Three Elimination Games, Only One Boot!

Going to start with the only elimination of the day on Saturday, as the New York Rangers were no match for a Washington Capitals team that was well on their way to finding their stride, with a great crowd at the Verizon Center and that's just the way it was going to be.

The Capitals did a great job of taking the game to the Rangers end early and often through Game Six, making it very difficult for New York to establish many rushes or much consistency through the neutral zone.  When it was all said and done, the Capitals held the Rangers to only 27 shots on goal, which by anyone else's count, should be rather low, considering that the Rangers should have been a desperate team, trying to stay alive in these playoffs.

Instead, the Capitals held them at bay, scored a timely goal in each period of the game and really stuck to their guns about their defense first mentality, taking a 3-1 win and the series away from Saturday night.  In the game, the Capitals were led by Alex Ovechkin, who had the eventual game-winning goal and an assist for a 3-point afternoon, while Brooks Laich had a pair of assists and Michal Neuvirth made 26 saves for the win.

Now that the Rangers are out, we'll have a quick look at what they did in this pool in only five games.  Brandon Dubinsky led all pool players with 2 goals, 1 assist and a game-winner for 4 points.  Not much scoring came out of the Big Apple.  Marian Gaborik, Bryan McCabe and Henrik Lundqvist all had 2 points each as well.  The Rangers had the lowest number of picks in the Eastern Conference, taking only 17% of their potential picks in the pool, with Marc Staal taking nearly a third of those picks with 11 selections.  It didn't look good for the Rangers, according to the pool, to begin with.

Leading the way for the Capitals in the first round was Neuvirth, who finished with all 4 wins and a shutout, finishing up with 10 points.  Alex Ovechkin finished second with 7 points, with Mike Green and Alex Semin ending up with 5 points.

An injury scare for the Capitals, as Mike Green took a Matt Gilroy slapshot to the head, while blocking the shot, to which his helmet took the brunt of the impact, but Green still left the ice and never returned to action.  Green's history of concussions this season is the biggest concern for the Capitals going forward.  Green did return to the bench, but didn't see any more action in the win.

In the early game of the day, the Tampa Bay Lightning were sitting behind the 8-ball against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and their potent offense finally came out and did what it was advertised to do and score a boat load of goals on Saturday afternoon.  The Lightning forced Marc-Andre Fleury out of the net and lit the red light up a total of eight times in the afternoon, taking Game Five by a score of 8-2.

The Lightning were led offensively by Steven Stamkos, who had 2 goals and an assist, Teddy Purcell, who had 3 assists, and Vincent Lecavalier, who scored the winner and added an assist, all having a 3-point effort on the day.  Pavel Kubina and Simon Gagne each had a pair of goals, while Steve Downie and Martin St. Louis had a pair of assists and Dwayne Roloson made 31 saves for the win.

Let's talk Game Six then... the two teams will head back to Tampa Bay for Monday night, which will be the early game of the night.  The game will be a 5pm show on TSN, as the Lightning try and fight back from being behind the 8-ball as well.  With the offense on the go, it wouldn't surprise me if they did it now.

It was the swing game for the Bruins and Canadiens on Saturday evening, as the two teams went into Game Five tied at two wins a piece, and you could tell neither team wanted to give up the loss to the other.  The goaltending battle was excellent, the play was quick and physical, the mistakes were limited, the overtimes were doubled and all it took was one of those lucky bounces and a garbage goal to end it.  That's just a great playoff game from start to finish.

In double overtime, it was Nathan Horton who had great positioning on his defender and had a lucky bounce land on the tape of his stick, with Carey Price on the other side of the crease and it was a tap in for a 2-1 win for the Bruins.  The Bruins will go back on the road, back to Montreal with a 3-2 series lead.

In a low scoring affair like this, there wasn't going to be much for multiple-point getters in the pool, except for Horton, who scored the winner and Tim Thomas, who made 44 saves to get the win and his 2 points.

There will be a couple of days worth of rest before the Canadiens play host to the Bruins on Tuesday for Game Six and if there is a Game Seven forced, it will be played on the Wednesday night, which should make things rather interesting.

In the late game, the Kings were going to need Jonathan Quick to be his best, if they were going to live past Game Five of this series, or this series as a whole.  Thanks to three 1st period goals in the first nine minutes of the game, the Kings were able to spot their best player on the ice a big enough lead that they could defend the rest of the game with, holding on for their playoff lives.  Fortunately for Los Angeles, their best player played like their best player, making 51 saves, giving up a 2nd period marker and the Kings took Game Five with a 3-1 scoreline.

Remarkably for the Kings, it was the bottom six for the Kings that was able to get some of the key points in the 1st period, as Wayne Simmonds led all pool skaters with goal and an assist.  I have Simmonds in Box 7 as the Kings' X-factor player in this playoff year and his 2 points were very key to getting this win.  Quick was the only other pool player to pick up a couple points as well and he now has 6 points in this playoff year.

Game Six is now set for the late game on Monday night, going at 8pm MT on TSN, a TSN double-header for your viewing pleasure.

Game-Winning Goals
Your game-winning goal scorers for Saturday were Vincent Lecavalier for the Lightning, Alex Ovechkin for the Capitals, Nathan Horton for the Bruins and Kyle Clifford for the Kings, having only the late game goal as the only one that didn't count in the pool on Saturday night.

We now have a new joint leader in the race for the most bonus points, as Jersey 20 collected on two of the four winners on Saturday, bringing their total to 9 winners, now tied with Flyers Fanatic #1 for the overall lead.  Neither team sits in the top 10 in the standings, but if they keep picking up GWGs, they might just able to work their way into the promised land of the pool.

Tonight's Games
It's an elimination Easter Sunday, as there are three key games to the playoffs going... beginning with an afternoon game in Buffalo. The Sabres have been able to take advantage of some shotty Philadelphia goaltending and put up some excellent goaltending of their own.

The Sabres have been able to make good use of their speed and hands against a Pronger-less Flyers defense and some very questionable goaltening, which has led them to this 3-2 series lead going into Game Six today.  If everything is to remain the same, line-up wise on both sides, I definitely like the Sabres chances to have the same effort level to win.  They know who they are up against and there will be no sitting back for Buffalo.

As for the Flyers, I would not be surprised to see them push their injured players into the line-up to help stop the bleeding.  Chris Pronger has been the most notable absence and I could see him going at well less than 100%, while Jeff Carter, who sat out Game Five with a knee injury, would likely be encouraged to suck it up for their elimination game, unless the injury is much greater.  The Flyers offense will have to dominate, if they are going to force a Game Seven this week.

Puck drop is at 1pm MT on TSN and NBC.

The Ducks were the wow team going into the playoffs, as their offensive juggernaut rolled them right into a home-ice advantage situation going into these games, but they have literally been stonewalled for the better part of their series against the Predators and they now sit behind the 8-ball going into Game Six in the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

If the Predators are going to eliminate the Ducks on Sunday evening, they will just have to keep the game plan the same.  Stifle the top guns of the Ducks, have Pekka Rinne stand on his head when they don't and then find some timely scoring from anyone who wants to stand up and be counted.  Just your standard Predators-type game.

Much like the Flyers in the earlier game today, the Ducks are really struggling with some quality goaltending and have had the scoring in a couple games to overcome that fact.  If the Ducks are going to make it out of Nashville alive, force a Game Seven in Anaheim, they will need to see their best players play like their best players.  The Ducks may have to open the game up, create some more speed up and down the ice, take the Predators out of their comfort zone.

Puck drop is at 4pm MT, also on TSN tonight.

This is the third elimination game for the Chicago Blackhawks, as they have stared directly into the face of a long Summer and said, "not yet."  Tonight the Blackhawks will look to force their own Game Seven with another solid game at the Madhouse on Madison, trying to prey on the Vancouver Canucks shaky play over the past two games.

The Canucks still have a good grasp of this series, by the numbers, but momentum is a very tricky thing.  Vancouver has been outscored badly in their last two games, so the trick to them getting through this series tonight will be getting back to their defense-first through the neutral zone ways, taking away the time, space and speed of the Blackhawks and then letting their potent offense do what they do best.  Without a doubt, the Canucks will have to exercise some real discipline through the neutral zone, before they can think about any sort of offense.  If they get into a skating match with the Hawks, it could be dangerous.

For Chicago, they will see the return of Brent Seabrook to their line-up tonight and that should make their offense a little stronger, with some more puck moving from the rear end.  The Blackhawks will have to force the issue again at home, really make the Canucks blueline work for everything they've got and then put a lot of pucks on Roberto Luongo, get rebounds and crash the net.  I don't think there is much more to it, since the Blackhawks receive some of their best defense, when they are on the offense.