Friday Night's Playoff Review

The New Jersey Devils and the Florida Panthers were a little bit late to the playoff party, not having their first game scheduled until Friday night, but that will only extend the fun of the first round, if this playoff series goes long. The Panthers come into this series as the higher seed, but the Devils were the better team in the standings, so the only thing left to decide the favourite is the pool selections and the Devils did very well, taking 77 of a possible 120 picks to the Panthers' 21.  Not too many people banking on the seeding upset and rightfully so.

The Devils, led by their veteran goalie Martin Brodeur, got out to a 3-0 1st intermission lead and they held on to take Game One of this series 3-2.  The Panthers put on a 2nd period charge, where they scored their two goals, but at the end of the night, Brodeur finished off the match with 18 saves, in a low-shooting affair, and the win.  Brodeur also picked up an assist in the game, but unfortunately for the pool, all 3 points that he collected in the game went for naught, as no one had picked the future Hall of Famer.

The only other Devils player to record more than 1 point was Dainius Zubrus, who is in Box 16 and he was taken once in the pool.  Zubrus had the 2-0 goal for the Devils and he added an assist in the game.  On the Panthers side, Mikael Samuelsson had a pair of assists and the Box 17 forward was taken four times, a popular pick among those teams that chose Florida in this series.

Through the regular season, rookie defenseman Adam Larsson was a regular feature for the club, but some scratches down the stretch may have lessened the confidence that coaching staff has in their valuable youngster. The Box 23 defenseman was one of the more popular Devils, likely for the fact that pool teams see them out of the first round, but really no further than that. For those teams who have taken him, here is some hope that he draws in sooner, rather than later.

For those who thought that the Flyers comeback from being down 3-0 in Game One was one of those miracles that happen once every so often, were not going to believe the madness that occurred in Game Two of this series.  The Penguins, who are the favourites in this series, found themselves with another 3-1 lead after one period of play, but the Flyers were able to rally back again in this series.  In the 2nd period, the Flyers won the frame with a score of 3-1, having the game go into the 3rd in a 4-4 tie.  Well, it's becoming more about winning periods (and decisively, to boot), and the Flyers came out and won the final frame, 4-1.  Final score... Flyers 8, Penguins 5.

With 13 goals in the game, there was a lot of points to be had in this one, so let's go over the multiple-point players in the pool.  Claude Giroux led the way with 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points, which has to make the seven teams that picked him up very happy.  Jaromir Jagr scored the winner, Max Talbot had a goal and an assist and Ilya Bryzgalov picked up the win for 2 points each to round out pool scoring for the Flyers.  On the other side, Chris Kunitz had a pair of goals, Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, while James Neal and Evgeni Malkin each had a pair of assists.  Some of the other big players in the game, were not included on the sheet, which is kind of disappointing, but a matter of depth on either side.

This has quickly turned into a series that is devoid of any major goaltending.  It will be about making the big saves, rather than the quantity, as the team goes back to Philadelphia in Game Three.

As expected, Box 22 defenseman Pavel Kubina did return to the Flyers line-up with the injury to Marc-Andre Bourdon.  Kubina was taken three times in the pool this season and his returned proved to be profitable, as he did pick up an assist on one of the eight goals scored by the Flyers.  Since his acquisition, Kubina hasn't been too popular with a lack of scoring to his name, but a healthy scratch in Game One may turn that around for him and his confidence.

I don't think anyone would debate against the series between the Red Wings and Predators being anything but close and Detroit came out with a bit more of a mission, trying to make sure that Nashville doesn't take full advantage of their home-ice.  With only a fine given to Shea Weber for his actions on Henrik Zetterberg at the end of Game One, there was going to be some bulletin board material for the visitors right away in this series.

Sure enough, the Red Wings were a more determined club in Game Two, working a little bit harder, blocking a few more shots and withstanding the push that the Predators came with.  With that being said, the Wings came away with a 3-2 regulation win to tie up the series at one, as they head back to Detroit for a Sunday match-up.

Jimmy Howard made 17 saves for the win and the 2 points, while Johan Franzen ended up getting credit for the game-winning goal and the bonus point.  Those were the only two players in this game that were able to pick up more than 1 point in the game, which says a lot about how each team will have to spread out the scoring to be successful, as defense plays a huge role in this series.

A lower-body injury to the Predators' Hal Gill kept the hulking defender out of the line-up for Nashville in Game Two and it arguably had an effect on the team, who had one of the top players in front of the opposition's net score the winner on Friday night.  Gill known more for his defense than offense, was included on the sheet in Box 11, much like Colin White is listed for the Sharks, in that playoff experienced role, which could play as its own X-factor down the stretch.  Gill was taken twice in the pool, so he will be missed if he misses any more time.

In the late game on Friday night, the Los Angeles Kings are showing that they are all about working hard and playing solidly in front of one of the league's elite goaltenders.  The Kings outworked the Canucks at every turn again in Game Two and in their frustration, Vancouver abandoned their attempt at being more disciplined and the game was pretty well lost for them early on.

It was a monster night for Dustin Brown of the Kings, who scored a pair of shorthanded goals and added an assist for a 3-point evening to lead the way.  Jarret Stoll ended up picking up the game-winning goal to add him to the list of players with multiple points on the night, while Jonathan Quick was outstanding, making 46 saves for the victory on the night.

Brown, the Kings' Box 5 forward, was only taken twice in the pool this year, which helps that little bit to teams that may not be getting some big poitns from more popular players.  The 3-point effort gives Brown 5 points in the first two games of the series and a commanding lead in the box.

Now the series will shift back to Los Angeles, who now have full home-ice advantage on the Canucks and they will go again on Sunday night in the only late game.

Injury news will be guarded quite tightly, but it was expected that Kings forward Kyle Clifford was going to be out after taking that huge hit from Byron Bitz, which cost Bitz a couple of games. The Kings will not say what the injury exactly is, but he is listed as out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.  It should still be considered fair to assume that Clifford is out indefinitely with a concussion, which isn't good news for the Kings, but he wasn't taken at all in the pool, so there won't be any effect to the standings directly here.

Game-Winning Goals
Another four games, another four winners... or so we hope!  In the Devils win, it was non-pool forward Ryan Carter that scored the goal, stealing another bonus point away.  For the Flyers win, it was Jaromir Jagr keeping one in the pool, but no one picked Jagr, so the point goes into playoff pool oblivion.  For the Red Wings, Johan Franzen ended up with the bonus point, much to the delight of his six pool owners this year.  Finally, in the late game, Jarret Stoll picked up the winner, but there was no love for him in the pool, having no owners of his own.

After three nights of action, five teams have 2 bonus points to their name, four of which are in the top 10 of the standings, while John R.'s second team is down in 27th and among the leaders in the category.  Out of the five teams with 2 bonus points, most of them have Franzen and Brian Boyle, while Martin Havlat and Max Talbot show up among the leaders.

Tonight's Games

The afternoon game on CBC belongs to Game Two of the Washington/Boston series, which may not exacerbate the goaltending competition, as afternoon games do tend to see some real scoring.  That game gets going right as this post is getting published.

Ottawa will look to tie up the series in Game Two in New York, which starts at 5pm on CBC as well.

San Jose will try to take the second game in St. Louis, starting at 5:30pm on TSN.

The late game will see Chicago in Phoenix for Game Two of their series, which has an 8pm start on TSN as well.

Thursday Night's Playoff Review

It's amazing what one really late night can do to a guy, his hockey pool and his blog, especially when you have to throw in a regular job in between all of that. Yes, it was a bit of a mad last couple of days, but I'm here finally to right the wrongs and get my review done here right away. I've got eight games to go through, plus a little bit of pool news, so I better hop to it.

I will start with the pool news, as all of the teams have now been entered and accounted for.  The final number isn't too bad, as we have 40 teams in the pool and at $10 an entry, we have a prize pot of $400.  I am kind of leaning towards having a winner-take-all scenario, but maybe a 2nd place prize may be in order as well.  Nevertheless, I should have a decision for Sunday, regardless.

Also, links to team pages should start showing up on Saturday afternoon and I'll slowly make my way through the standings, making sure everyone's team is up.  Until then, you can see how the picks have been broken down through the 40 teams, by the picks by box link on the standings (or the one right here).

A reminder, the injury/news page will keep you up-to-date with who didn't play in games in these playoffs and there will be constant links posted to the blog site, which should give you the gist of the general information you're going to want about the player you're looking for.

Now, let's get to the games from Thursday night!

As expected, I have to kick off on the Thursday action, which sees us being in New York, as the Rangers, the top seed in the East, took on the Ottawa Senators in Game One of their Quarter-Finals series.  The Rangers go into the series as fairly heavy favourites in the pool, as the Playoff Pool suggests, the Rangers have 105 of 120 selections to their name, compared to only 22 to the Senators.

On Thursday, the Rangers were exactly the team that I had outlined in the Eastern Conference match-ups, as they were very hard on the physical play, but played with a loose quality, which led to a lot of mistakes, often had to be cleaned up by Henrik Lundqvist.  Well, the Senators had their chances, putting 32 shots on net, some of reasonable quality and Lundqvist was able to stop 30 of them in a 4-2 win.  The Rangers may have dominated the scoreboard for the better of the game, but the Senators didn't appear to be that far away, competition-wise, for the Rangers, so this series may have some life in it.

Three players qualified to get the mention in the blog today, as Lundqvist picked up points for the win, Artem Anisimov picked up a pair of assists in the game and Brian Boyle notched the first tallied GWG of the pool season, earning the bonus point on the night.

The Senators were able to have a full compliment of pool players on their side on Thursday night, as Chris Neil came back from whatever minor upper-body ailment had him miss the final regular season game of the season. The biggest impact he had on the game was a 10-minute misconduct, which also saw the Rangers' Mike Rupp head off to the box as well, getting under each other's skin.  The Senators will need Neil to be at his best when they take on the Rangers on Saturday, as he can be an important piece to help win games at the end of the day.

In the second game of the night, it was a true goaltending duel between the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals, in Game One of the two-seven slotted series in the Eastern Conference.  On one side, you have the reigning Conn Smythe Trophy winner, Tim Thomas, and on the other side, you have young injury-replacement, Braden Holtby, locking horns in a scoreless draw into overtime.  Unfortunately for the kid, 78 seconds into overtime, the night came to an end with a huge blast in the face-off circle from Chris Kelly and the Bruins came away with a 1-0 win to take the opening match in the series.

For the most part, it was the Holtby Show, having to make 29 saves, keeping his Capitals in it, who could only muster 17 shots on Thomas on the other side of the ice.  As experience goes, the Bruins ploughed through and they were able to give their keeper the first shutout of these playoffs, giving Thomas 4 points in the pool and making good for the five teams that picked him on the Eastern Conference side.

As it was mentioned, Kelly was the only goal scorer in the game and he belongs in the Box 18 of the pool and was taken by three teams this year.  He nets those teams a bonus point and was the only other player in this game to have more than 1 point.

The Boston Bruins were also quite pleased to have Box 23 defenseman Johnny Boychuk back in their line-up on Thursday night, after he missed the last few regular season games with a knee sprain. Boychuk was a huge part of the Bruins' run last Spring and four teams are hoping that they can capitalize on that kind of success again this year. Boychuk wasn't necessarily popular, but he could be very important in this playoff run.

From what I had heard, the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues put on quite a good show in Game One of their Western Conference Quarter-Finals series, with a whole lot of back-and-forth action and a period and a bit of overtime to get us all warmed up.

Between the two goalies, Antti Niemi and Jaroslav Halak, they had made 71 saves in a 3-2 double overtime game and it was Niemi who came out on the victorious side, making 40 of those saves for the victory.  The Blues are going to be strong on the Sharks throughout this series and going to double overtime may be the sign that this series could be pretty awesome in the end.

The big player at the end of the night for the pool was Martin Havlat, who scored a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, for a 3-point night.  He led all players in scoring for the pool in the game, followed by Niemi with his 2 points for the victory, while Dan Boyle and Ryane Clowe each picked up a pair of assists in the victory as well.

The Blues are heavy favourites in this series to pull it out, having 88 of 120 possible selections, compared to 23 or the Sharks.  Four selections for Havlat, six for Clowe, one for Niemi and none for Boyle, so there were some points left on the board.

The Sharks were without one of their playoff-experienced veterans on Thursday night, as Box 11 defenseman Colin White was held out of the line-up with an upper-body injury.  White has won Cups with the Devils in his career, which makes him into a valuable asset for the Sharks and that is one of the main reasons he has been included on the sheet this year, as that experience can come in handy down the line.  White was taken once in the pool, but for that one team, I cannot really offer much for details at the moment, except that he is listed as out day-to-day.

Finally, for Thursday night's action, the late game saw the Pacific Division winning Phoenix Coyotes take on the 2010 Stanley Cup winners, Chicago Blackhawks, in the three-six slot of the playoffs.  The Coyotes won the division on the shoulders of their goaltender Mike Smith and they were certainly not prepared to stop doing that, especially while the goalie was still hot.

The Game One performance for Smith had its ups and downs, but at the end of the night, Smith finished with  43 saves and a 3-2 overtime win over the Blackhawks, as the Coyotes took a 1-0 series lead.  Smith's name has been synonymous with Vezina Trophy talk since the end of the regular season and why not?  The Coyotes were able to slug out a victory, taking a 2-1 lead in the 2nd period and then almost making it out of the game with a win in regulation, except for a Brent Seabrook goal with 15 seconds left to send it to overtime.

In the end, it was a Martin Hanzal midway through the first overtime period that ended up winning it for the home side and the game was Phoenix's and home-ice advantage still stood tall.  Hanzal and Smith were the only two Coyotes to finish with 2 points out of this game, Hanzal picking up the bonus point for the winner.  For the Blackhawks, their captain, who returned from injury, Jonathan Toews finished with a goal and an assist in the game, while Patrick Kane had a pair of assists as well.

The Blackhawks are the favourites in this series, but it is one of the closer series match-ups in the pool in this opening round, as the selection difference is 78 to 38 for Chicago.  It isn't the closest in the West, but an upset in the selections could make the pool a little bit more interesting, for sure.

As it was mentioned before, the Blackhawks saw the return of their captain Jonathan Toews, after he missed the last 22 regular season games with a concussion. It looked like his impact was immediate, but not all encompassing in Game One, but at least it's a start. Chicago would likely fall fairly quickly, if they didn't see the return of Toews. The team also welcomed back Dave Bolland, who missed the last couple of regular season games with a lower-body injury.  His impact is at both ends of the ice, but in a loss, he was nowhere to be seen on the scoresheet, which hurts Chicago and the 12 teams that picked him in the pool.

The Phoenix Coyotes received a little bit of a scare in their opening game, as Box 2 forward Radim Vrbata left the game after being hit into the boards by Andrew Shaw, due to an upper-body injury. The word is that Vrbata has been able to work out with the team on Friday, so his status for Saturday's game is questionable, at best.  Vrbata was clutch for the Coyotes in the regular season and the dogs will need him to be at his best, if they hope to give the Blackhawks the boot out of the playoffs.  Vrbata was taken once in the pool, so someone is hoping that he is better soon.

So, a quick recap of the bonus points is necessary and making up for the opening night goose egg that was laid, all four games had winning goals scored by pool players.  Brian Boyle of the Rangers, Chris Kelly of the Bruins, Martin Havlat of the Sharks and Martin Hanzal of the Coyotes, all took the early lead with one winner each.  The most popular of those four players in the pool is Boyle, who has nine selections, so the bonus point was spread through the pool the most by him.

We'll look at the overall GWG standings after the Friday night recap.

Welcome to the 2012 Playoff Pool

It was one hell of a billing to start off the 2012 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, a triple-bill of teams with a lot to prove and even more to fight for.

This year's edition of the playoffs looks to be just about anyone's game and even a couple of the heavy favourites took a pretty good tumble on Wednesday night, only proving that statement's worth.

First of all, I would like to welcome the participants of the Playoff Pool, which is nowhere near the amount of teams that we had last year, but I don't think that should make it any less fun.  Sure, the prize money will be a lot less, but that's just the nature of the game, I guess.  It should be more about the bragging rights any way.

Only 37 teams have submitted entries and I am really going to try my best to cut that off today, but there are some regulars who haven't submitted, which I might let slide, but I really don't want to.  I know one night of action isn't going to determine much, but I'm really beginning to dislike these guys who are sending in their entries late.

Nevertheless, onwards with the recaps!

Kicking off the Spring Dance this year is the most anticipated series in the Conference Quarter-Finals, as the Pittsburgh Penguins took on the Philadelphia Flyers in the CONSOL Energy Center and what a start it was.  The Penguins, who are odds-on favourites for the Cup, according to some of the sports book outlets, got off to a rocking start in the 1st period and it looked like they were going to give real substance to those odds.  Sidney Crosby and Kristopher Letang started it all off for the pool players in the opening frame, as they each recorded a pair of points in a 3-0 Pittsburgh lead after one.

Unfortunately for those Penguins, they did exactly what they didn't want to do and that was take their foot off the pedal with a lead and the Flyers crept back into the game in the 2nd period with a Daniel Briere goal, making it 3-1 after two.  In the 3rd period, Briere potted another goal and then moments later, the Flyers tied it up and the game was forced into overtime.

In the first extra frame of the playoffs, it was Jakub Voracek, who pounced on a loose puck with a gaping net, only a couple minutes into overtime and the Flyers completed the miracle comeback win.  Ilya Bryzgalov made 25 saves for the win and the Flyers came away like bandits, stealing home-ice away from Pittsburgh.

Of course, the game wasn't without its controversy, but I don't think there's enough time to go though all of that, so I'll just stick to the points in the pool and injuries and such.

It appears the Philadelphia Flyers are going to have Pavel Kubina start this series as a healthy scratch, which is going to be a pretty big disappointment to the three teams in the Playoff Pool that has taken him.  The Box 22 defenseman may not have done enough since being acquired by the Flyers to give the coaching staff enough reason to have him on the ice and with the Flyers win, it may be something like an injury that sees him back in the line-up.  Fortunately for Kubina, Marc-Andre Bourdon, who replaced Kubina in the line-up, was hurt, which means Kubina may draw into the line-up on Friday night.

Hosting Game One in the opening round of the playoffs doesn't appear lost on the Nashville Predators, who had the opportunity to host their division rivals from Detroit on Wednesday night to open up the playoffs and the Predators made good on that chance.  The Predators opened up the scoring midway through the 1st period, relinquished the lead in the 2nd period, but that was the closest the Red Wings would come to making a really tight game, as the Predators took the opening game, 3-2, in their own barn.

The Predators are going to be a real grinding team that will likely shoulder the load equally across all their skaters, which may make them into a poor pool team.  Out of the three goals that they had scored in Game One, there wasn't a point collected in the hockey pool, which is something else, really.  Thankfully for the pool, there is always going to be Pekka Rinne, who made 35 saves for the win, picking up a valuable 2 points for the six teams that picked him in the pool this year.

On the Detroit side, there were no multiple-point players to speak of, but they did keep themselves in the game on Wednesday night and it will be interesting to see how they bounce back from this early setback.

All eyes will be on Box 8 defenseman Shea Weber on Thursday, as his head smash on Henrik Zetterberg after the final buzzer may warrant a look by league officials.

With Nashville acquiring a little bit more grit, it may be that the Predators may not need the services of Box 7 forward Jordin Tootoo quite as much any more, which is an interesting turn for the playoff pool.  Tootoo has been the team's go-to guy when it came to digging in the tough areas and now with the acquisition of Paul Gaustad, who brings a little bit more to the table than just grit, Tootoo may have been made obsolete and his inclusion in the pool may have been made moot.  Only time will tell, but that does seem to be a reasonable thought.

In the late game, we saw the Vancouver Canucks open their quest to the Stanley Cup Finals in back-to-back years, but the Los Angeles Kings are the ones who stand in their way, not to be taken lightly.  The Canucks are highly favoured in the playoff pool, 95 total selections to 18 for the Kings, but it was Los Angeles in the opening game of the series, who stormed out and made the most of the excess pressure that the Canucks have on them.

Early on, the Canucks were able to take an early lead, but the Kings did well not to let the home team get away too quickly, grinding and slugging it out, finding a goal, not long after the midway point of the opening frame.  The 2nd period was an ugly one for the home side, getting into penalty trouble, which cost them the lead, but a late marker tied up the game before heading into the final frame.  In the 3rd, it was played tightly to the vest until Dustin Penner converted an amazing skate deflection from Jeff Carter to put the Kings up for good, 3-2, and an empty-netter salted it away.

The player of the game, points-wise, was Mike Richards, who finished with 3 points in the game, 1 goal and 2 assists, and was only taken once in the pool.  The early sleeper pick comes up huge.

There is an injury concern now for the Kings, as Kyle Clifford was smashed into the boards by the Canucks' Byron Bitz, who suffered an upper-body injury, which could be speculated to be a concussion.  Clifford left the game in the 2nd period and was unable to return.  There was no update early on Thursday morning, but I'm sure there will be something before Game Two.  I expect Bitz to have a hearing with the league on the play itself, as he did get a major and a game misconduct for boarding, which was the right call on the play.

There is nothing worse than opening up the playoff season and the pool with no recorded game-winners for players in the pool.  Jakub Voracek of the Flyers, Gabriel Bourque of the Predators and Dustin Penner of the Kings, were all over looked by the selection sheet committee (of one), opting for some more likely names for some points in this post-season.  Well, after three playoff games, we have no pool leader in GWG's, both in individual and teams.  It won't be long, I'm sure, before we see some points roll in for the bonus points.

Tonight's Games

It's a pretty full slate of games on Thursday night, as four series will open up in New York, Boston, St. Louis and Phoenix.  I don't think I'll go into much more detail, but if you want to see more about these series, according to the Sherpa, then check out the match-up posts for each Conference below.  They'll give you what you're looking for, in terms of these games going into Game One.