Bolts Bounce Red Wings, Onwards to Round 2

The beauty of Game 7's is that one team is leaving the playoffs, via the boot!  The Red Wings put up a pretty good fight against the Lightning last night, but Ben Bishop, the Tampa goalie, was up to task, making 31 saves for the shutout and he added an assist on the empty net goal, which made it a 2-0 final in the end.

Bishop finished off with a 5-point night in the game, the only Lightning player that was notable in Game 7, which had also made him the best player in the opening round of the playoffs, with 11 points.  It is very exciting stuff for the four teams that had picked him in the Playoff Pool.

The Lightning now go on to face the Montreal Canadiens in the second round, while the Detroit Red Wings are left to figure out what went wrong in their playoff season and start preparing for the off-season a little earlier than some.

With the elimination, the Red Wings only lost 21 selections, as they were not the favourite to move on to the second round in the pool.  Pavel Datsyuk was the most popular Red Wings player on the sheet, taken five times, while Gustav Nyquist and Justin Abdelkader were taken four times each.

In terms of scoring, Datsyuk was the best Wings player on the sheet, picking up 6 points, including a winner in these playoffs, followed by Tomas Tatar and Riley Sheahan, who each had 4 points.

And that's what we have for Round 1 of the playoffs.

So, our first round leader in the Playoff Pool is newcomer Sairosh, who picked up 105 points and leaves the first round with 19 active players left for the next round.  The only team that he lost in the West during opening round was the St. Louis Blues and he is carrying a lot of stock in the Calgary/Anaheim series, which is upcoming, so he's likely hoping for a high-scoring, 7-game series there.

Tony D. had a good push in the opening round, finishing with 103 points, but his team took a real kicking in the elimination process, as his team only has 14 players left in the second round.  John S. and David C. each finished the round with 100 points as well, but they are also shorthanded, now with 13 and 15 players, respectively.

After all the eliminations were complete, only four pool teams have 21 players left and two of those teams belong to Scott G., but even with all those players, his best team is in 21st place, 19 points behind 1st place.  Clayton is the highest team in the standings with 21 players, as his team is in 14th, 15 points behind 1st place.

Game-Winning Goals
Tony C. still leads the pool in bonus points, finishing the opening round with 9 GWG's to his team's credit, while Nic L. sits in 2nd place in the race with 8 GWG's.  Seven teams sit below with 7 GWG's, so the race remains quite tight in that race.  I really should have a prize for the bonus points, but it never occurs to me until I start writing these pieces.

Three players finished the opening round with a pair of bonus points each and only two remain in the pool going forward.  Duncan Keith of the Blackhawks and Tyler Johnson of the Lightning each potted a couple and they will be key players going forward, as Keith was taken nine times, while Johnson was taken five times.

Stay tuned to the blog later on Thursday for a preview of the second round and a prize money announcement!