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.
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.
# posted by Liam Maguire @ 1:03 PM 
