Let the Game Twos Begin!

It was night three of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and we had four series play their Game Twos on Friday, testing the mettle of teams and their superstars, trying to either go up 2-0 in their series or try to the the series up at one game a piece.  There was an interesting statistic said on one of the telecasts on Friday night, saying that 89% of teams that take a 2-0 series lead in most professional sports league's playoffs go on to win that series.  Historically speaking, there is a lot of importance placed on these games on Friday night and again on Saturday.

In Pittsburgh, the Penguins had a tough task of trying to keep a Lightning team down that was getting their feet wet in Game One and wasn't sure to what to make of these playoff waters. In Game Two, the Tampa offense was splashing around and having a great time, as they got off to a quick start, only a couple of minutes in and just continued to roll from there.

When the final horn sounded and they had to get out of the pool, they had finished with a 5-1 victory, having exercised some pretty good scoring talent, some shutdown play in the 3rd period and rode some good goaltending through the night.

Leading the way for pool players on Friday night, Eric Brewer had a goal and 2 assists, Simon Gagne had 3 assists, Dwayne Roloson made 27 saves for the victory and 2 points and Vincent Lecavalier scored the Lightning's second goal, picking up the bonus point for being the game-winner.

The Lightning also had the chance to welcome Victor Hedman back to their line-up, as he missed Game One of the series with a lingering lower-body issue, which forced him to miss the last couple games of the regular season. Four teams have selected the young Swedish defenseman this year and were probably glad he came back, especially with an assist to his name on Friday night.

Having a peek at the selection numbers for this series, there isn't a great deal of faith in either team, as the Lightning are the favourites, but have only accounted for 54% of their possible selections in this pool, while the Penguins sit at 37%.  The Lightning are the lowest of the favourites to make it into the second round, while the Penguins are the highest of the teams that are not expected to make it out of the first round.  This is a very big swing series for the pool this year.

In the second early game on Friday, the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers went back at it at the Verizon Center in DC and the blueshirts were going to try and build on some of that good play that they had going for them in the first couple of periods in Game One.  Possibly find a little bit more offense and ride Henrik Lundqvist for a little while longer, see what happens.

Well, the Rangers offense didn't find much bite on Friday night and a couple of key defensive breakdowns in the early minutes of the second period was what ended up costing the Rangers, as both Jason Chimera and Jason Arnott each tallied in just over the first four minutes of the 2nd period, giving the Capitals a 2-0 lead, a lead they held and didn't build upon for the remaining 36 minutes, earning a shutout victory for their goalie, Michal Neuvirth.

Neuvirth only had to make 22 saves, as the defense in front of him kept the Rangers frustrated and the shots against were fairly straight-forward, while Chimera was the only other multiple-point player in the pool, as he scored the opening goal, which turned out to be the winner for the bonus point.

One piece of line-up news for the pool, as the Rangers decided to dress Sean Avery for Game Two of the series, a move that proved fruitless, both on the scoresheet and in the Capitals frustration levels. Avery only saw 10 minutes worth of action and only caused a couple of stirs.  The Rangers depth at forward is now revealing itself, as they are quickly running out of options.

According to the final selection numbers, the Rangers are the least likely to make it out of the first round of the playoffs, having only 18% of their possible picks in the pool, while the Capitals are one of the more likely teams to hit the Conference Finals, sitting pretty with 82% of their possible selections.  If the picks had anything to do with this series, you could easily see it as a sweep.

I think one of the biggest questions going into Game Two in Vancouver was "are the Canucks going to be able to keep up the pace of play against a hungry Blackhawks team?"  The speed of the play in Game One was awfully high and it was maintained for the bulk of the game on Wednesday night, so how would things change in Game Two?

To start, it really wasn't a great deal of difference, as the Canucks were quick, on the puck and on the body for the early part of the game and it was impressive.  The Blackhawks were not backing down either, they worked hard through the Canucks' press and generated some chances of their own.  In the end, the best players were the best players for Vancouver and Chicago showed that if their opponents were going to make a mistake, even the smallest of mistakes, they would be there to capitalize.  Final score, the Canucks 4 and the Blackhawks 3.

Daniel Sedin was star player for the hockey pool for this game, picking up a pair of goals, including the winner and an assist for 4 points.  The Canucks' depth was on show, as the only other player in blue that had a multiple-point game in Game Two was Roberto Luongo, who picked up 2 points for the victory, giving him a share of the pool lead in scoring with 6 points.

The Blackhawks did end up playing without Tomas Kopecky, their Box 5 representative, in Game Two. Kopecky left Wednesday night's game with an upper-body injury and was not cleared to play.  There is no word yet for Game Three on Sunday night, but if I had to make a guess, I would say that he won't go.  I'll list him as doubtful.

A nasty bug hit the Canucks dressing room over the last few days and it really did a number on Mikael Samuelsson, who was not able to dress on Friday because of the illness.  He is definitely more likely to return for Game Three in Chicago on Sunday, likely with Raffi Torres, as well, who is coming off his 4-game suspension.

Selection-wise, the Canucks are the most popular team in the pool this year, but the President's Trophy winning team does generally get a lot of play each year, it seems.  The Canucks finished with 94% of their possible number of selections, topping the Blackhawks, who only have 19%.  This is another one of those series that if the selection numbers had their way, it wouldn't last very long.

Finally, in the later game of the night, the Ducks were going to try and break through the Predators trap at home in the Honda Center, trying to even up the series before they head to Nashville for Game Three. The Predators knew going in that they had a very tough job in containing the Ducks' potent offense, but much like the Tampa/Pittsburgh game, there was certainly a notion that they likely were not going to accomplish that feat every night.

Sure enough, the offense kicked into gear early, as the Predators found their way to the penalty box in the early minutes and the Ducks made them pay, scoring twice in less than a minute, a pair of power play goals, capitalizing on a 2-man advantage and the remaining time on the second penalty and that was what the Ducks needed to get going.  The Predators tried to keep it close in the 2nd period, scoring one to cut the deficit, but Anaheim was on top of their game, scoring two more in response, before the frame was over and then they just had to hang on.

The Ducks came away victorious with a 5-3 scoreline and the top dog of the game was their captain, Ryan Getzlaf, who also had a 4-point night, scoring the eventual game-winner and adding a pair of assists.  Corey Perry had a goal and two assists, Bobby Ryan scored a pair of goals, while Cam Fowler and Francois Beauchemin each had a pair of assists.  If you liked the Ducks in this series, you probably came away with a nice bounty.

If you had some Predators, and some do, Shea Weber had a goal and an assist and Sergei Kostitsyn had a pair of assists, as multiple-point getters on the losing side.

It appears that the Ducks X-factor player on the selection sheet, Box 7 forward Jarkko Ruutu, was a healthy scratch on Friday night, making way for one of the team's younger prospects in Nick Bonino.  Ruutu has had some playoff success with the Senators, so he looked like he could be one of those guys that would get the job done in Box 7, but as of right now, no one in Box 7 is getting the job done, as there have been no points registered there in three days.

One last look at the match-ups on the sheet and the Ducks have a sizeable advantage on the Predators in the selections, but nothing quite as big as some of the other series.  Anaheim finished with 68% of their possible selections, while Nashville had 23%.  There is a little bit more hope for the Predators to upset the Ducks, but not much.  The games in Nashville should be very good though, the swing games in a tied series will keep it intriguing.