NHL Playoff Roundup

Ottawa 4 Tampa Bay 1: With Dominik Hasek looking on, Ottawa starting goalie Ray Emery stopped 35 shots and kept his team in the game before they exploded for four goals in a dominant third period. Things may very well have been different if a Vincent Lecavalier shot didn't hit the crossbar, but it wasn't to be. But while Emery deserves plenty of credit, Hockey Country says Ottawa's fourth line deserves some plaudits as well:

I remarked, after Tuesday’s win over the Rangers, that I was surprised with how well the Vaclav Varada-Antoine Vermette-Chris Neil line played because I didn’t have high expectations going in. I expected good things here, but once again, they went above and beyond what I projected they would do. Once again, whenever on the ice, the puck always seemed to be in the Tampa end, and they generated more scoring chances than an alleged fourth line is supposed to. Murray gave this trio a big vote of confidence as they were given key shifts in the third period, getting a regular shift throughout the frame and making the most of their opportunities. Antoine Vermette (who’s become the local “play this guy more!” dude) got a ton of time at even strength in comparison to how much he usually plays.

Here's Sens Watch:

The powerplay unit moved the puck at will, and by the third period found the range. Havlat broke some long standing ice to get his first of the playoffs, and Spezza threaded the needle to give us the lead. Spezza who seemed hesitant in the first period grew stronger as the game went on. For someone who is always screaming for "concentrated offensive talent" our number one power play was wish fulfillment extra ordinaire. Spezza, Heatley, Havlat, Alfredson and Redden. Now that's what I call bringing a bazooka to a knife fight.

For more great Senators links, visit Battle of Ontario.

Meanwhile, John Fontana is disappointed in the effort from the bolts in blue:

For two periods, you were led to believe the Lightning could heighten their game — because they did. They played sound defense, they threatened on offense and they looked like a team worthy of being in the playoffs…

One power play goal by the Senators early in the third undid that, and you’d think that the Bolts were made up of rookies — not Stanley Cup winners. One goal leads to another, which leads to a defensive lapse on the power play and a short handed goal to make that hole three… Add the customary empty-net (during a six-on-four power play, no less!) and the Lightning went from looking like contenders to pretenders in less than 18 minutes.

Game Two is Sunday.

Ottawa leads series, 1-0.

Detroit 3 Edmonton 2, 2OT: With two lucky bounces of the stick of Kirk Maltby, the Wings were able to overcome 1 54-save performance from Oilers goalie Dwayne Roloson. As I mentioned last night, the game really reminded me of the 1995 series between Detroit and Chicago, where the Wings were never not in control of the flow of play. The problem was that Hawks goalie Ed Belfour just kept standing on his head and forcing games into multiple OT marathons. After last night's game, I could see this series going as short and four or five games, and still having it feel like it's a close run thing.

Christy Hammond from Behind The Jersey was at the game, and she clearly had a difficult time with playoff OT:

I spent most of the overtime (and the second overtime) acting like a chicken with its head cut off. If the Oilers were in the Wings end, I just whispered "no no no no" until the puck was cleared or carried out. For any Seinfeld fans, I acted like Kramer the one time he won a bet at the race track and when he stood there saying "come on" and whipping an imaginary horse with his newspaper. Anyways, I just sat there whispering "come on" like a mad woman. I clearly could not handle the pressure of a Wings fan in the playoffs.

Covered in OIl thinks that the teams are pretty evenly matched, but that Wings head coach Mike Babcock is going to be the difference in the series:

You can talk about Detroit's superior talent level, but last night's Wings aren't really all that far ahead of us....

But holy man did they pretty much sh** kick us last night. And I point to the coaching. Detroit has to play one of the best positional games I've ever seen--they're always where the puck is. Two incidents stick out, both in the third. First, Samsonov took a fairly nice up-ice pass from Hemsky (I believe), and broke into the zone. He was immediately surrounded by four Red Wings, and basically got the puck stripped. Where the hell those four came from, I have no idea, but they seemed to be in a good position to contain Hemsky less than a second before. The next one was also in the third, as one of the Wings came down the wing (I could care less who it is): he basically got pasted on a good defensive play by Staios, but sure enough, another Detroit player followed it right up and let loose a fairly open shot that Roloson had to cover. This much puck support is a solid system, and Babcock has got them to buy into it to the point that Mikael Andersson scores 23 goals and Andres Lilja (?) looks like a remarkably solid defenceman. Detroit has talent, sure, but they're systems are unbelievable.

SIGH.

When it 54 saves less than it looks? Here's Ansar Khan at Red Wings Bulletin:

I don't want to rain on Roloson's parade, but I don't think he was as sharp as the statistics indicate. In fact, I thought he was shaky most of the night. He gave up a lot of rebounds and bobbled a lot of shots. He was fortunate the Wings got most of their shots from the perimeter and weren't able to get to a lot of rebounds. And Roloson's defense helped him out tremendously by blocking a bushel of shots (35 on the stat sheet).

So I'm sticking by my pre-series assertion that he's the weakest starting goaltender among the playoff teams (Nashville's Mason doesn't count because he's in there by default).

I'm sorry, but 54 saves is a big deal no matter what. Roloson is a legitimate number one goalie who got Minnesota to the Conference Finals three years ago and didn't get knocked out until the Wild ran into a hotter goalie in J.S. Giguere.

I'll tell you one thing: If either Ty Conklin, Jussi Markkanen or Mike Morrisson -- the three goalies who were in the rotation before Roloson arrived from Minnesota -- had been in net last night for Edmonton, it would have been a wipe out.

Detroit leads series, 1-0:

Nashville 4 San Jose 3: Before the game, all the questions were about Preds goalie Chris Mason, but he stopped 31 shots, including 16 in the third period to hold off the Sharks. Paul Kariya assisted on all four Nashville goals while Joe Thornton and Jonathan Cheechoo were both shutout on the scoresheet.

Here's Preds fan Automatica37086:

What a game!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have no voice left!!!!!!!!!! Best thing that happend was the Sharks scored first!!!!!! We were sooooo tentative. But after they scored, we controled the game. Our fourth line struggled on defence, but overall it was a great team win. How about freakin' Mason!!!! Some great saves. Poise. Confidence. Exuberation as the clock ticked to zero in the third!!! Did you see him jump???? That was awsome! Way to go Mase!! Melrose is a ######.

I be back on Sunday. Screamin' my ARSE off!!

LET'S GO PREDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a serious case of playoff fever.

Don't Feed The Sharks is giving out individual grades:

Joe Thornton - Showed his elite vision and drew some penalties but Nasvhille clogged the blue line and didn’t allow him to ever look fully comfortable. Through his weight around a bit, but he needs to drive the net harder.

Jonathan Cheechoo - A so-so game, made a great play defensively to save a goal but needs to be a scoring threat on every shift. Only had one great chance and was robbed in tight late in the game.

Nils Ekman- Took a terrible penalty late in the 1st period leading to the 3-1 lead for Nashville. However, he was the best forward for the remainder of the game using his speed and hands along with his hard shot to create scoring opportunities.

Patrick Marleau - Made soft plays moving the puck, turned it over in his own zone and the offensive zone with weak passes, only drove the net once, didn’t shoot much. Very poor performance from the team Captain. Needs to step up as the rookies played better and created more than he did. Couldn’t hit the net to save his life and whiffed on one timers in prime scoring areas.

There's more, but as we know, in hockey there are only two grades: Pass or Fail.

Nashville leads series, 1-0.

Calgary 2 Anaheim 1, OT: If not for an lucky bounce that ex-Cap Jeff Freisen took advantage of, this game would have been over in regulation. Tony Amonte opened the scoring in the first before Freisen tied it in the third. And Darren McCarty streaked down the slot took a pass from Kristin Huselius for the game winner in OT.

The one big surprise last night: Giguere didn't get the start due to an unspecified lower body injury. Ilya Bryzgalov played well, stopping 28 shots, but as is often the case, Mikka Kiprusoff was better, stopping 34.

But like Battle of Alberta notes, while plenty of people were wondering about officiating during the pre-game, all they were talking about once the game was over was the CBC:

I figured before the games yesterday that the hottest topic this morning would be reffing, but no: looks like it's the CBC. There was a host of technical glitches, some of which I caught myself, but their biggest sin was certainly buggering up their regional feeds.

I had to catch the first 3 minutes of the Flames/Ducks game on the radio, wondering why CBC Calgary hadn't switched over from the Oiler game yet; apparently when the CBC A/V Squad finally did get the Flames game going, they switched the whole damn country over, including Edmonton.

It was just as frustrating here in the States. Because the Wings-Oilers game went into OT on OLN, American viewers missed the entire first period of the action from Calgary. But OLN didn't have their own crew in Calgary, they were just picking up the CBC feed, so we got hosed along with everybody else. Here's hoping they get it fixed.

Click here for video highlights.

Calgary leads series, 1-0.

Eric 01:53 PM

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