After Opening Night of the Playoffs

It has finally arrived! The puck has dropped on the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs and with five games under the league's belt on Wednesday night, we have ourselves a real race to the finish.

I just wanted to start off this morning's post with a big thanks to everyone who has decided to join this year's playoff pool, it has literally been overwhelming, the number of people who have joined up this year, I'm still entering teams on Thursday morning, likely into the afternoon and early evening.  If you don't see your team on the standings page or a link to your team from the standings page, I assure you, it is coming quite soon.  Even with some of my new tweaks to the the points tracking system, I still can't keep up.

When it is all said and done, I do expect to top 70 teams this year, which exceeds my previous record of 63 teams, which was set in 2007.  Saying that, at the time of this post, early on Thursday morning, the standings page is already at 63 teams, so it's all gravy from here.

Generally, I like to give out a quick recap of the games that were played, figure out who scored the most points in each game for the pool and move on from there.  A lot of the old favourite features are going to be back on the blog, I hope you enjoy the playoffs.

Working down the list of games from Wednesday night, we'll start in Pittsburgh, where the Penguins played host to the Lightning and by the looks of the replays, it was a show-stopping performance by both goalies for two-plus periods.  In the 3rd period, the Penguins found a couple quick goals in the seventh minute of play and Marc-Andre Fleury was able to open up his 2011 playoff run with a 32-save shutout.  Also having a good night in this game was Brooks Orpik, who had 2 assists and Alex Kovalev, who scored the winning goal, earning one of the first couple bonus points of the playoffs.

Of the 63 teams already entered in the pool, Fleury has only 4 selections to his name, making his points awfully valuable early on.  No one really believes the Penguins will make it too far by that number of selections, so anyone who takes him may cash in.

There is still no sign of Sidney Crosby for the Penguins and there still is no official timetable as to when he might be back in the line-up, if he will be at all. It was looking somewhat promising a month ago, but with no real practice or progress, Crosby is still listed as out indefinitely with his concussion.  Not good news for the three teams out of the first 63 that have decided to take a chance on him.

In the second early game, the Red Wings played host to the Coyotes in a 3/6 match-up in the Western Conference.  The Red Wings are clear favourites through 63 teams in the pool and they flexed their muscles in Game One, being down 1-0 through a period of play, the Red Wings scored three times in the 2nd period and once more in the 3rd period before giving up one more goal, taking a 1-0 series lead, thanks to a 4-2 effort.

It looked like Jimmy Howard was up to the challenge, making 26 saves for his first couple points in the playoffs, Johan Franzen had a goal and an assist for a multi-point night and the bonus point for the game-winning goal goes to Brian Rafalski, who scored a rocket from the point to give the Red Wings a 3-1 lead, late in the 2nd period.

22 of 63 teams picked up the bonus point from Rafalski on opening night, as he's one of the more popular defensemen in the Western Conference, behind only teammate Nicklas Lidstrom for that distinction today.

It looked like another good show that went on at the Verizon Center in Washington, as the first overtime game descended upon the Spring Dance.    In the end, it was the home team that was victorious, coming back from an early 3rd period deficit to win 2-1 in the extra frame.

For a while, in the replays any way, it looked like the Capitals were not going to break through Henrik Lundqvist, but in the 14th minute of the 3rd period, Alex Ovechkin got on the board to tie it up and sent the two teams to overtime.  The big point-getter in this game was Alex Semin, who not only scored the winning goal to earn the bonus point, he also had an assist on the tying goal to earn a 3-point night.

Semin, a member of Box 15 on the selection sheet, has been taken 15 times already at this point in time, ranking second in selections in that box.  If the Capitals go a ways in this playoff year, he could be a good pick.

Admittedly, I was thinking Sean Avery was going to be an X-factor player for the Rangers, and granted, he still could be, but he was a healthy scratch on opening night, away from Madison Square Gardens.  The Box 19 forward, taken three times, could very well factor into the Rangers plans, if they want to knock some of the big guns from Washington off their game.

Game Four of the evening was the marquee game for myself, as the Canucks opened up their series against the Blackhawks.  From puck drop to the final horn, it was a pretty good display of speed on both sides of the ice, one side a little faster and a bit more determined than the other for the bulk of the 60 minutes.  The Canucks did all of their damage in the 1st period, scoring twice in just over three minutes to take a 2-0 lead and then let the defense and their number one goalie do what they do best, shut the opposition down.

For pool scoring, neither one of the two goals from Vancouver counted in the pool, as neither Christopher Higgins or Jannik Hansen were included in the seven forward boxes on the sheet.  Ryan Kesler, Kevin Bieksa and Mikael Samuelsson all picked up assists for the pool, in lieu of goals.  After the 1st period had concluded, it was the Roberto Luongo show.  Luongo made 32 saves, was helped a number of times by his posts and he also earned 4 points with a shutout over the Blackhawks.

Luongo goes into Thursday morning as the most popular goalie in the Western Conference, with 37 selections, tied for pool best among keepers league-wide.  A lot of teams collected those 4 points and it created a shift in the standings, for sure.

Some good news on the injury front, as the Blackhawks X-factor player on the selection sheet, Troy Brouwer, sucked it up and played against the Canucks on Wednesday night.  Brouwer, in Box 7, had been battling some shoulder problems and missed a number of games before the end of the regular season.  His return was questionable, but he had fought through it and dressed.

The Blackhawks loss did come with a price as well, as Box 5 forward Tomas Kopecky was knocked out of the game in the 1st period, leaving with an upper-body injury and not returning.  Kopecky took a pretty big hit from the Canucks' Sami Salo late in the opening frame and was not cleared for any more action on the night.  His status for Game Two is questionable.

The only road team to get the job done on opening night was the Nashville Predators, who stormed into Anaheim and had one thing in mind... stifle the Ducks.  For the most part, the Predators did a pretty good job containing the high-powered Ducks offense, keeping the home team to only eight shots on goal in both the 1st and the 2nd period, while managing to push through the Ducks third-string goaltender, Dan Ellis.

The Predators best player on the scoresheet in Game One was Mike Fisher, as the checking centre scored a pair of goals and added an assist for a 3-point night.  Pekka Rinne made 27 saves for the win and 2 points in the pool, while there were a whole lot of single points throughout the Nashville boxscore, spreading the wealth of scoring down the line.

It was seemingly a long shot a month ago when the sheet was done up, that Jonas Hiller, the Ducks' number one goalie, would be back in the net, thanks to a concussion-like symptoms, officially called vertigo by team officials.  But who was really going to be in that box come opening night, since both Ray Emery and Dan Ellis were viable options then and now Emery is dealing with some hip problems, something he fought through in relief of Ellis in the 3rd period.  Nevertheless, Hiller doesn't appear to be likely for these playoffs, taking the Ducks' hope down a notch or two.

For the Predators, Box 6 youngster Colin Wilson was a healthy scratch for the team.  With the team putting up a good result in Game One, I would imagine that Wilson will not figure into Game Two, especially with the Predators scoring four goals in the opener and in no need of some extra offense.  Wilson was taken twice through 63 teams, but I wouldn't say you should count him out of the playoffs completely... yet.

And before we cut it off this morning, just a quick recap of the game-winning goals, which count as the bonus points in the pool again this year.  Alex Kovalev, Brian Rafalski and Alex Semin were the only three pool players to register game-winners on Wednesday night, as Christopher Higgins in Vancouver and Steve Sullivan of Nashville were not added to the sheet this year and their bonus points float off into oblivion.

One team in the pool picked up all three bonus points on Wednesday, as Flyers Fanatic #1 had the three pool players on the scoresheet with winners, taking an early lead in the bonus points department.  Not quite the most clever name in the pool, but I suppose the player selection makes up for it.

Tonight's Games

Well, this will be short and sweet... the remaining three series in the first round will get started on Thursday night, as the Canadiens & Bruins, Sabres & Flyers and Kings & Sharks all go.  I'm hoping to get the rest of the teams into the pool by the end of the day/evening on Thursday, but I cannot make too many promises in that regard.  By Saturday, I'm sure everything should be working properly and updates will be smooth and constant.

Thanks again for joining the pool and be sure to stay up-to-date with the scoring here on the blog!