Here we are a week into the playoffs and we've only seen one sweep. The Detroit Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes easily four games to none. What's impressive is Detroit this all without the services of Henrik Zetterberg. This bodes well for them as he'll be rested thus far and even further as the Wings wait for an opponent. I did receive my first series win as I chose Detroit. I did figure Phoenix would have won a game or two (I picked Detroit in six), but I'll take the wins however they come.
If you're wondering if I have any pick regrets based on what I've seen, I'll share the two that are coming to mind. The first is obviously the Montreal Canadiens. I figured Montreal would play good against Boston, but I didn't think they would be as tough as they have been. They did lost in overtime tonight so the series is tied, but I was definitely left wondering if the Canadiens were going to make me look absolutely stupid. The other tough pick was the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning. My figuring the Lightning would run away with the series on offense alone was foolish. Pittsburgh is only one game away from closing the Lightning out. I think we may have my first Worst Pick of the Round candidate right there.
Otherwise, we have some very good matches right now. New York is proving to be tough foe for Washington, but Washington is only one game away from sending New York out. The series is at 3-1 but it's been closer than it looks. As you'll read later, I'm unsure what to think of my Philadelphia Flyers. They've been off and on in their series against Buffalo. The series is currently tied 2-2. The Vancouver Canucks blew the Chicago Blackhawks away the first three games of the series. Not the case anymore. Chicago has stormed back winning two straight games scoring 12 goals over six periods. Incredible considering Roberto Loungo is in net. Can Chicago do what Philadelphia did last year? As the NHL commercials have been touting, maybe history will be made.
The San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings series has been interesting but it appears San Jose will take it. As I write this, the Sharks are leading 6-3 in the third period of game four. The win will put them 3-1 in the series. The Kings have been decent, but just haven't been able to keep the deep Sharks team from taking them over. Finally, the Ducks and Predators have made for a very interesting series. The way the two teams have been trading off is intriguing. I could see this series going seven games. Looks like Anaheim has cooled off a bit. More importantly, it appears my thoughts on Nashville were a bit off.
Unless something huge happens, you probably won't hear from me until this round is over or almost over (a matter of four or five days. At that point we'll see if my overall predictions are close, get my official round by round predictions, and see how my stats are coming along. Hope you've been enjoying the playoff hockey as much as I have.
* The Hits of the NHL Playoffs *
If there has been one running motif of the playoffs thus far, it has been the hits that have been dished out. The buzz has been out there for the last week on them. Check out the videos below. It began with a Jarret Stoll hit on Ian White. I was watching the game between the San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings when that hit occurred. It wasn't penalized in the game, but I knew it would be reviewed and punished. Stoll hit White who was facing the boards with his head down. White went into the boards head first and seemed woozy afterwards. Overall, it was pretty ugly looking. The part I found funny is where you see Stoll look around White and see that he knocked him out. He then backs off and skates away. The NHL did the right thing by giving Stoll a suspension (one game). It worked out as White only missed one game. Injury shouldn't dictate the punishment as the act alone should make the punishment. The playoffs are a different beast though. Losing one player is enough where chemistry could be lost. The fact that both teams lost one player each for one game seems fair.
The next hit wasn't much of a hit, it was a skate stomp. No one was injured on this, but the intent of the stomp is all it takes to get notice. I think the most surprising element of this was that the stomp was made by Bobby Ryan of the Anaheim Ducks. You wouldn't really figure that a skilled player like Ryan would be so undisciplined. Jonathan Blum of the Nashville Predators was on the receiving end of the stomp. He clearly noticed it as he gave Ryan a few good chops as Ryan skated away. The play also went unpenalized but the NHL handed out a two game suspension to Bobby Ryan. Nothing to argue here. It was a stupid play and the suspension, though lengthy considering it's the playoffs, was just.
The next hit finally stirred up the pot and made the issues noticeable. Raffi Torres, freshly returned from a suspension for a hit of the same type, nailed Brent Seabrook on a blindside play behind the net of the Blackhawks. This play was actually penalized but went unsuspended. I think this one was handled correctly. The hit, according to the rules, was clean. Sure, it was rough and a bit ugly, but I thought it was clean. Unfortunately, this is a case where the player who received the hit could be out for awhile. It's worse that it's one of the Blackhawks top defenseman. Chicago didn't let it faze them as they won the next game and, as I'm writing this, are up 4-0 in the fifth game. Good call by the NHL on this one.
The latest and final two hits came from the same game. It started with Steve Downie (known for the hits he delivers) leaving his feet (a huge no-no) to nail the Pittsburgh Penguins Ben Lovejoy behind the net. It appears in the video that Downie hits Lovejoy in the head, but Lovejoy said it was in the chest. This one looked very ugly and actually, it almost looked like a hit Downie delivered against Dean McAmmond in 2007. Downie was suspended 20 games for that hit. Downie only landed one game for this hit and was going to be penalized except that Lovejoy took the hit to keep the puck moving. By doing so, the Penguins actually advanced the puck and scored, cancelling the penalty. I'm actually surprised the NHL didn't hand out two games since Downie is a repeat offender. I was expecting two games, but I'm glad they didn't make as big of a deal on this one as the NHL could have.
The final hit, as mentioned earlier, was also in the same Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning game. Chris Kunitz of the Penguins sticks out an elbow into the head of Simon Gagne. Gagne has had concussion issues and this hit could have taken him out of the series had it struck completely. I think Kunitz was a little too blatant in reaching out for Gagne. The play received a two minute penalty and a one game suspension as well. I was really surprised the NHL didn't go the two game route here. I just didn't ever get the feel that Kunitz was trying to make a legit clean hit. His elbow was clearly out. Not trying to bash on the Penguins, but this looked (and I say looked because it may not have been as bad as it looked) pretty ugly. The Penguins were very lucky that Kunitz only received one game.
It's crazy that all these hits and suspensions have been handed out and we're only about halfway through the first round of the playoffs. In a year where the focus has been on keeping cheap hits out of the game, it's almost ironic that the occurrence of them has increased. So long as they keep the suspensions at a reasonable level and look at each hit clearly, I would think the product on the ice won't be damaged. I like the old school way of thinking, but in some of these cases, it's hard defending the play. Hopefully the solid grind of the playoffs filled with clean hits continues to dominate what we see rather than any of these hits.
* Philadelphia Flyers Thoughts *
Had to have my own spot for this. Thus far their series with the Buffalo Sabres is tied at two games for each team. In both losses the Flyers have been shutout 1-0. When I put my thoughts out here, keep in mind that I only saw both of these losses, so my thoughts might be a bit skewered or off. In the first game, I felt we were beat by ourselves and Ryan Miller. We missed some grand opportunities, were terrible on the power play, and made Ryan Miller look better than he needed to be. For a team with tons of scoring, we showed nothing. The next two games we won pretty convincingly. Tons of traffic in front and plenty of power play time helped that. I also think that making the change from Sergei Bobrovsky to the veteran Brian Boucher in net helped. Bob is going to be awesome in the NHL eventually, but I think he was tossed to the wolves by being expected to lead the Flyers in net.
In the fourth game, I finally realized the refs are complete jokes. I thought it was kind of odd and crappy that Buffalo was spending some of the previous games in the box a lot. The fourth game must have been an apology to the Sabres from the refs. I'm not saying the Flyers were innocent, they weren't, but the Sabres were playing like they could get away with murder. Patrick Kaleta's opening of the Sabres bench door to cause Nik Zherdev to fall on his ass was absolutely disrespectful. No call there. Briere was knocked on his ass by Tyler Myers way after the whistle and still no call. Daniel Carcillo, a whipping boy of NHL referees, was absolutely molested in front of the net by a Sabres defenseman and goaltender Ryan Miller and CARCILLO gets the penalty. The worst of all was when Patrick Kaleta went to hit Mike Richards (standing away from the play) and ended up receiving an elbow to the chops from Richards. Rather than call them both or just give Richards a two minute minor, the refs gave the Buffalo Sabres a five minute power play. I don't see how you hand out a power play like that in the playoffs unless a guy is missing a limb or is knocked unconscious. The Flyers managed to kill it off (though it was probably because Buffalo used the five minutes to take time off the clock), but it was one of the most questionable calls I've ever seen (see below). Like I said, the Flyers weren't innocent, I just think there were many opportunities to call both players on each team for a penalty. This series is so boring because it's like the refs won't let either team play. Regardless, Philly also lost this game because they took too long to get involved. They failed to get decent shots on net and couldn't put the puck in wide open nets. Buffalo converted on one of the few chances they had and won because of it.
I'm really not sure what to think of Philly right now. When they play well, they're easily capable of beating Buffalo. When they're not, Ryan Miller can beat Philadelphia on his own. I really think Chris Pronger would be a difference maker if he were able to play. I've heard he might play in game five on Friday, but it's still up in the air (as usual). Part of me thinks we shouldn't expect to see Chris Pronger unless the Flyers make the second round. Another part of me thinks we NEED to see Chris Pronger in this round so we can even make the second. We'll see. I truly hope the officiating gets better in the next game. I don't want the Sabres to be sent to the box for everything, hell the Flyers can't even convert on the power play anyway. I just want the refs to let these teams play. I'm tired of watching regular season hockey. Let these guys play. Three penalties for each team all game long or something. I'm still hoping my Flyers can pull it out in six still.
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