Morning Player Notes in the Playoffs (Apr 25)

It wasn't nearly as decisive as a series as one may have been led to believe and Game 6 was all kinds of close, it could have gone either way, depending on a bounce that would or would not have gone the Flyers' way.  Unfortunately for Philadelphia, their Cinderella run from behind the 8-ball ended on Sunday afternoon, in a 1-0 loss.

Nicklas Backstrom was the only player to tickle the twine in the series clinching game for the Capitals, while Braden Holtby stopped all 26 shots in the game to earn his second shutout of the season, picking up another 4 points in this series.

The Flyers were barely taken in the pool, so their demise was expected to say the least.  Only 13 selections have been stricken from the pool, the most popular of which was rookie defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere, who had four picks.  In the end, he was one of three Flyers on the sheet, to finish with 2 points each.  It wasn't a stellar year for the Flyers, to say the least.

The Capitals will get the Penguins in the second round, which should prove to be a way more interesting series.

The Dallas Stars managed to sneak past the Minnesota Wild in six game... okay, sneak might not be the best word for it, since there was very little stealth used in this series.  Either the Stars were scoring goals or allowing goals and in Game 6, it was a 5-4 victory, as the Stars held on for dear life in the 3rd period.

The Stars' offense dominated in the first two periods of the game, going up 3-0 after one and 4-0 after two and then they had to leave it to their defense/goaltending in the 3rd period and that's where it got a little hairy.  The Wild scored three goals before the midway point in the final frame, edging closer and closer to the comeback, but an Alex Goligoski goal at 10:28, made it 5-3, a goal they desperately needed, as Jason Pominville made it 5-4 and the white knuckles were out, gripping that 1-goal lead until the final buzzer.

Jason Spezza continued his good run in the playoffs, picking up another 4 points in the clinching game, while Jamie Benn had a 3-point game and then Patrick Sharp, Alex Goligoski and Kari Lehtonen all walked away with 2 points for the pool.

The Wild were also not expected to go very far in the pool, also having only 13 selections among the 50 teams in the pool.  The most popular Wild player of the bunch was Marco Scandella, who had three selections to his name, but only finished with 1 goal.  Mikko Koivu and Jason Pominville each finished with 7 points each, Pominville was taken twice.

The Stars are still waiting for their next round opponent, as they'll get either the Anaheim Ducks or Nashville Predators.

How close were the Florida Panthers from forcing a Game 7?  54 seconds and/or about four inches, as a loose puck snuck out from underneath Roberto Luongo in the last minute of play for John Tavares, left all by his lonesome, was allowed to pick up in the crease, uncontested, and tie the game up at 1-1, forcing the Panthers and Islanders into overtime.  That's pretty close to a Game 7.

Instead, the two teams went into overtime, that solved nothing.  Then, they went into double-overtime, in back-to-back games, where the New York Islanders got the best of their opening round opponent, thanks to Tavares beating Luongo again, taking a rebound around the net for a quick wraparound, ending the game and ending the series in six games.

Tavares was the only notable player in this game, scoring both Islander goals, coming away with a 3-point night.

It was an excellent series, that could have been made even better with a seventh game, but the Islanders definitely earned this result.

This counts as another upset in the hockey pool, as the Panthers were 113-29 favourites in the selection count, which means a lot of people dropped picks in this one.  Aleksander Barkov was the favourite among the bunch, having been taken 23 times among 50 teams, but only picked up 3 points in the series, which was a little disappointing.  Reilly Smith was the big Panthers scorer in the series, finishing with 8 points in the pool and was taken 11 times.

The Islanders will get the Tampa Bay Lightning in the next round, which should prove to be an interesting match-up.  More on that later on in the week.

Three more teams eliminated on Sunday meant that there was a lot of paring down in the pool, including a few favourites.  Remarkably, there is one team left that could finish the first round with all 24 players and it belongs to Eric, who sits in 15th place after Sunday night.  Eric's team is 18 points back of 1st place and has five more players, but we have a couple more series left to decide.

On the flip side, Clayton's team has been utterly decimated in this first round.  With those two more series left to play, his team is already down to nine players.  His team needs a Chicago and Anaheim win, just to stay at nine players for the next round.  On the plus side, his team isn't in last... in fact, it's 22 points better than last place.  Could it possibly hang on to not be last place?