Two Nights in the Pool

Well, it was a self-imposed day off from writing on Friday morning... or was it a hangover-imposed day off?  Either way, I'm going to need to catch up on a couple days worth of action here on Saturday morning, just everything is all straightened up on the blog.  So, if there is anything that looks like it's a little bit old in this post, that's why.

On Thursday night, it was the continuation of home-ice disadvantage in the Boston/Montreal series, as the Bruins shocked the Canadiens, coming back from 1-0, 3-1 and 4-3 to win 5-4 in overtime, in what was a very good back-and-forth game.  The Canadiens would use their speed and clever passing to get up a goal or two, but then it would be the Bruins' hard work and drive to the net that would earn them some tying goals and eventually the winner in overtime.  It made for some very good hockey.

With the 5-4 win, the Bruins ended up tying the series at two games a piece and they will now head back to Boston, with a theoretical home-ice advantage, although neither team has won at home yet.

In the pool, the big point getters for the Bruins were Michael Ryder, who scored two goals, including the overtime winner, and an assist for a 4-point night, Patrice Bergeron had a goal and an assist, Brad Marchand had 2 assists and Tim Thomas made 34 saves to earn the win.

Mike Cammalleri continues to lead the Canadiens in scoring, as he finished with a goal and 2 assists in the loss, as the only Montreal player with more than a single point in the boxscore.

Game Five goes tonight in Boston, starting at 5pm MT on CBC.

It was another ugly effort from the President's Trophy winning team on Thursday night, as the Vancouver Canucks were looking to close out their series with the Chicago Blackhawks on paper, but on the ice, it was a different story altogether.  The Blackhawks were the team with all the momentum early on, scoring a bit of a stinker to start the party, but then worked their tails off for a 5-goal outburst, staying in the series with a 5-0 win over the Canucks, bringing the series back to 3-2, with a trip back to Chicago on Sunday.  The series is getting more and more intriguing, but all it takes is one more for the Canucks, but the line is getting finer and finer to walk on.

It actually turned out to be quite the monster night Blackhawks goalie, Corey Crawford, on Thursday night, as he not only earned a 36-save shutout for 4 points, he picked up an additional assist on the opening goal of the evening, giving him 5 points in the pool.  Marian Hossa and Duncan Keith each had big nights as well, picking up 4 points a piece, as well.  Patrick Sharp also had a pair of assists, so if you were picking Chicago to go a long ways in the Western Conference, there is a good chance you picked up a lot of points on Thursday night.

Game Six of this series will go on Sunday night, as the Blackhawks will take their show back home, but the Canucks did win Game Three there, so their fortress isn't a stronghold for wins as such.  Who isn't looking forward to this one?

In the other late game on Thursday night, the Sharks and the Kings were in another see-saw battle through 40 minutes on the ice, but once the 3rd period rolled around, the bigger, healthier, more dangerous Sharks team really took control and forced the issue, scoring three goals to take a 6-2 lead, only to give up one goal late, but still take a 3-1 series lead back home for Saturday night.

This series has been far more entertaining than one may have imagined going in, especially with the Kings being slightly shorthanded in the skill department, they certainly are not showing it in how much heart they have.  Unfortunately for the Kings, it's a solid mix of both that will get you by the favourites in the series, where as the sharks do have lots of skill and enough heart out of some of their less-than-marquee players.

Leading the way for San Jose on Thursday night was Ryane Clowe, who scored a pair, Logan Couture and Ian White, who had a couple of helpers each, Joe Thornton scored the winner and Antti Niemi made 35 saves for the win.  For a number of teams in the pool, they should have found some points, as the Sharks are a pretty popular team in the pool this year.

Despite scoring three goals on Thursday, the Kings did not have a single player with more than a single point.  How unfortunate.

Friday was a quiet night on the schedule, but far from it on the ice.  In the early game, the Flyers and Sabres did battle in Game Five, back in Philadelphia, and it was a tug-of-war battle.  The Sabres jumped out to a 3-0 1st period lead and the Flyers had to claw their way back in the final 40 minutes to force overtime.  Two goals in the 2nd and the tying goal early in the 3rd, sent the game to overtime, but the Sabres were able to muster up just that extra little bit of offense, after playing defense for so long, to win it fairly early in overtime.

The Sabres were able to steal Game Five away from home and will now go home with a 3-2 series lead, giving the reigning Eastern Conference champions a run for their money now.

The Flyers goaltending continues to be a pretty big issue in these playoffs, as the pool selection, Brian Boucher, was pulled in favour of last year's goaltending hero, Michael Leighton, in the 1st period after giving up the opening three goals from the Sabres.  This will definitely cloud who starts for the Flyers in their first 8-ball game of the playoffs.

Only two big impact pool players on the Buffalo side on Friday night, as Tyler Ennis scored a pair of goals, including the winner, for a 3-point night to his name, while Ryan Miller was good again in Game Five, making 36 saves for the win and another 2 points.

For the Flyers, Andrej Meszaros and Claude Giroux each had a couple of points in the loss, propelling whatever value they may have left in this pool.

The Sabres will get the chance to close out this series on Sunday afternoon back at the HSBC Arena.

One new injury to speak of from this game, as the Flyers were without Box 14 forward Jeff Carter, as he had suffered a slight knee knock in Game Four, which was obviously painful enough to keep him out of Game Five.  His status for Game Six, much like Chris Pronger's, is still up in the air.  I would imagine that if either player is close enough to skate or grip a stick, they will have to play, just to save the team's season from an embarrassing finish.

Well, if you didn't get enough of the 4-3 overtime games, you can thank Shea Weber for scoring with 35 seconds left to go in the 3rd period to force another overtime period in these playoffs.  The Predators and Ducks were locked in one hell of a battle on Friday night, as both teams were going back and forth all night, with a couple of lead changes in the game, a late goal to force overtime and then a Jerred Smithson overtime winner less than two minutes in and the Predators now have the upper hand in a very close series.

If you had missed Bobby Ryan's amazing 3rd period goal to help the Ducks take an early 3rd period lead, you should really have a look at it by clicking this link here.  Unfortunately for Anaheim, it was scored in a losing cause, but man, oh man, was it pretty.

For the Predators in the pool, Pekka Rinne made 23 saves for the win and 2 points, while Jordin Tootoo was the only other pool player with a couple of points, with him picking up a pair of assists.  The Predators might not be a very good hockey pool team, but if they are to upset the Ducks in the opening round, they will have likely have done more damage in what they will take away than what they put on the board themselves.

Jason Blake and Saku Koivu, both fairly popular Ducks in the pool this year, each finished with a couple of points each in the game, Blake, a couple of goals and Koivu, a couple of assists.

Game Six will now go in Nashville on Sunday evening, as the Predators will get their first chance to close this series out as well.

Game-Winning Goals
So, I get to recap two nights worth of game-winners for us here.  That should fill up the paragraph rather easily, eh?  On Thursday night, it was Michael Ryder for the Bruins, Marian Hossa for the Blackhawks and Joe Thornton for the Sharks, keeping all three of them in the pool.  Good news.  On Friday night, the overtime winners came from Tyler Ennis for the Sabres and Jerred Smithson for the Predators, which is only 50% for the pool on the night.

Pool leaders in the bonus points department... Flyers Fanatic #1 continues to lead the pool with 8 GWGs this far into the season, while six teams are close behind with 7 winners to their names.  For argument's sake, the pool leader, Stoopid Monkey, has only 4 GWGs in the 1st round.

Tonight's Games

Saturday gets started awfully early, with a 10am game and it's not just any game... the Tampa Bay Lightning are now behind the 8-ball and will have to try and prove to the rest of the league that their scoring is good enough to compete against a very-shorthanded Pittsburgh Penguins side.

With a couple of top 10 scorers in the league in tow coming into this series, there was some high expectations for this rebounding Lightning team to actually make some noise, but their offense has not been clutch enough to win games in this series, which isn't to say their big guns don't have points, just not clutch points.  Being down 3-1 to a Penguins team without Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin has to really make a coach, team and their fans wonder, but it is a good growing experience for a team that should be competitive for a long time to come.

If the Lightning can make it out of Pittsburgh alive tonight, they will be able to go home in Game Six, but from what we've seen out of this series, that could be a pretty big if.  The 8-ball tolls for the Lightning and it has had a 50% success rate of knocking teams out on it's first appearance.

This early game gets going at 10am MT on CBC today, which is shortly after this post getting published.

The New York Rangers are now also behind the 8-ball on Saturday afternoon, as they now face elimination at the hands of the top team in the Eastern Conference regular season standings, the Washington Capitals.  The Rangers have fought tooth-and-nail in this series, to this point, but in only one game, have they had a bounce go their way, so they have to work even harder, going into a very loud Verizon Center, just to try and stay alive in this series.

Sure, the Rangers only slid into the playoffs with the help of some other teams, not really being a team of destiny, but once a team makes it into the playoffs, they have as good a chance as any other team.  The revamped Capitals are proving early that a little extra detail in their own zone can go a long ways, as their defense has been very good and looking more and more like a really good playoff team.

If the Rangers are going to make it out of Game Five alive today, they will definitely need Marian Gaborik to finally show up in this series, possibly needing more than one goal to get his team going.  He has been the most disappointing player in the Eastern Conference boxes, still without a point in this series.

The Rangers and Capitals will get started at 1pm MT on TSN today.

With the series tied at two games a piece, the Canadiens and Bruins will try and make good use of the swing game, as Game Five goes in Boston at the regular Hockey Night In Canada time of 5pm MT.  It's hard to say if home-ice disadvantage will still be in play, leaving the pressure-packed confines of the Bell Centre will help the Canadiens, or will the overtime winner prove to be that extra bit of momentum that the Bruins need to lift themselves over the Habs.  This game should be a monster...

There is one more elimination game on Saturday night, as the San Jose Sharks will try to close the deal on the Los Angeles Kings.  The Sharks have been able to flex some serious muscle in this series, especially in the clutch situations, when they really needed a goal, they would end up getting a couple here and there.  This has really put the Kings behind the 8-ball and now it will be their job to fight their way from being two games down to make it back into this series.

I think it was fair to think that the Kings had little expectations associated with their season, so writing them off this early is a very reasonable thought.  The loss of Anze Kopitar just before the playoffs got started was going to be huge hill to climb in itself, but also the tough fight getting into the playoffs, wasn't going to help their cause much at all.

If the Kings are going to have any chance of climbing back into this series, they are going to need a monumental effort from Jonathan Quick on Saturday night, because I think the Sharks will live up to their moniker, now that they have their opponents on the ropes, bleeding a little bit, this could be over in one big bite in the Shark Tank.

This game gets started at 8:30pm MT on TSN.