ClutterPuck

This Round 2 series will begin on Saturday! This is a rematch from last season’s round 2 series where the Flyers became the 3rd team to win a series from being down 3-0. Boston won the season series 3 to 1 with the only loss coming in a 2-1 OT loss in Boston in December.Boston had to battle for seven games in the first round with their biggest rivals, the Montreal Canadiens. They won 4 of the last 5 games and got some clutch performances as 3 of the wins were of the overtime variety. They got big goals from Chris Kelly, Michael Ryder and Nathan Horton, who had 2 game-winning goals in those two of those overtime games. So they had guys show up in overtime but ended up with only 17 goals in the whole series. Lucic, Chara and Kaberle scored the same amount of goals as I did.* They did have 5 assists between them. Kaberle has only produced one goal in his 31-game Bruins “trial.” Will that turn out to be worth what they gave up to get him? These guys need to get on the board to win this series, especially Lucic who led the Bruins in the regular season with 30 goals and is in the midst of a 17-game scoreless funk. Patrice Bergeron was probably their best player in the first round with 2 goals and 5 assists. Other guys that had decent performances in the first round were Peverley, Marchand and the ageless Mark Recchi.*I’m a defensive defenseman who doesn’t play a lot so scoring isn’t high on the list of expectations for my game. I’m huge on plus/minus though! HUGE!

Defensively, Brad Ference and Dennis Seidenberg led the way. Ference was their best defenseman with 4 points (1 G, 3 A), a plus 6 and 11 blocked shots. Seidenberg led the team with 27:50 minutes per game, threw his body around (21 hits) and had 3 points (1 G, 2 A) on 19 shots. Johnny Boychuk and Adam McQuaid round out the defense for the Bruins.

Goaltending really isn’t a problem when you have Tim Thomas between the pipes. He can be a game-stealer and make the spectacular save when he needs to. Three wins in overtime can attest to that.

The Boston power play was the worst in the first round failing to score on 21 chances. History was made when Boston became the only team to win a series without scoring a power play goal. I’m not sure “History will be made”* a second time. Obviously this needs to change in round 2.

*I’m not a fan of the “History will be made” commercials from the NHL and Versus. History is made when you lose as well. History is made all the time!

The Boston penalty kill in the first round was at 77.7%(11th) compared to 82.6% (16th) in the regular season so its something that might need to be adjusted a little. Small sample sizes in the playoffs make it hard to judge anything off only seven games.

Philadelphia also had to go seven games to win their first round series against Buffalo. Claude Giroux(9 points(1 G, 8 A)), Danny Briere(6 G, 1 A), James van Riemsdyk(4 G) and Ville Leino (3 G, 1 A) were all big for Philly in round 1. Look at it this way, Mike Richards and Kris Versteeg didn’t score a goal and the Flyers still tied for the playoff lead with 22 goals in 7 games. This was also with Chris Pronger only playing the final 2 games coming back from a broken hand that caused him to miss 24 games including 5 in the first round. Jeff Carter missed 3 of the seven games as well.

Defensively, Andrej Meszaros (1 G, 4 A) and Kimmo Timonen (1 G, 3 A, +9) were their best defensemen while Braydon Coburn (1 G, 1 A, +6) and Matt Carle(4 A) chipped in and all four of them were big in blocking shots. Expect Pronger to play a much bigger part in this series defensively and on the power play.

Goaltending was kind of an adventure for the Flyers but Brian Boucher (4 W, 2.10 GAA, .934 SV%) came out the hero with a great series after coming in for Sergei Bobrovsky in game 2 and relieving Michael Leighton in game 6, getting the victory in each game. He started games 3-5 but gave up 3 goals on 11 shots in game 5 and was pulled. Flyers lost that game 4-3 in OT. Boucher started and won games 6 and 7 and here we are. He should be the starter for game 1.

The power play was pretty miserable for most of the series. Pronger made the difference on the power play. Without Prongs, the power play was 2 for 26 (ick!)! With him, they went 3 for 9! This will be big in round 2!

The penalty kill was at 77.4%(12th) in the first round which is down from the 82.7%(15th). The PK unit will get a boost from Prongs as well.

Tale of the Tape on the Left-Handed Stick:
Goaltending – Boston
Defense – Philadelphia
Offense – Philadelphia
Power Play – Philadelphia
Penalty Kill – Philadephia
Coaching – Philadelphia – Laviolette has punched the right buttons and gotten this team to play at the right times.

Will Boston big names step up in round 2? Will they score a power play goal? Will they get Redemption? Will the Flyers keep up the scoring pace? Is Pronger back? Who’s in goal? Will he stay in goal?

I have to go with the team with Pronger. They have the offense, defense and their goaltending will be good enough to get them to the Conference Finals.

Flyers in 6!

DROP THE PUCK!!!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Robb Dahlen
BRING THE CLUTTER!

This series will start on Friday night as well! San Jose won the season series 3 games to 1, losing one game at home earlier in the season. This is a rematch of last year’s 2nd Round Western Conference Semi-Final series that San Jose won in 5 games. This should be a great match-up of two very talented teams. Will it end the same way as last season?Detroit breezed through the first round sweeping the Phoenix Coyotes in 4 games. They didn’t even need Henrik Zetterberg who lead the team in scoring with 80 points on 24 goals and 56 assists. He twisted his ankle on April 6th and it sure looks like a high ankle sprain to me.* He’ll be ready to for Game 1 though which will be a big boost to the Wings. The Red Wings have studs in Pavel Datsyuk, Johan Franzen and the legendary Nicklas Lidstrom. They have good goaltending in Jimmy Howard. They always have great depth all over the ice. Guys like Rafalski, Stuart, Kronwall, Cleary and the pest, Holmstrom always contribute. Then you still have guys like Hudler, Helm, Filppula and Bertuzzi. Its really annoying when you think about it. They seem to have a non-stop well of players coming at you.

*I’ve had two high ankle sprains and let’s just say they are not of the highly skilled hockey variety. My friends will definitely attest to that. One was obviously bad ice and even the great Sullecram would agree with that. The other was just depressing. I slipped on the ice as I was pushing the net to the Zamboni driver. Insert Laughter here! Not fun to recover from either!

The Red Wings had the 5th ranked power play and were 17th on the penalty kill during the regular season. In the first round the power play was 4 for 15 and the penalty was the worst in the first round at 66% giving up 6 goals on 18 power plays to the Phoenix Coyotes. They better fix that against a powerful San Jose team. Getting Zetterberg back will definitely help.

San Jose had a tough, physical series with their in-state rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, but ended up winning the series in 6 games. They had one of the greatest comebacks in NHL Playoff history when they came back from being down 4-0 in Game 3 and winning in overtime 6-5. You can’t stop watching games in the playoffs. They got a lot of big goals in the first round. Pavelski gets the game-winner in overtime in game 1 and the game-tying goal in game 3 so Devin Setoguchi can win the game in overtime. Joe Thornton does the unthinkable and scores a goal in the playoffs to win the series in overtime in game 6. They got big series performances from Ryan Clowe, Logan Couture and Ian White. They also got big contributions from Kyle Wellwood, Torrey Mitchell and Jason Demers. The one player that didn’t have a good series was goalie Antti Niemi. He had a 3.99 GAA and an .863 save percentage. He’ll have to step it up in this series or it will be on to the golf course for San Jose. There’s probably a lot of nice courses in San Jose.

San Jose boasts the 3rd ranked power play but the 24th ranked penalty kill from the regular season. In the first round the power play was ineffective going 2 for 23 in 6 games and the penalty kill was right where it was in the regular season at about 79%. That power play needs to become more effective for them to have success in this series.

Tale of the Tape on the Left-Handed Stick:
Goaltending – San Jose – slight edge to the Sharks because Niemi won the Cup last season although he didn’t show up in the first round.
Defense – Detroit
Offense – San Jose
Power Play – San Jose
Penalty Kill – Detroit
Coaching – Detroit – Babcock is the difference here. McLellan is definitely a good coach and beat the Wings last year so this could be even.

This is also a pretty even series and could go either way really. You have to wonder how quickly Zetterberg can get his game back and mesh with the rest of his team right away. Also, you always wonder if rest for a team is a good thing or if it will take them awhile to get their game back as well.  The Sharks managed to score over 3 goals a game and that included 2 games where they only scored one goal total so they had 19 goals in 4 games and of course they won those. Detroit actually led the first round with a 4.50 goals per game average so they have the ability to score as well. Niemi has had great numbers against Detroit this season and Howard has struggled this season when facing San Jose.

I expect San Jose to get better performances out of Heatley, Marleau and Niemi so I’m going to go with San Jose in this series.

San Jose in 6

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Robb Dahlen
BRING THE CLUTTER!

This Round 2 series will begin on Friday night and will be an exciting series for sure. Washington won the season series 4 games to 2 going 2-1 at home and on the road. Tampa Bay won the middle two games in January and Washington book-ended the other 4 games.

There’s offense galore in this series! We have the new and improved Washington Capitals, who rather easily won in the first round against the Rangers against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who battled their way back from being down 3 games to 1 against Pittsburgh to win the series and game 7 in Pittsburgh while Crosby and Malkin watched from the press box.

 

The Washington Capitals changed their system during the season to a more defensive system after having an 8-game losing streak at the beginning of December that was well-documented by HBO’s 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road To The NHL Winter Classic. The new system has a priority on taking care of the defensive zone and blocking shots. They were 18-12-4 when they initiated the change and went on to win the Winter Classic and finish the season going 30-11-7 the rest of the way as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They also made a trade for Jason Arnott, who they wanted for his playoff experience and his leadership. This team is dangerous with Ovechkin, Semin, Backstrom, Knuble, Arnott, Brooks Laich, Mike Green, John Carlson and with Marcus Johansson just heating up. They might have a slight weakness between the pipes with Michal Neuvirth but that’s another reason a more defensive system helps them win. Its kind of shocking that their power play wasn’t better(15th) and their penalty kill(2nd) is so good. It just seems backwards with the offensive weapons they have but Mike Green had a poor season missing 33 games with multiple injuries. John Carlson is still young and Tom Poti has missed the majority of the season which all contributed to the power play problems.

The Tampa Bay Lightning made a trade on New Year’s Day that brought in Dwayne Roloson from the New York Islanders for Ty Wishart. “Roli the Goalie” solidified the goaltending position for the Lightning and gave them a goalie with playoff experience and without him they might not be in the second round right now. They still would’ve made the playoffs but Roli was probably the big difference in round 1. The Bolts have great special teams with the 6th ranked power play and the 8th ranked penalty kill. They gave up the most short-handed goals though which will be something to keep an eye on. They have Steven Stamkos, who is arguably the best player in the NHL right now*. He struggled towards the end of the season having scored only 5 goals in the last 28 games after scoring 40 goals in the first 54 games. They also have a couple guys name Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier who aren’t too bad. Steve Downie had an excellent first round series with 7 points (1 G, 6 A) in only 61 minutes. That’s excellent production in a little over 10 minutes of ice time a game. Simon Gagne, Teddy Purcell, Dominic Moore, Bergenheim, Eric Brewer and Nate Thompson are other guys to keep an eye on. Tampa Bay had the rare stat of having a better record on the road than they did at home so they can win anywhere.

*This is partly due to Sidney Crosby being out with a concussion. All you Sid haters need to figure out how great he is! He recently had a setback in his recovery though.

Tale of the Tape on the Left-Handed Stick:
Goaltending – Tampa Bay
Defense – Washington
Offense – Tampa Bay
Power Play – Tampa Bay
Penalty Kill – Washington
Coaching – Even – Boudreau changing or tweaking the system to be more defensive saved their season and might lead them to the CUP!!! Guy Boucher’s 1-3-1 forecheck system has worked pretty well and has the Lightning contending for the Cup as well!

WOW! This one is tough to pick! I could go either way with it. I’m going to say that Roli* is going to be the difference in a 7-game series.

Tampa Bay in 7!

*Is that a Wild connection coming through again? GO ROLI!!!

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Robb Dahlen
BRING THE CLUTTER!