Afternoon Player Notes in the Playoffs (May 10)

The long road for the Washington Capitals continues tonight in Pittsburgh, as their playoff lives again hang in the balance between their offense and a 21-year old netminder, who has stolen the show already at the Spring Dance.

By now, one would have thought that the Penguins would have gone back to Marc-Andre Fleury for the remainder of the run, but Matt Murray has held strong and played exceptionally, even in the few losses he has amassed so far.  And even if one was to think that Murray was to have made it this far in the playoffs, the match-up between he and Braden Holtby seemed a little lopsided towards the top goalie in the hockey pool this year.  Still, Murray continues to defy the odds and he could eliminate the top seed in the NHL tonight.

More importantly, how does that affect the money race in the pool?  Stuart, who has opened a 20-point lead in this second round, could potentially lose Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby, while Kristy is now sitting in 2nd place and has Nicklas Backstrom, Justin Williams and Holtby.  3rd place, Scott, has John Carlson, Backstrom and Holtby, while 4th place, Brenda, could possibly lose Ovechkin, Backstrom and Holtby.  There's lots to lose here.

On the flip side, Stuart doesn't have any Penguins and could really use a Capitals win, while Kristy has Sidney Crosby, Patric Hornqvist and Carl Hagelin, Scott has Crosby, Hornqvist and Phil Kessel and Brenda has Hagelin and Kris Letang.  If the Penguins can oust the Capitals, the race for 1st place gets a little more interesting.