Tag Archives: nhl playoffs

According to Form II. Game 2: Detroit 2, Dallas 1; Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2.

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

It has been suggested, by some very good friends of mine, hockey people I deeply respect, that tonight’s game between Dallas and Detroit in Texas is “do-or-die” for the Stars.

I respectfully disagree.

The do-or-die game came Saturday night when the Red Wings beat Dallas 2-1 in Detroit. That victory gave the Red Wings a 2-0 series lead and that should just about do it.

I mean, c’mon? If anyone thinks the Stars will win four of the next five games, they’re sadly mistaken. Dallas HAD to win on Saturday and they knew it. And to their credit, they played well, too. 

However, the 2-1 score flattered the Stars. Selkirk’s speedy Darren Helm and the terrific Henrik Zetterberg scored for Detroit as the Red Wings, who played without The Mule, Johan Franzen, outplayed and even outhit the Stars who got a great goaltending effort from  Marty Turco. Turco made 32 saves but fell to 0-9-2 in his last 11 at Joe Louis Arena. 

Here’s the kicker, however: The Red Wings outshot the Stars 34-18 and outplayed them in every aspect of the game. In fact, not only did Detroit direct 34 shots AT Turco, they had 13 misses and Dallas had 13 blocks. That’s potentially 60 shots on goal. The puck seldom was out of the Dallas zone.

Game 3 goes tonight (7 CDT) in Dallas and it doesn’t matter if the Stars win or lose. They had to split in Detroit. They didn’t and now they’re done.

Over in Pittsburgh, the Penguins proved once again they are way too good, way too talented and, yes, way too tough for the Flyers’ goon act. Pittsburgh got a goal and an assist from Sidney Crosby, a winner from fourth-liner Maxime Talbot and another solid performance from Marc-Andre Fleury as they outshot the Flyers 38-32 and owned the all-important third period.

Philly could win a game or two back in the City of Brotherly Love, but no one should count on it. The Pens lead the series 2-0, are now 10-1 in the playoffs this year and don’t appear ready to lose anytime soon.

At least, not until they face the Red Wings. 

Comments Off

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

According to form. Game 1: Detroit 4, Dallas 1; Pittsburgh 4, Philadelphia 2.

Posted on May 10, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz was a guest of the Tom & Joe Show on 92-CITI-FM on Thursday morning. One of the best interviews in all of professional hockey, Trotz told Tom McGouran and The Coach that while he loved Dallas and thought the Stars had a great team, he felt Detroit had way too much firepower.

 

Like many of us, Trotz expects an extremely short series in the Western Conference final.

 

As for the Philadelphia-Pittsburgh Eastern Conference final, Trotz believes that if the Flyers bang and crash, they might have a chance against a Pittsburgh team that Trotz also says has “far too much firepower.”

 

“If Philadelphia plays the same type of intimidating game they did against Montreal, they could make the series a long one,” Trotz said. “But that Pittsburgh team has a lot of talent and toughness. When you can throw Malkin, Crosby, Hossa and Staal out there, when you have two tremendously talented offensive-type lines, and they won’t back down, you can be a pretty formidable team.

 

“Philadelphia works very hard, but Pittsburgh keeps coming at you all the time. I won’t say Philadelphia can’t win the series, it’s just going to be very difficult.”

 

After the opening games of the two series, it was pretty obvious that Trotz’s assessment was dead on.

 

On Thursday night, the Red Wings just dominated Dallas. The Wings scored three power-play goals, built a 4-0 lead and coasted (as they often do) to a 4-1 victory. Big Tomas Holmstrom, who found himself a nice comfortable spot in front of Dallas goalie Marty Turco, led the way for the Wings with a goal and an assist. It was Detroit’s seventh straight playoff victory and set up a do-or-die situation for Dallas on Saturday.

 

That’s right, do-or-die.

 

Already down 1-0, if Dallas loses on Saturday, they’ll fall behind 2-0 and no matter how well they play the rest of the way, they will NOT win four out of five against the Red Wings. 

 

Trouble is, what can Dallas possibly do to beat Detroit if Chris Osgood plays well in goal? Osgood is, after all, the only weak link on this Red Wings team, and if he shuts you down (Detroit outshot Dallas 31-21 in Game 1), it’s pretty much hopeless. Dallas isn’t big enough, Dallas isn’t fast enough, Dallas can’t match up and Dallas can’t shut down the Wings power-play. 

 

Game 1 was not only a statement by Detroit, it was a sign of things to come.

 

Over in the East, Philadelphia got a couple of quick goals by Kenora’s Mike Richards and took a 2-1 lead on the Pens, but before the second period ended, Pittsburgh was up 4-2 and in the third, Malkin and Co. just shut down the Flyers.

 

What we found out in Game 1 of this series, is that Pittsburgh is just as tough and maybe tougher than the Flyers and if the bangin’ and crashin’ doesn’t work, Philly could go down quickly.

 

We still figure the Flyers will have some jam at home, but after Malkin got drilled a couple of times and still got up to score two goals and dish out an assist, the writing was on the wall. Unlike Montreal, Pittsburgh isn’t going to back down and that will spell doom for Philadelphia.

 

We selected Pittsburgh in seven. The Pens are now 9-1 in the playoffs and we might have underestimated their toughness. 

 

* * *

 

A couple of coaches were fired this week.

 

On Wednesday, to no one’s surprise, the dysfunctional Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Paul Maurice, the only good thing the Leafs had going for them the last two years. That franchise is in worse shape than we thought.

 

Two days later, ex-Maple Leaf Joel Quenneville was let go by the Colorado Avalanche. Quenneville was 131-92-23 in three seasons with Colorado, coaching a team that was old and on the slide after a decade near the top of the NHL. It was probably a blessing that Quenneville was given a chance to look for work elsewhere. The Avs are going nowhere but downhill.

 

The Leafs, meanwhile, are a mess. Currently being run by an old coot named Cliff Fletcher who destroyed the club with some dreadful trades in the late 90s (and the Leafs haven’t recovered) then went on to collect a million dollar paycheque to screw up the Phoenix Coyotes, Toronto is now without a head coach, a real general manager and probably a captain. Maurice, who had one year left on his contract, compiled a 76-66-22 record in two seasons as Toronto’s coach but failed to make the playoffs in both years.

 

Maurice and Quenneville are both class acts and relatively young and will find work. Both franchises, however, are in big, big trouble. Colorado is getting older by the minute while Toronto is just bad news.

 

In fact, the next coach in either city had better not buy a house. 

  

Comments Off

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Rangers steal home ice, Gomez terrorizes his former team

Posted on April 9, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

nigeldawes Rangers steal home ice, Gomez terrorizes his former teamAs the first round of the playoffs progresses, we’ll try to take a close look at, at least, one game each night.

On the opening evening of the 2008 post-season, last night, we spent most of our time watching three Manitoba kids – Travis Zajac and Arron Asham of the New Jersey Devils and Nigel Dawes of the New York Rangers – as they faced each other in that beautiful new building in Newark, New Jersey.

Now back on Sunday night, we picked the Rangers to win this series in seven games and, as it turned out, we picked the Rangers for every reason the Blueshirts won last night’s game – they have more pure scorers and those scorers came through, and Henrik Lundqvist outduelled Martin Brodeur.

Fact is, if the Rangers are to win this series, what happened last night has to happen three more times.

In the first period, the Devils did a great forechecking job and, for the most part, had territorial control, but there was just a sense that the Rangers would ultimately win this game simply because New Jersey had a couple of great breakaway chances and couldn’t finish.

No finish, no win. Especially in the playoffs when good chances usually are quite dear.

In the second period, Brendan Shanahan opened the scoring for the Rangers and the Devils answered 12 ½ minutes later. That goal seemed to spark New Jersey, but the third period was all New York, thanks in no small way to a huge gaffe by Brodeur.

Then again, it was really more than a gaffe. He should have smothered the puck, but instead, handed it to Ryan Callahan who was alone in front. It was a shorthanded goal and a complete screw up by a guy who doesn’t screw up very often.

After the goal, you could see New Jersey sag. When your leader, your superstar, screws up, it can be more costly, psychologically, than anyone knows.

New York added a goal by Sean Avery at 17:07 and then Lloyd Dawes young son scored his first playoff goal, thanks to a classy pass from Shanahan.

In the end, Scott Gomez had three assists against his former team and played a whale of a hockey game while Shanahan, Martin Straka and Jaromir Jagr were solid and the Rangers’ did a nice job of keeping the Devils off balance – at least, after that shaky first period.

Still, this game was a lot closer than a 4-1 score might indicate. Both teams had 27 shots at the opposing goaltender (Dawes’ empty netter gave the Rangers 28 shots, officially), the Devils had more hits (34-27), the Rangers won more faceoffs (31-25) and New Jersey, which ultimately DID have territorial control missed more shots (15-7).

But while Gomez put three points on the scoresheet and received most of the kudos from the TSN broadcast crew, the real stars were Lundqvist and the Rangers’ backcheckers. New York players blocked 16 shots and when you toss in New Jersey’s 15 misses and the four posts they hit, it becomes apparent that New Jersey had plenty of chances to put this game away and couldn’t get the job done.

After Game 1, I still think this is going to be a long series.

However, if the Devils don’t bear down around the Rangers’ net, New York might put this one away quickly. See the highlights on YouTube below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OEJGCAfgSc]

Comments Off

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s NHL playoff time: The only legitimate reason for living in a cold climate

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

Hockey fans, this is why we live. This is why we put up with snow in April. This is why we check our hockey pool numbers all winter long. This is why we have personal computers.

The 16-team Stanley Cup tournament begins Wednesday and it will no doubt provide us with the same number of upsets, surprises and thrills that it does every single spring.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=F36L5idlmQo]

After a year in which Alexander Ovechkin broke Luc Robitaille’s record for goals by a leftwinger with 65 (here’s Ovechkin’s 60th at http://youtube.com/watch?v=F36L5idlmQo); Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews broke into the Chicago lineup and, almost by themselves, rebuilt the franchise; Evgeni Malkin did everything the Penguins could ask after a nagging injury to Sidney Crosby; and the Montreal Canadiens regained the form that made them the most feared franchise in hockey in the 1970s, we’re now heading into a post-season in which absolutely anything can happen.

You have President’s Trophy-winning Detroit taking on the no-name Nashville Predators and while it looks like it could be a Red Wing romp – on paper, at least – the Preds played the Wings tough all season and know the playoffs aren’t decided on paper.

You have the slumping, injury riddled Ottawa Senators going at it with the gifted Pittsburgh Penguins and, without question, the Sens late-season collapse no longer matters, but a knee injury to captain Daniel Alfredsson does.

And you have the talented Calgary Flames, the only Canadian-based team in the Western Conference playoffs, up against the very talented San Jose Sharks — a team many think will win the Cup — in a series that will feature two of the game’s most controversial coaches, Ron Wilson in San Jose and Mike Keenan in Calgary.

The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is always the most intensely contested seven-game stretch of the year. Great teams are sometimes looking ahead to the next round – or the final round – while teams that have struggled all season and snuck into the playoffs have absolutely nothing to lose and tend to attack, all-out for 60 minutes every night.

Granted, the playoffs are a marathon, not a sprint, but a great team, playing its hardest with a red hot goalie, can make a marathon a mere 16 games long.

So who’s hot and who’s not? Which team will surprise? Which team will collapse? Which team will ride a hot goalie farther than anyone expected? Which team has the horses to win it all?

It’s going to be a great two months. Click the links below and let’s take a closer look…

2008 NHL Eastern Conference Playoff Predictions

2008 NHL Western Conference Playoff Predictions

→ 1 Comment

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , ,

NHL Playoff Predictions – Eastern Conference

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Scott Taylor| 1 Comment

No. 1 MONTREAL CANADIENS  (47-25-10) vs. No. 8 BOSTON BRUINS (41-29-12)

Carey%20Price NHL Playoff Predictions Eastern ConferenceThese two teams have despised each other for nine decades and by the end of the opening round of the playoffs, that hatred will not have subsided.

This will be the 31st time the Canadiens and Bruins have met in the playoffs during their often-bitter 84-year rivalry. The Canadiens have won 23 of the 30 meetings so far. This series is such a big deal, Habs coach Guy Carbonneau met the Bruins 10 during his playing career with the Habs, a team that went 8-0 against Boston this season.
 
“It’s going to be a very intense series as it always is,” said Carbonneau yesterday. “Even though we played so well against Boston all season, anything can happen in the playoffs. Short series can be scary things. I can tell you, we are all looking forward to it, that’s for sure.”

The Canadiens outscored Boston 39-16 this season and Boston picked up only one points in eight meetings with Montreal – a 3-2 Habs shootout win on March 22.

Here’s an interesting thing to consider. When Neepawa’s Shane Hnidy showed up in a trade on Jan. 2, the Bruins started to play better defensive hockey. Boston went 23-13-8 down the stretch after playing the first three months with a mediocre 18-16-4 record.
 
As the Bruins defence improved, it’s play against Montreal improved, too. Despite an 8-2 blow-out on Jan. 22, the Bruins played three solid games with Montreal after Hnidy’s arrival.

The Habs play a lot like Detroit – big, European-style hockey, with crisp passing and plenty of speed. The grinding Bruins have to try to slow down the Canadiens in the neutral zone and not let them make that one extra pass they love so much.

And Tim Thomas, who has no games of playoff experience, has to play better than rookie Carey Price, otherwise…

Montreal in five games.

evgeni malkin NHL Playoff Predictions Eastern ConferenceNo. 2 PITTSBURGH  PENGUINS (47-27-8) vs. No. 7 OTTAWA SENATORS (43-31-8)

The Senators are struggling and have a number of serious injuries. The biggest one to captain Daniel Alfredsson, but injuries to forwards Mike Fisher and Chris Kelly are not to be discarded as meaningless.

None are expected to return at any time during the opening round and head coach and GM Bryan Murray said Sunday that he believes the injury situation will result in all the “so-called experts"  (that would include us, I guess) will all predict an easy Penguins victory.

“We don’t want to overplay the fact we have injuries,” said head coach and GM Bryan Murray on Saturday night. “We want to overplay the fact we have opportunities.”

Indeed, they do have opportunities, but against a very good Penguins team, a team that expects to have a healthy Sidney Crosby back for the first round, this is going to be a difficult assignment for the Sens.

It’s the second straight year in which the Penguins and Senators have met in the opening round and last year, Ottawa won the series in five games. (Thanks to our eagle-eyed readers for catching this mistake!)

This year it will be a different story, as the Pens boast a team loaded with offensive firepower – Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and of course a former Senator, Marian Hossa.

They also don’t have a goaltending problem (wonder how Ray Emery is feeling today) and while Marc-Andre Fleury might not be the best in the game, he always has Ty Conklin to bail him out.

Pittsburgh in six.  

No. 3 WASHINGTON CAPITALS (43-31-8) vs. No. 6 PHILADELPHIA FLYERS (42-29-11)

All you need to say is “Alexander Ovechkin” and you’ve just about said it all. The Capitals superstar – and he is, indeed, a superstar – led the league in goals (Maurice Richard Trophy) with 65, points (Art Ross Trophy) with 112 and will probably win the Hart Trophy, emblematic of the league’s most valuable player.

alexander ovechkin NHL Playoff Predictions Eastern ConferenceBut the Caps also have Nicklas Backstrom, a sweet-playmaking centre who will be nominated for the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s rookie of the year, Mike Green, the most under-rated forward in the East, and three more tremendous  Russians, Viktor Kozlov (like Ovechkin, a plus-28), Sergei Fedorov and Alexander Semin.

The cold war didn’t result in Russian planes bombing Washington; it resulted in Russian hockey stars bringing Washington to its feet.

The Caps head into the playoffs as the hottest team in the East. Washington has won seven straight and blown past the Carolina Hurricanes to claim the Southeast Division title.

Of course, that’s the real story. When Bruce Boudreau replaced Brandon’s Glen Hanlon as coach of the Caps on Nov. 22, Washington was 14 points behind the Hurricanes in the race for the Southeast Division lead. Saturday, with a big win over Forida, they not only caught Carolina, but passed them and earned the No. 3 seed. Caps goaltender Cristobal Huet won his ninth straight start on Saturday and i?n 13 starts since joining Washington, Huet is 11-2 with two shutouts, a 1.63 goals against average and a .936 save pct.

The Flyers, meanwhile, slumped through most of February and March but got their act together down the stretch. Philly finished the regular season with seven wins in its last nine games (7-1-1) and won the season with Washington (2-1-1).

Philadelphia did have more points than Washington (95-94) but the Caps have too much firepower and home ice advantage.

Washington in seven.

No. 4 NEW JERSEY DEVILS (46-29-7) vs. No. 5 NEW YORK RANGERS (42-27-12)

Yesterday, the Devils wrapped up the No. 4 spot in the East and gained home ice advantage in this series with a 3-2 shootout win over the visiting Rangers.

Now, to say the Devils won an important game and clinched home-ice is a big deal. But they were hardly dominant and that suggests this will be a very close series.

In fact, Martin Brodeur, who played 77 games this season and will probably win the Vezina Trophy and be nominated for the Hart Trophy as MVP, will be the most important player in this series.

The Rangers could very well have the better team, more scorers and more impressive offence (213 goals to 205 this season), but even though Henrik Lundqvist was one of the two top goalies in the East, the Broadway Blueshirts will have to find a way to overcome Brodeur, the best netminder in the game. How good is Brodeur when he’s on his game? Watch 10 of his best ever saves below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-3ziU0xJ3A]

Of course, the Rangers did it all year. Although every game was close, New York went 7-0-1 against Jersey this season.

The series opens Wednesday night in Newark, N.J.

NY Rangers in seven.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

NHL Playoff Predictions – Western Conference

Posted on April 6, 2008 by Scott Taylor| Comments Off

No. 1 DETROIT RED WINGS (53-21-7) vs. No. 8 NASHVILLE PREDATORS (41-32-9)

Despite the fact Detroit finished 24 points ahead of Nashville in the Western Conference standings, the Preds matched up well against the Wings. In eight meetings this season, both teams were 3-3-2.

“It’s just another example of how close the league is today,” Preds head coach Barry Trotz told us last week. “We struggled against St. Louis and I really thought that Chicago was the most talented team in our conference. I think Chicago has the talent to be a great team in the future. But Detroit, as outstanding as they were, weren’t that intimidating for us. We matched up well against them.

“Of course, we weren’t intimidated by anybody, all year. We’re a lot better than people think.”

There is no doubt, the smaller, slightly slower Preds won’t be intimidated by Detroit, but if you watch the following Youtube video, you’ll see what happens to Nashville when they try to stick-check the Wings instead of take the body. http://youtube.com/watch?v=R0cGTQmN0wc

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=R0cGTQmN0wc]

Have to admit, I’d love to see Nashville take out Detroit, but I’m starting to think that the President’s Trophy-winning Red Wings, are the team to beat in the West this year.

Detroit in six games.

No. 2 SAN JOSE SHARKS (49-22-10) vs. No. 7 CALGARY FLAMES (42-30-10)jarome iginla NHL Playoff Predictions Western Conference

It’s pretty difficult to figure out how the Flames are going to beat this Sharks team.

San Jose finished the season with 108 points while the Flames had only 94. San Jose had 49 wins while Calgary had 42. San Jose went 7-2-1 down the stretch (19-0-2 in an unbeaten March and early April) while Calgary went 5-5-0 down the stretch and was fortunate to make the playoffs.

However, Calgary played well against San Jose this season. While the Sharks won the first meeting of the season, 4-1, in Calgary on Oct. 22, the Flames won the next three – 3-2 in OT in San Jose on Jan. 3, 5-4 in Calgary on Jan. 30 and 4-3 in overtime in San Jose on Feb. 12.

Calgary has a 50-goal scorer in Jarome Iginla, the consummate team leader, and a pretty solid goaltender in Mikka Kiprusoff. The Flames are also coming off a solid 7-1 win in Vancouver on Saturday night.

But the Sharks are terrific.

“That’s the best team I played against this season,” said Vancouver Canucks centre Jason Jaffray. “Of all the teams I saw, that’s the one with the biggest toughest players and the best system. That’s the team I’ve picked to win the Cup.”

A team led by the great Joe Thornton and Norris Trophy candidate Brian Campbell, the Sharks have the best goaltender in the West (some might say the best in the league), Evgeni Nabokov.

The Sharks will be tough to beat.

San Jose in six.

No. 3 MINNESOTA WILD (44-29-9) vs. No. 6 COLORADO AVALANCHE (44-31-7)

The toughest team on the block – a team with four legitimate goons – will take on a team with a handful of the best young players and old players in hockey in what could be a very intriguing series.

The Minnesota Wild, the Northwest Division champions, are led by their superstar rightwinger Marian Gaborik (42 goals, 41 assists), but it’s the sight of 6-foot-3, 230-pound Chris Simon, 6-foot-2, 240-poundTodd Fedoruk, 6-foot-7, 260-pound Derek Boogard and 6-foot-3, 210-pound Aaron Voros. They say, fighting doesn’t have a place in the playoffs, but if the Wild decide it does, look out.

The Avs, on the other hand, have a very nice team, a team that’s had a number of its top players hurt this season.  Now, most are healthy, and the Avalanche will be a difficult opponent in the first round.

It’s a team with superstar older players such as Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, Ruslan Salei, Milan Hejduk, Ryan Smyth and Peter Forsberg and up-and-coming superstar younger players such as Marek Svatos, Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski. If the Avs, a team that beat Minnesota 4-3 in a shootout in the final game of the season, remain healthy throughout the playoffs, they’ll be extremely tough.

It’s also a good thing that Minnesota has home ice advantage. The Avalanche finished with 27 wins at home, it’s most since winning 28 in 2001, the year the Avs won their last Stanley Cup. However, the disciplined, hard-nosed, hard-checking Wild went 5-2-1 against the banged-up Avs this season. It’s hard not to like Minnesota.

Minnesota in seven.

No. 4 ANAHEIM DUCKS (46-27-8) vs. No. 5 DALLAS STARS (44-30-7)

Two of the NHL’s top teams of the decade, the Dallas Stars and the defending Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks should give fans a great series.

During the season, the Stars won five of eight meetings against the Ducks and outscored Anaheim 24-15. Based on the regular season totals, this should be one of the upsets of the first round.

But not so fast. The Ducks won the final two meetings 2-1 and 3-2 and played a lot better against Dallas with Teemu Selanne and Scott Niedermayer in the lineup. The two veterans won’t playing together until February.

Still, this will be a great series and a tough one. The Ducks won the Stanley Cup last year by leading all teams in fights.

This year, the Ducks were second to Calgary (70-69), but Dallas was still 10th (48) and they won’t back down. Just take a look at Krys Barch vs. Brad May I-IV.

May vs. Barch I, Nov. 5, 2007
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mMTNBFncds8&feature=related

May vs. Barch II, Nov. 21, 2007
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Ypr03UZ72w&feature=related

May vs. Barch III, Jan. 15, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=IuoJSD6IhFg&feature=related

May vs. Barch IV, March 19, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GU09BDjk4oU&feature=related

This will be the most bitterly contested series in the West and if Barch and May have their way, it might be the only series in which fights play a significant role.

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=mMTNBFncds8]

Ultimately, this one will be about goaltending and I like Giguere (2.12 GAA, .922 save pct.) over Turco (2.32, .909) by the smallest of margins.

Anaheim in seven games.

Comments Off

Posted in 2008 NHL Playoffs, Blog

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,