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.
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.
Labels: NHL playoff time
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 12:50 PM 
