Welcome to the 2014 Playoff Pool

We're here! The points have been entered for the first night of action in the 2014 NHL playoffs and it looks like we're set for a pretty good Spring Dance.

As of first thing Thursday morning, I have 32 teams entered and collecting their points in the pool, I have five more teams in hand, ready to go in and I am expecting a few more today.  Today being the deadline for entry in the pool.

Once the final tally of teams in the pool, I will have the prizes announced and I'll also have a good breakdown of who was picked and we'll see who the pool favourites are.

If Wednesday night's games were any indication, I think we're in for a doozy of a year.

Did anyone catch the Montreal/Tampa Bay opener last night?  If anything, this wasn't really playoff hockey.

Back and forth, turnover after turnover and plenty of scoring to go around.  Neither coach would be too happy with what they saw, but I'm sure some of us non-partisan fans thought it was an absolute riot to watch.  I know I did.

The Canadiens came away with a 5-4 overtime victory, taking a game away from home, gaining a certain advantage of the Lightning in the early stages of the series.

Neither starting goalie, Carey Price or Anders Lindback, looked all that sharp to start this series, but when we're dealing with a hockey pool, I don't think we necessarily want to see sharp goaltending, unless we have that goalie on our team.

Notable players in the pool from this game were Price and Alexsey Emelin from the Canadiens, each potting 2 points, while Steven Stamkos also had a pair of goals to be rather notable on the Tampa side.

Montreal Canadiens forward Alex Galchenyuk started the playoffs on the shelf, as he has been sidelined indefinitely by a lower-body injury.  The injury is believed to be around the knee area and he is not expected to play in this opening round of the playoffs against the Lightning.  I have seen his name pop up on a few teams, but no one will be collecting any points until the second round, assuming the Habs make it that far.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were hoping to have their number one goalie ready for opening night of the playoffs, but Ben Bishop, who is dealing with an upper-body injury of his own, wasn't deemed good to go on Wednesday night.  Lindback did help his team find overtime, but he didn't help his team to an opening night win.  There hasn't been anything concrete announced about Game Two, but it sounds more likely that Lindback will get that one as well.

There is also some real concern for rookie forward Ondrej Palat, who left the game with an undisclosed injury and his status for Game Two is now up in the air.  Palat, who was instrumental in their finish in the regular season (2nd in the Atlantic Division), had to have been an intriguing option in Box 18 on the sheet.

The Columbus Blue Jackets didn't look out of place, nor did they look too intimidated by the firepower that the Pittsburgh Penguins have, but the host Penguins were still able to pull through with an opening night win, 4-3.

From what I had gathered through the brief bits of bonus coverage on Hockey Night In Canada, the pace was quick, the Jackets were doing their best to keep the superstars in check and role players will play a huge part in this series.

There were plenty of notable players in this game, thanks to seven goals scored between the two teams.  Evgeni Malkin, Brandon Sutter, Matt Niskanen, Jack Johnson, Paul Martin and Marc-Andre Fleury all registered a couple of points each to start of the series and plenty of the teams that have been entered, so far, collected quite a few of those points.

Game Two of the series will go on Saturday evening in Pittsburgh and I like where this series is going.  It will be interesting to see if the Jackets have enough gumption to take a game away from home and head back to Columbus with a tied series.

The Columbus Blue Jackets opened up their series without Box 16 forward Nick Foligno and Box 17 forward R.J. Umberger, who are dealing with lower and upper-body injuries, respectively.  Both players have been listed as probable for Game Two on Saturday, which is great news for the Jackets, who were not far away from taking a Game One win away.  Adding some veteran presence like Foligno and Umberger could go a long way.

In Anaheim, the regular season Western Conference winners opened up their first round match-up against their former division rivals from Dallas, as the Ducks played host to the Stars.

This game closely resembled a CFL game, as the Ducks shot out to a 4-0 lead before the halfway mark of the hockey game and then allowed, what looked to be a safe lead, become a nail biter at the end.  The Stars scored a pair of late goals in the 2nd period, then added another goal in the 14th minute of the 3rd period to make things close.  With the goalie pulled, Dallas put on some pressure, but came up short and lost the game 4-3.

It turned into a wild finish, which made for some good television, but it did kind of show some weakness in the Anaheim game, which puts an element of intrigue in this series.

A couple of Ducks were the only ones to make any real noise on the Playoff Pool sheet, Ryan Getzlaf and Francois Beauchemin each recording 2 points on the night.

There was no win recorded from this game, as Jonas Hiller was on the bench as Fredrik Andersen's back-up on Wednesday night. There is plenty of belief in the hockey world that Hiller has lost the confidence of the coaching staff in Anaheim and he may not see much time in these playoffs.  Of course, there won't be any confirmation of that from the organization, but the more Andersen plays, the worse off Hiller looks.  I wouldn't rule out an appearance and/or a run from Hiller, but right now, it doesn't look good.

In the press box for the Ducks, Box 11 defenseman Sami Vatanen, who I've seen chosen a few times in the pool.  I don't think he's too far removed from the line-up, but he'll have to wait patiently for his turn.

The Dallas Stars may have missed physical defenseman Brenden Dillon on Wednesday, as he is both strong in his own end and played well this year in the offensive end as well.  Dillon is listed as out day-to-day with a lower-body injury, which may be related to his feet, as the discussion has been about how comfortable he is with getting back on the ice.  He is unlikely to suit up for Game Two on Friday night.

Game-Winning Goals
Finally, we'll have a quick look at the game-winning goal scorers, as I've considered them to be the bonus points of the pool, something we don't see in the regular season.  The only pool player to pick up a game-winner was Brandon Sutter of the Penguins, who potted his midway through the 3rd period against Columbus.

For Montreal, Dale Weise scored the winner in overtime, while it was Matt Beleskey, who scored for the Anaheim Ducks to put them up 4-0 in the 2nd period.  Both of these bonus points go into the abyss of hockey pool points, never to be seen again.