Another intriguing day in the NHL. Just when you think you've got something nailed down, things change and the known becomes unknown...and vice versa!
The goaltending was mostly missing in action last night. No shutouts is one result of that. Also, two games went to OT. Either way, it's still exciting.
First up, Pittsburgh vs. Columbus.
A big lead for the Penguins turns into an overtime game. And an overtime game, predictably, goes south in a hurry when Nick Foligno gets the game-winner.
I'm not a fan of the Penguins or their main goaltender Fleury. Most observers have noted his tendency to flop in the playoffs, and that trend seems to be bearing fruit at the wrong time for Pittsburgh. It's interesting when he did something that goalies do all the time, go behind the net into the trapezoid from which they're allowed to play the puck while stationed behind the goal line, and somehow managed to botch it up.
Goalies go into the trapezoid all the time and yet, this is only the second time in the playoffs that it's happened and the first (to my knowledge) that it had a disastrous consequence. Sure, it happened in one of the games in Anaheim, but Dallas escaped disaster.
Sergei Bobrovsky hasn't been anything to write home about either, but once the Penguins got their three goals, he didn't let any more in. So that says something.
The Blue Jackets are obviously a tougher out than I expected. I mean, since I'm not a fan of the Penguins I don't really see anything that great about them. But even I thought they'd finish this one in five or maybe six at most. Now that it's tied 2-2...well, I don't know how it'll go.
Game 5 is on Sunday.
Next, Anaheim vs. Dallas.
It's an understatement to say that things haven't gone Anaheim's way in Dallas. Ugh. On a night when Ryan Getzlaf and Teemu Selanne were out, the Ducks took a 2-0 lead in the first period only to let it slip away in the second and third periods.
Part of that has to do with Frederik Andersen flopping. Jonas Hiller did some clean-up duty and mercifully stopped the bleeding. But hell, the damage was done at that point.
Now we have to wonder whether or not Andersen or Hiller will start Game 5. Does it matter? Yeah, it really does. Might we also see John Gibson, who was quite good at the end of the regular season?
I guess we'll find out together, won't we?
The series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Friday.
Finally, St. Louis vs. Chicago.
I wasn't surprised that this one went into overtime. Although I was a little nervous when it was 3-2 St. Louis late in the third period. But then Bickell scored and all seemed right.
Really, it seemed inevitable that the series would return to St. Louis tied. It just took Patrick Kane in overtime to get it there.
Once again, neither goaltender was all that great. Coming off a shutout in Game 3, Corey Crawford regressed back to the mean, allowing three goals in 33 shots. Maybe I'm making too much out of his performance, but he surely doesn't look like the guy who was a stopper in net for the Blackhawks in last year's title run.
It's still early, though.
The series is tied 2-2. Game 5 is Friday.
Later today, Game 4 in Detroit, Minnesota, and Los Angeles. San Jose can sweep Los Angeles with a win and be the second team into the second round.
No comments:
Post a Comment