel Goc of the Panthers got credit for the winner for the Panthers, taking a point away from the pool.  Still teams with 2 GWGs in the scoring summary, but instead of five teams with two winners, like there were two mornings ago, there are now six teams.  

Incredibly, at this point last year, teams had upwards of 6 bonus points, which is all kinds of crazy.  The bonus points have not been applied with such regularity this year and I think scoring is down across the board.

Individually, we now have 13 players that have scored a game-winner in the pool, but no one wants to take the lead for themselves just yet.

Tonight's Games

Three games will go on Monday night, all Game Threes in series that are all tied at one a piece.

The Senators might have Daniel Alfredsson back right away after leaving Saturday's game with an upper-body injury after taking a Carl Hagelin elbow to the head.  Alfredsson is reportedly going to be a game-time decision after taking the morning skate on Monday.  Both Hagelin and Matt Carkner will not be in their line-ups, due to suspensions from Game Two.

The Bruins and Capitals will continue their low-scoring series in Washington on Monday night and there do not appear to be many line-up changes, if any, that would relate to the pool.  Both teams are playing some real tight hockey and they are keeping the shenanigans to a minimum, but I wonder how long that will really last, with a Bruins team, likely itching to get their gloves off.

Finally, in the late game, the huge dust-up at the end of the Blues and Sharks game on Saturday provides the perfect backdrop for some intrigue going into Game Three in San Jose.  There were over 80 minutes in penalties handed out at the final buzzer and if there is any meaning to it all, it may just carry over at puck drop on Monday night... or so we can hope.