Wednesday, April 30, 2008

 

A quick look half way through round two 2008

Aren’t the playoffs beautiful? Who could have possibly predicted any of what is going on right now in the league quarterfinals or more commonly referred to as the Conference semi-finals. As of this writing Montreal are down 2-1 to the Flyers despite greatly out shooting them, greatly out chancing them and in the nine plus periods played so far there have been entire 20 minute segments that Montreal has simply owned; case in point the third period of game three. Yet they find themselves down two games to one. Carey Price while not at total fault for many of the goals against finds his GAA at 3.79 and his save percentage at .875. No matter how you slice it that’s simply not good enough. He has to be better or at least step up and match his counterpart Martin Biron who has been the first star in each of the past two games. Colour the Habs done if they lose tonight.
The game within the game; The goaltending match up has been the dominating story but don’t discount Steve Downie doing all he can to impress his mentor the one Robert Earle Clarke, known for years as Bobby, now simply as Bob. Of course I say that in jest, Downie wasn’t born when Clarke retired and the more heir apparent to that throne is the next captain of the team, Mike Richards. Downie is a super agitator with a resume that has officials watching his every move and then some however he also has decent hands and a couple of gold medals courtesy of Team Canada’s junior program. Did he slew foot Carey Price in game three? Yes he did. Although we were treated to a breath taking assertion from Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Friedman that Downie assured him in passing that he had no idea he had struck Price nor had he any intention. This in response to Greg Millen of Hockey Night teeing off on Downie’s reckless play and frankly, it was just that. Had it been any one of 6-700 other players in the NHL I might be inclined to believe him but my take is he knew what he was doing, he did it deliberately and it’s a very, very reckless play. It wasn’t a slew foot in the traditional sense with a player’s foot doing the tripping from behind but it was akin to that and an extreme cheap shot none-the-less. That play coupled with the Richards shot to Halak’s head and the Derian Hatcher run from behind on Francois Bouillon has left the Habs reeling both on the score board and on the ice. In its simplest terms all Montreal needs tonight in my view is to score first. We’ll see how it goes from there if they can get that goal and take the Flyers out of that comfort zone.

Elsewhere the league is looking at three series all 3-0. We could have made a killing in Vegas. Are the Stars for real is the question? A fortunate deflection in OT in game three gave Dallas a most unusual win – that being on home ice, in the playoffs. Neither of those situations has been good to the boys from the lone star state in the past 5-6 years. More so when playing the Sharks. Of the previous sixteen contests between these two teams the home team had won precisely three contests. But they got ‘er done last night and now find themselves poised to get to the one round removed from the big dance. After a great first round I keep wondering where the next great series is coming from because at this point it hardly looks like its going to be in round two.

Elsewhere in the 3-0 world, the Aves are beat up big time and are valiantly trying to gut it out, Forsberg included. I commend the effort but at the end of the day this Detroit team appears poised to eliminate many of the past five season’s doubters of which I am one. If the Montreal Canadiens are taking heat in some circles for the abundance of Europeans up front what the heck does that say about Detroit? Then again, Johan Franzen at 6’3”, 220lbs hardly represents Kent Nilsson in stature but he sure can bring it on the scoreboard and at this time of the year that also differentiates himself from many of his Swedish predecessors. His eight goals lead the show in the post season right now. It was all Ryan Clowe for the Sharks in the first round, Franzen in the second, Malkin overall and of course Sid the Kid but a Detroit-Dallas match up could be one for the ages – seemingly – at this point.
Lastly, speaking of Malkin and Sid the Kid, as much as Jagr would like to say these are not your fathers Penguins without Mario and Co., which I assume by extension he means himself circa 1991-92. No Jaromir, they are not but guess what, you guys never went 6-0 let alone 7-0 to start a playoff year. Have to say one thing though; Jagr’s play has been impressive. The goal he scored last night, ( April 29th) in the Rangers 5-3 loss was a beauty and his physical engagement with Malkin, when you see guys like that going at it I don’t know about you guys but I’m inclined to say, “hey, what part of Alberta are you guys from?” It’s good to see the stars battle. I don’t expect everybody to be a Brendan Morrow who is hitting more guys than my old rock’em’sock’em toy used to but it sure shows a level of commitment when the rich and famous get down and dirty. Stay tuned for a round two recap. Might be coming sooner than we thought.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

 

A quick look half way through round one 2008

The top story in the first round of the playoffs at this time has to be the Dallas Stars going into the lion’s den in Anaheim and winning not once but twice and frankly in rather convincing fashion. Six power play goals of the nine scored so far by the Stars is an outstanding stat for the boys from the Lone Star State. Last season after the Ducks first two games against Minnesota they were short handed ten times and did not give up a shorthanded goal so if you’re looking for a telling stat comparison right off the get-go from last year to this – there it is. Credit Dallas’s power play but no question that statistic says it all. Can a team come from two down after two losses on your home ice? Sure it’s happened. The 1966 Habs spring to mind and that was in the finals against Detroit but right now you’d have to say it’s Duck hunting season and to me this is a huge upset in the making despite the Stars winning the season series. Obviously we’re not talking about the President Trophy winning Anaheim team here but who cares about that trophy anyway. Detroit won it this season for the sixth time since 1995 and only one of their three Cups since then came in the same year so as usual it remains a trophy that has little or no correlation to the team that eventually wins the Cup.
My pick in the East to make the finals is the Rangers. They never recovered from that devastating game five loss against Buffalo last year and this season I think they’re poised to take a big time run. They’ve got great goaltending, very balanced scoring and if they can survive the antics of Sean Avery on their roster they are quite capable to make a run to the finals in the wide open East.
Speaking of Avery, good for the NHL to act as quickly as they did in stemming the tide of his idiotic behavior. Imagine having a rule amended because of your play – unreal but that’s the type of guy he is. The incredible part of that whole highlight was watching his own teammate, Scott Gomez actually skate to him while the play was going on and try and get him to either turn around or do something….anything, other than that chicken dance he was doing in front of Brodeur. That quite frankly was farcical.
Carey Price looked very good in his three games of action so far. Game three between Montreal and Boston was an excellent hockey game matching Philly-Washington game one, any of the San Jose-Calgary games and really any of the Minnesota-Colorado games. It’s been great hockey. I’m a little disappointed there as not been more fights though. Lot’s of roughing penalties and the usual face washing but in each of the past 2-3 seasons there have been quite a few rumbles in the first round. Not so much yet, although we’re far from done.
Here in Canada’s capital the sky has all but fallen on Chicken Little and the rest of the faithful minions that support the Senators. Despite the amazing return of Alfredsson for last nights contest, scoring the first goal and having the home crowd, the Sens still lost 4-1 with the Penguins scoring three unanswered goals in the third period. We all know the stat about being down 3-0 in games. Bottom line here the Pens are the better team. If they can keep this team together, especially the top three centers, Crosby, Malkin and Staal, what a lineup that could be. One more win to close out the deal, we’ll see if they can get it done tomorrow night. The only negative for them and this is only from my perspective as a fan is the diving of Ruutu at the end of game two drawing that penalty on Lapointe and then again last night, Malone on Stillman. How the officials could call that and effectively put the Sens two men down once an earlier Penguin penalty was over was baffling. Used to be you had to carve somebody’s leg off to get a second call but the double minor against Heatley was called by Paul Devorski and Mike Leggo called the Stillman trip which frankly was ridiculous. Moot point in the big picture because the better team is winning the series but the inconsistencies of the officiating whether it be Art Skov calling holding on Bobby Orr in game six of the 1974 finals or some of the calls or non calls this season, never seems to change. Then again, that’s pro sports.
Lastly, for those of you interested in some great reading material you really should go to http://www.terryfrei.com/ and purchase any of the three books Terry has for sale there. Mr. Frei was a guest on my show, In The Net earlier today, (April 15, 2008) and in conversation with him we discussed his literary work and they sound awesome. By trade he's a writer for the Denver Post and ESPN.com and he covers the Avalanche but in conversation with him today he told us about some of his other interests. Thought I would give him a plug here. You gotta love the first round of the playoffs although it’s hard on the liver.

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