Thursday Night's Playoff Review

It's amazing what one really late night can do to a guy, his hockey pool and his blog, especially when you have to throw in a regular job in between all of that. Yes, it was a bit of a mad last couple of days, but I'm here finally to right the wrongs and get my review done here right away. I've got eight games to go through, plus a little bit of pool news, so I better hop to it.

I will start with the pool news, as all of the teams have now been entered and accounted for.  The final number isn't too bad, as we have 40 teams in the pool and at $10 an entry, we have a prize pot of $400.  I am kind of leaning towards having a winner-take-all scenario, but maybe a 2nd place prize may be in order as well.  Nevertheless, I should have a decision for Sunday, regardless.

Also, links to team pages should start showing up on Saturday afternoon and I'll slowly make my way through the standings, making sure everyone's team is up.  Until then, you can see how the picks have been broken down through the 40 teams, by the picks by box link on the standings (or the one right here).

A reminder, the injury/news page will keep you up-to-date with who didn't play in games in these playoffs and there will be constant links posted to the blog site, which should give you the gist of the general information you're going to want about the player you're looking for.

Now, let's get to the games from Thursday night!

As expected, I have to kick off on the Thursday action, which sees us being in New York, as the Rangers, the top seed in the East, took on the Ottawa Senators in Game One of their Quarter-Finals series.  The Rangers go into the series as fairly heavy favourites in the pool, as the Playoff Pool suggests, the Rangers have 105 of 120 selections to their name, compared to only 22 to the Senators.

On Thursday, the Rangers were exactly the team that I had outlined in the Eastern Conference match-ups, as they were very hard on the physical play, but played with a loose quality, which led to a lot of mistakes, often had to be cleaned up by Henrik Lundqvist.  Well, the Senators had their chances, putting 32 shots on net, some of reasonable quality and Lundqvist was able to stop 30 of them in a 4-2 win.  The Rangers may have dominated the scoreboard for the better of the game, but the Senators didn't appear to be that far away, competition-wise, for the Rangers, so this series may have some life in it.

Three players qualified to get the mention in the blog today, as Lundqvist picked up points for the win, Artem Anisimov picked up a pair of assists in the game and Brian Boyle notched the first tallied GWG of the pool season, earning the bonus point on the night.

The Senators were able to have a full compliment of pool players on their side on Thursday night, as Chris Neil came back from whatever minor upper-body ailment had him miss the final regular season game of the season. The biggest impact he had on the game was a 10-minute misconduct, which also saw the Rangers' Mike Rupp head off to the box as well, getting under each other's skin.  The Senators will need Neil to be at his best when they take on the Rangers on Saturday, as he can be an important piece to help win games at the end of the day.

In the second game of the night, it was a true goaltending duel between the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals, in Game One of the two-seven slotted series in the Eastern Conference.  On one side, you have the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Tim Thomas, and on the other side, you have young injury-replacement, Braden Holtby, locking horns in a scoreless draw into overtime.  Unfortunately for the kid, 78 seconds into overtime, the night came to an end with a huge blast in the face-off circle from Chris Kelly and the Bruins came away with a 1-0 win to take the opening match in the series.

For the most part, it was the Holtby Show, having to make 29 saves, keeping his Capitals in it, who could only muster 17 shots on Thomas on the other side of the ice.  As experience goes, the Bruins ploughed through and they were able to give their keeper the first shutout of these playoffs, giving Thomas 4 points in the pool and making good for the five teams that picked him on the Eastern Conference side.

As it was mentioned, Kelly was the only goal scorer in the game and he belongs in the Box 18 of the pool and was taken by three teams this year.  He nets those teams a bonus point and was the only other player in this game to have more than 1 point.

The Boston Bruins were also quite pleased to have Box 23 defenseman Johnny Boychuk back in their line-up on Thursday night, after he missed the last few regular season games with a knee sprain. Boychuk was a huge part of the Bruins' run last Spring and four teams are hoping that they can capitalize on that kind of success again this year. Boychuk wasn't necessarily popular, but he could be very important in this playoff run.

From what I had heard, the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues put on quite a good show in Game One of their Western Conference Quarter-Finals series, with a whole lot of back-and-forth action and a period and a bit of overtime to get us all warmed up.

Between the two goalies, Antti Niemi and Jaroslav Halak, they had made 71 saves in a 3-2 double overtime game and it was Niemi who came out on the victorious side, making 40 of those saves for the victory.  The Blues are going to be strong on the Sharks throughout this series and going to double overtime may be the sign that this series could be pretty awesome in the end.

The big player at the end of the night for the pool was Martin Havlat, who scored a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, for a 3-point night.  He led all players in scoring for the pool in the game, followed by Niemi with his 2 points for the victory, while Dan Boyle and Ryane Clowe each picked up a pair of assists in the victory as well.

The Blues are heavy favourites in this series to pull it out, having 88 of 120 possible selections, compared to 23 or the Sharks.  Four selections for Havlat, six for Clowe, one for Niemi and none for Boyle, so there were some points left on the board.

The Sharks were without one of their playoff-experienced veterans on Thursday night, as Box 11 defenseman Colin White was held out of the line-up with an upper-body injury.  White has won Cups with the Devils in his career, which makes him into a valuable asset for the Sharks and that is one of the main reasons he has been included on the sheet this year, as that experience can come in handy down the line.  White was taken once in the pool, but for that one team, I cannot really offer much for details at the moment, except that he is listed as out day-to-day.

Finally, for Thursday night's action, the late game saw the Pacific Division winning Phoenix Coyotes take on the 2010 Stanley Cup winners, Chicago Blackhawks, in the three-six slot of the playoffs.  The Coyotes won the division on the shoulders of their goaltender Mike Smith and they were certainly not prepared to stop doing that, especially while the goalie was still hot.

The Game One performance for Smith had its ups and downs, but at the end of the night, Smith finished with  43 saves and a 3-2 overtime win over the Blackhawks, as the Coyotes took a 1-0 series lead.  Smith's name has been synonymous with Vezina Trophy talk since the end of the regular season and why not?  The Coyotes were able to slug out a victory, taking a 2-1 lead in the 2nd period and then almost making it out of the game with a win in regulation, except for a Brent Seabrook goal with 15 seconds left to send it to overtime.

In the end, it was a Martin Hanzal midway through the first overtime period that ended up winning it for the home side and the game was Phoenix's and home-ice advantage still stood tall.  Hanzal and Smith were the only two Coyotes to finish with 2 points out of this game, Hanzal picking up the bonus point for the winner.  For the Blackhawks, their captain, who returned from injury, Jonathan Toews finished with a goal and an assist in the game, while Patrick Kane had a pair of assists as well.

The Blackhawks are the favourites in this series, but it is one of the closer series match-ups in the pool in this opening round, as the selection difference is 78 to 38 for Chicago.  It isn't the closest in the West, but an upset in the selections could make the pool a little bit more interesting, for sure.

As it was mentioned before, the Blackhawks saw the return of their captain Jonathan Toews, after he missed the last 22 regular season games with a concussion. It looked like his impact was immediate, but not all encompassing in Game One, but at least it's a start. Chicago would likely fall fairly quickly, if they didn't see the return of Toews. The team also welcomed back Dave Bolland, who missed the last couple of regular season games with a lower-body injury.  His impact is at both ends of the ice, but in a loss, he was nowhere to be seen on the scoresheet, which hurts Chicago and the 12 teams that picked him in the pool.

The Phoenix Coyotes received a little bit of a scare in their opening game, as Box 2 forward Radim Vrbata left the game after being hit into the boards by Andrew Shaw, due to an upper-body injury. The word is that Vrbata has been able to work out with the team on Friday, so his status for Saturday's game is questionable, at best.  Vrbata was clutch for the Coyotes in the regular season and the dogs will need him to be at his best, if they hope to give the Blackhawks the boot out of the playoffs.  Vrbata was taken once in the pool, so someone is hoping that he is better soon.

So, a quick recap of the bonus points is necessary and making up for the opening night goose egg that was laid, all four games had winning goals scored by pool players.  Brian Boyle of the Rangers, Chris Kelly of the Bruins, Martin Havlat of the Sharks and Martin Hanzal of the Coyotes, all took the early lead with one winner each.  The most popular of those four players in the pool is Boyle, who has nine selections, so the bonus point was spread through the pool the most by him.

We'll look at the overall GWG standings after the Friday night recap.