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Toronto-Boston NHL playoffs

NHL Analysis: Anaheim-Detroit Heading For Game 7

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At least one series in the first round of the NHL playoffs is going to go the distance. Anaheim and Detroit are poised for a Game 7 battle on Sunday night, and three more series are getting set for a Game 6. The SportsNotebook will overview the first-round matchups in the following sequence…

*Anaheim-Detroit, in anticipation for Game 7
*The three Eastern Conference series that have reached Game 6
*A look at how Chicago, Los Angeles and Ottawa joined San Jose in advancing to the second round.

ANAHEIM-DETROIT

It was a wild third period at Joe Louis Arena last night, with the Red Wings fighting for survival. The game was tied 1-1 after two periods, when Detroit opened up and scored twice to take command. But the Wings’ defense, and struggling goalie Jimmy Howard, couldn’t close. The Ducks scored twice in the final five minutes and forced overtime before Henrik Zetterberg put in the game-winner barely a minute into overtime for a 4-3 win that pushed this series this distance.

In Thursday’s NHL analysis, I opined that Zetterberg might have to take the offense onto his shoulders. Detroit is best served when the center is focused on his exceptional passing skills, but with the team struggling for offense—not just in the playoffs, but all year—Zetterberg might have to just invite the team onto his shoulders. I have to say I was not expecting him to do just that. He fed Pavel Datsyuk for a first period goal, scored one of the team’s third period goals and finally lit the lamp to end it. It might not have been Mark Messier in the 1994 Eastern Conference Finals, but it was pretty impressive.

I picked Detroit to win this series, so I’ll stick to my guns. One thing I haven’t touched on nearly enough in talking about his matchup as it unfolds is that Anaheim’s Corey Perry has been fairly quiet. He tried to get into the flow last night, taking five shots and ending up with one assist, but the Detroit defense has done a good job at keeping the Ducks’ best offensive player from having a significant impact.

HEADING FOR GAME 6

Pittsburgh-NY Islanders: Tomas Vokoun might have changed the complexion of the entire postseason. The Penguins inserted the backup goalie—who’s a veteran with a lot of time under his belt in a previous stint at Washington, and Vokoun spun a 4-0 shutout against a good offensive team in the Isles. He did it even though John Tavares, New York’s finalist for the Hart Trophy, took six shots on net, his highest total of the series.

I’ve been dumping on Pittsburgh as an overrated favorite because of its goaltending problems. If Vokoun proves a long-term answer—and he doesn’t have to turn into Jonathan Quick, he just needs to be a solid NHL goalie—then the Pens will fulfill the hype they’ve gotten. They now lead this series three games to two.

Washington-NY Rangers: Another New York team fell and had problems scoring, as the Capitals won Game 5 in overtime 2-1 and moved to within one game of the second round. New York came out aggressive and took ten shots in the first period, but the Washington defense clamped down and goalie Braden Holtby had a pretty easy night. Not only did the Rangers not get a lot of shots, but the man who took the most—Carl Hagelin—is not exactly a feared offensive threat. It’s a problem for New York when Hagelin takes as many shots as Derek Stepan and Rick Nash combined.

Boston-Toronto: The Leafs had their back to the wall and played like it, peppering Boston with 19 shots in the first period. No one scored, but Toronto rolled the momentum over into the second period where they got on the board, took a 2-0 lead and then held off a furious Boston rally. The Bruins took 36 shots over the final two periods, but goalie James Riemer turned in a heroic display to hold on to the 2-1 win. Toronto may have ended up with fewer shots, but they had high value—they came early and established momentum, and 10 were taken by James Van Riemsdyk and Phil Kessel, the team’s two best offensive players.

CLINCHING CELEBRATIONS

We discussed San Jose’s clinching win over Vancouver in the last installment of TheSportsNotebook’s NHL analysis. Chicago and Los Angeles have joined them in the West, with upstart Ottawa moving on in the East.

Ottawa-Montreal: The 7th-seeded Senators are the lowest seed thus far to advance (Detroit is also a #7 and the #8 NY Islanders still have a shot), but I felt from the outset that this was tailor-made for an upset. Ottawa’s goaltending was too good, and it was again on Thursday night in the 6-1 victory that wrapped this up in five games. And Montreal’s was too bad.

To illustrate how bad this Canadiens defense was, they were utterly unable to kill penalties with the season on the line. Ottawa scored three power play goals in the fourth period to blow the game open. You can say Montreal was playing with backup goalie Peter Budaj, and you’d be right. But Budaj was no less effective than starter Carey Price, either in this series, or all season long. Offensive teams can rack up wins in the regular season, but the game changes in the playoffs and you better be able to lock down. Ottawa, with Craig Anderson in net, could and Montreal could not.

Chicago-Minnesota: Chicago looked the part of the team to beat in not letting Minnesota off the mat in Game 5. The Blackhawks played rock-solid defense and the Wild only got 22 shots. And Chicago’s best offensive players got into the flow. Marian Hossa scored an early goal on an assist from Jonathan Toews. Hossa scored again in the second and then early in the third he and Toews assisted Patrick Sharp for a power play goal that was icing on the cake in a 5-1 win.

St. Louis-Los Angeles: Last year’s champions are officially back. After spotting the Blues two games, the Kings came roaring back to take the next four, including last night’s defensive-oriented Game 6. The teams only combined for 38 shots, Jonathan Quick played another solid game and Los Angeles’ 2-1 win moved them forward.

The NHL re-seeds its bracket after the first round, so we don’t know any of the second-round matchups, even though three-quarters of the West bracket is set. As the 7-seed, if Detroit wins, they’ll play Chicago, with Los Angeles-San Jose in the other matchup. Should Anaheim win, then the conference semis would be Chicago-San Jose & Anaheim-Los Angeles.

With only one team having advanced in the East, there is obviously much more fluidity. The one thing we know for sure is that if Pittsburgh takes care of business, they would play Ottawa.

LOOKING AHEAD

There is only one game on Saturday night, as Pittsburgh goes to Long Island to try and finish off the Rangers (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Network). Sunday is set to be a hockey extravaganza starting in the late afternoon with the following lineup…

Washington-NY Rangers (4:30 PM ET, CNBC)
Boston-Toronto (7:30 PM ET)
Detroit-Anaheim (10 PM ET, NBC Sports Network)

And if the Pens and Islanders go to a Game 7, you can slot them in that sequence, with a 7 PM ET start back in Pittsburgh. No national TV is listed, but I would think the networks are waiting to see if they’ll have two games or one in the 7 PM ET neighborhood. My guess would be that NBC Sports Network will get one game and NHL Network picking up the other. Although that would be logical and fan-friendly, and we know how the NHL higher-ups seem to feel about stuff like that.

TheSportsNotebook’s playoff coverage will return on Monday to shake this all out, and we’ll at least have Western Conference second-round previews going that day. Perhaps the East will also be set, but if not, both Washington-NY Rangers and Toronto-Boston would have their seventh games on Monday night.

NHL Analysis: Chicago Rolling; Pittsburgh Challenged

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Chicago and Pittsburgh are the heavy co-favorites for the Stanley Cup and each has responded differently in its first two games. The Blackhawks are in command, the Penguins are facing a challenge and both will be in the NBC spotlight on Sunday afternoon when the postseason’s sequence of Game 3s begins at noon EST. We’ll start with these two teams and then move through the other six NHL playoff matchups.

CHICAGO-MINNESOTA: In Game 1 the Blackhawks showed they could win a tough fight against an underdog. In Game 2 they showed they could unleash all their power and simply overwhelm them. Chicago took 48 shots at backup goalie Josh Harding and in the third period, the kid finally broke, with the Blackhawks pulling away to a 5-2 win. Little-known Michael Frolik scored two times early and the better-known duo of Patrick Kane and Patrick Sharp combined for the assist and goal twice in the final period.

Minnesota may get regular goalie back Nicklas Backstrom back, but unless the Wild defense can limit the exposure, it’s not going to work for the series overall. Offensively, Minnesota did what they had to do in getting Zach Parise active. They could desperately use Jason Pominville, the forward who’s been out with a concussion and keeps getting listed as questionable.

PITTSBURGH-NY ISLANDERS: It looked like the Penguins were going to do the same as Chicago and it’s roll to a commanding Game 2 win. Pittsburgh did everything right for the first period. It wasn’t just the three goals, but the way they got them. Sidney Crosby returned to the lineup and scored twice. Evgeni Malkin, whose offensive aggressiveness on net has been questioned here, scored and took ten shots for the game, the highest of any player in these playoffs thus far.

But the Islanders matched the aggression. Even though they trailed 3-1, they took an amazing twenty shots in the first period alone and kept up the attack on Marc-Andre Fleury. The Penguins goalie isn’t one who can carry his team like that and the Isles broke through and won 4-3. I still like where Pittsburgh is at—it’s shaping up as expected, an offensive-oriented series and the Pens have more of it than the Isles do. But it won’t be easy.

THE REST OF THE EAST

MONTREAL-OTTAWA: The Canadiens finally wore down Ottawa goalie Craig Anderson, getting him with a three-goal burst in the second period and Carey Price made it stand up for a 3-1 win that evened the series. Ottawa’s not getting any offensive activity, much less production, from anyone on the team. Unsurprisingly, it looks like Anderson will have to carry the load himself.

WASHINGTON-NY RANGERS: I could continue my extolling here of Braden Holtby, the kid goalie for Washington who seems to turn up his game when the spotlight is most intense. A 1-0 overtime win that put his team up two games to none is the latest display for the 23-year-old Holtby. But I’ve beat that to death in previous NHL analysis, and want to give some kudos to New York goalie Henrik Lundqvist here. He’s got the big reputation, and also come in for some criticism over playoff performance. Yesterday should not be one of those days. The New York defense was terrible, allowing 42 shots to an offense that isn’t known for its sustained assaults on a goalie. Lundqvist hung in and until finally the Caps broke through in overtime.

BOSTON-TORONTO: As a Boston fan I am absolutely disgusted with the Bruins’ 4-2 loss yesterday that evened up this series. Once Boston took a 1-0 lead early in the second period, Toronto brought an energy level that the B’s simply did not match. Yes, the Bruins won shots, 41-32, but that doesn’t tell the story of how much Toronto outskated Boston for the second and much of the third period, before making Maple Leafs goalie James Riemer survive one final attack. Toronto got better shots and won this game because they deserved to.

THE REST OF THE WEST

ANAHEIM-DETROIT: The troubles of Red Wings goalie Jimmy Howard continue. This was a fairly pedestrian game, with neither team getting more than 30 shots. It turned into a Ducks runaway, as Howard did not hold up and a game that was 1-0 after two periods ended 4-zip. It’s the third straight mediocre game for the Detroit goalie, and Anaheim now leads this series two games to one.

SAN JOSE-VANCOUVER: I have no idea what’s going on with Vancouver goalie Cory Schneider. He was again out for Game 2 with an undefined ailment and again his team paid the price, as San Jose got a 3-2 win in overtime to take a two-nothing series lead back to Northern California. It was a wild third period, as Ryan Kesler scored twice for the Canucks to put them up 2-1, but San Jose’s Patrick Marleau got the game-tying goal with less than a minute to play.

Once again, Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo did not close, and showed us why the team needs Schneider to play. Even the local media doesn’t seem to know. All anybody does know is that he’s traveling to San Jose. And I guess there’s one other thing we know—his team’s not winning this series without him.

LOS ANGELES-ST. LOUIS: It was a pretty dry game, with neither team getting a lot of shots, both goalies doing the job and Jonathan Quick making a second period goal stand up for a 1-0 win. The home team has held serve in each game of this series, and Los Angeles will try and make that continue in Game 4. The good news for the Kings is that after a mediocre regular season, Quick again looks like the goalie who took them to last year’s Stanley Cup. The bad news is that their offense, so dominant in last year’s playoffs, appears out to lunch.

LOOKING AHEAD

The next two days will see all of the Game 3 action completed, with the LA-St. Louis and Anaheim-Detroit series playing Game 4, as they continue to be a step ahead of the pack. Here’s how Sunday and Monday look…

SUNDAY
Pittsburgh-NY Rangers (Noon, NBC)
Chicago-Minnesota (3 PM ET, NBC)
Montreal-Ottawa (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Network)
Vancouver-San Jose (10 PM ET, NBC Sports Network)

MONDAY
Boston-Toronto (7 PM ET, NHL Network)
Washington-NY Rangers (7:30 PM ET, NBC Sports Network)
Anaheim-Detroit (8 PM ET, CNBC)
St. Louis-Los Angeles (10 PM ET, NBC Sports Network)