As I begin writing this, I've seen four NHL games today, still in the middle of the Sharks and Kings game... maybe the Sharks will come back. I'm sure Dan will post something about the Sharks at some point, but now there's 14 NHL teams left in the chase for Lord Stanley's Cup. I'm not gonna lie, but I took a nap after the Caps victory because watching that exhausted me. I'm sure most hockey fans would agree that it is quite exhausting to ride the wave of emotions in a hockey game, especially when you win the series.
#5 Tampa Bay Lightning vs #4 Pittsburgh Penguins (8-2)
I'm not gonna lie when I say I woke up AFTER this game started, then realized that my predictions post was scheduled to 3:00PM. Oh well, I blame the NHL for scheduling game times at the last minute. Back to the game, the one thing to take from this is that Steven Stamkos is now awake. He has decided to show up for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it could not have come at a better time. He had two goals, including one on the power play and assisted on another to give the Lightning their 5-0 cushion heading into the third. The real problem now lies with Pittsburgh. They gave up four power play goals, now, granted the four power play goals were the last four scored by the Bolts, but when you give up four power play goals in a game, there's clearly a problem with your penalty kill.
For Pittsburgh, they had the #1 PK unit in the league during the season, but now, during the playoffs, they are at 63.6%. This is astonishing considering that no one has ever seen such a drop from the penalty kill during the regular season to the post season. It may be the lack of Matt Cooke, but they need to figure out something because Tampa Bay has scored six power play goals in their past three games. Pittsburgh has a better road PK%, but it's not that much better at 75%. They need to spend Sunday figuring out a way to shut down the Lightning's potent power play, otherwise they're going to get run over.
One thing I also noticed about the Lightning, they had all five guys playing around the net to block shots and knock loose pucks out, something that good defensive teams do. Also, almost every goal scored by the Lightning was either back-door, or off a rebound except for two. That tells you that they crashed the net HARD and that's how they won this game. Pittsburgh will need to collapse around the net to prevent such goals in Game 6. You'll see what I mean...
#8 New York Rangers vs #1 Washington Capitals (1-3)
You can read about my thoughts on the game here. In all honesty though, the Rangers played a heck of a game. The first goal was scored from a rebound by Mike Green on his own shot that he followed up that would've gone through the crease had Dan Girardi not gone down and tried to block it. The Capitals dominated the Rangers in the first period, it looked like they were on the power play for a majority of the period by the amount of zone time spent in the Rangers zone. Ovie had a great goal on a Lundqvist by beating Marc Staal and going backhand on him to score in the second. However, the goal of the night goes to Alexander Semin, the puck never hit the ground!
Also, the Capitals played tight defense and the Alex's took advantage in transition to score. I'll have more about the Capitals tomorrow. The Rangers played well, but just couldn't keep it together the entire game, they lost on defensive breakdowns. Speaking of breakdowns, the Caps finally had one with 32 seconds left when Wolski scored. The Rangers will have to figure out how to improve in transition defense next season as they all have tee times tomorrow morning.
#6 Montreal Canadiens vs #3 Boston Bruins (1-2 2OT)
The name of this game was defense. The Bruins and Habs both played it, but the Bruins put their bodies in front of the net when Thomas made mistakes. Thomas owes his entire team at least one meal, most of all Michael Ryder.
Ryder made a great save early in the game, Chara blocked a shot with his giant leg and the Bruins as a whole played great defensively... except when Halpren scored because the team did not collapse on defense and left Tim Thomas out to dry and tie the game. But Nathan Horton scored the game winner for the Bs in double overtime!. There were 96 shots on goal this game, but Carey Price faced 50+ shots and lost. Just for reference, goals that have faced 50+ shots are 0-3. The Canadiens also played solid defense, but at some point, somebody's gotta win and somebody's gotta lose. Look for the Habs to win at home.
#7 Los Angeles Kings vs #2 San Jose Sharks (3-1)
Well, a couple streaks ended in this game. One, the length of my correct picks, the last game of Wednesday night, 3 games Thursday, 2 Friday, and 3 today which is 10 straight. Also, Quick bucked the trend of 50+ shots on goal and won the game. Goalies facing 50+ shots are now 1-3.Dan has his analysis here, so go check it out. The one thing that defined hockey games today was play around the net, the teams that took advantage of the most opportunities around the net and also played the best defense around the net won. Except in the case of this game, Jonathan Quick stole this one from the Sharks.
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