Avalanche Contained

It's too bad that the old Colorado/Detroit rivalry still wasn't around. By Game 4, the two teams would be bloodied and battered and we would have seen some great hockey. It's a real shame to see the Avalanche roll over and die this year. It's all over now, thanks to an 9-2 beat down by the Red Wings and the sweep was completed. The Red Wings outscored the Avalanche in the series, 21-9, in the four games.

Of course, you could always make an argument or two about the overall health of the Avalanche and how that affected the team greatly, but there really isn't much for an excuse as to just giving the series away. Guys like Peter Forsberg (Box 6), Ryan Smyth (Box 7), Wojtek Wolski (Box 5) and Scott Hannan (Box 10) are all clutch, but that's why you have depth. Sure, the Avalanche will likely convince themselves that they are glad to just be out of that series and they had no chance going in, but it should be a reasonable disappointment then.

Granted, I don't know if any team could have seen just how big the offensive juggernaut was actually going to be be when the series opened.

The Sherpa is really beginning to think that Johan Franzen (non-pool) actually reads this blog and was really offended to be left out of the sheet, because he's really doing a number in these playoffs in a 'why not me?' kind of manner. Franzen had another hat-trick against the Avalanche, including the game-winner and has really started to dominate these playoffs. Franzen has a playoff-leading 11 goals in the big show and his stock continues to rise. He'll likely be a big favourite in next season's pools.

Other players having big nights for the Red Wings were: Henrik Zetterberg (Box 1) had 2 goals and 2 assists; Pavel Datsyuk (Box 2) had 3 assists; Mikael Samuelsson (Box 6) had 2 goals, Nicklas Lidstrom (Box 8) had 2 assists; Jiri Hudler (Box 4) had 2 assists; and Valtteri Filppula (Box 7) had 2 assists.

Zetterberg finished the four game series in the lead for scoring in the Conference Semi-Finals with 9 points, but that will likely fall to a Penguin.