I’m loving the San Jose-Detroit series because of how it represents a rebirth for the Sharks. Instead of being a first-round choke kind of team, they’re suddenly confident and composed. The officiating has been a bit strange, though. Specifically, the NHL suddenly seems to have taken exception to some of Detroit’s around-the-net play. Last night [...]
[picappgallerysingle id="8653547"] For all of the talk about the new NHL, with its speed and its goal-scoring, the reality is that the playoffs are very much the old NHL, with its hooking and its defense and its checking. The Flyers and Bruins made it into the second round of the playoffs playing pre-lockout NHL hockey, [...]
I don’t remember a playoff round where special teams were such a huge factor. New Jersey got bounced out of the first round on the weakness of their powerplay. And last night, so did the Sabres. Buffalo did not have a first-round powerplay goal against the Bruins. Nashville has a weak 3.3% powerplay percentage and [...]
The Devils season is over after last night’s loss to the Flyers. When a team implodes like the Devils did, it’s easy to blame the coach for the failings of the team, but in this case, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire needs to a lot of the blame for yet another early playoff exit for New [...]
[picappgallerysingle id="8543197"] I’m shocked the Sabres haven’t been able to hold off the Bruins in the playoffs. Boston now holds a 3-1 series lead after last night’s win in double overtime. The Sabres wound up losing when they took an ill-advised too-many-men-on-the-ice penalty, which Boston took advantage of. More specifically, Miroslav Satan, the one-time long-time [...]
It might be a bit early to wonder about this, but will going to the Devils wind up costing Ilya Kovalchuk money in the off-season? Kovalchuk has just two goals in the playoffs, including a powerplay goal in last night’s loss to Philadelphia. Daniel Carcillo, the Flyers fighter, has the same number of goals. So [...]
[picappgallerysingle id="8523816"] Out in Denver, the Sharks are dealing with the fallout from Dan Boyle’s freak goal on his own team. A day later, Boyle said he’s still not over the mistake, but he’ll have forgotten by tonight’s game. Sharks coach Todd McLellan seems content to write the whole thing off as a freak accident, [...]
[picappgallerysingle id="8535182"] I loved the end of last night’s Vancouver-Los Angeles game because the final few minutes were a microcosm of the Canucks’ season. You had Mikael Samuelsson, an off-season acquisition, scoring in overtime, proving his playoff experience and ability to get into the slot made him a solid pick-up. You had Henrik Sedin setting [...]
So the Flyers are off to a strong start, huh? Last night’s 2-1 win over the Devils was fascinating. It was yet another strong game from Flyers goalie Brian Boucher. Boucher has been solid in his recent starts, even doing a great job in very tight games, when it looks like the Flyers might not [...]
