Round Two - Part One
The Detroit vs. Anaheim series is intriguing right now. Nicklas Lidstrom, the consummate Swedish professional (and the first European captain to win the coveted Stanley Cup) won a tightly-contested Game One in Motown with forty-eight ticks of the clock left.
In game two, the Ducks broke back and won a 3OT thriller by 3-2, on the back of some outstanding goaltending by Jonas Hiller. People seem to forget that this is the team who took down San Jose, most people’s picks for Western Conference and Stanley Cup champion. They’re a good hockey team. They are aggressive on the fore check and guys like Chris Pronger are certainly not shrinking violets when it comes to dropping the gloves.
Going into The Joe and winning isn't an easy thing to do, especially not during playoffs. That joint is jumping at the best of times. During a playoff run, it’s as much as you can do to hear yourself think. It’s hard to win there when you’re not in a Red Wing uniform.
You cannot underestimate the home ice advantage. Yet Hiller, a goalie who supplanted the last Anaheim goalie hero, J.S Giguere (himself a Stanley Cup winner in net with the Ducks in 2007), earlier in the season, shut down the crowd as effectively as he shut down the Red Wings offense. It was reminiscent of Marc Andre-Fluery’s efforts in goal during Game 5 of last year’s Stanley Cup Finals against the same Red Wings.
So, to Anaheim in sunny Southern California they went, for the third game in the so-far enthralling series. Everything suggested it would be close. It was. Hiller had another mammoth game, and the Ducks snuck away with a 2-1 victory, an important one on home ice. They win another in two nights, and they go back to Detroit with a chance to knock out the defending champs. Hiller has been sensational. Like with the victory over San Jose, if they win the series, it’s largely because of his work between the pipes.
Simply put, The Ducks are the giant killers of these playoffs. If they win Game Four in Honda Centre, watch out!
It’s really the time for unheralded goalies to stand up and show us what they’re made of, isn't it? Look at twenty-year-old Simeon Varlarmov in net for the Capitals. He’s had a HUGE series, off the back of a HUGE series against the Rangers in the first round. That save in Game One on Crosby was mind-blowing. Doc Emrick nearly blew a gasket.
Speaking of the Caps…
The Eastern Conference match-up between Crosby and Ovechkin – Pittsburgh and Washington – has been everything the press expected it would be. It has to make the folks at the NHL front office rub their hands with glee. Their two biggest stars on the ice against one another, and they both score hat-tricks in an epic Game Two that went to the Caps 4-3, despite the best efforts of one Sidney Crosby.
Seriously, what’s not to like? Ovie vs. Crosby; the Ovie-Malkin rivalry renewed; big hits; killer goal-tending; insane crowds rockin’ the red inside Verizon Centre; a shot at the Eastern Conference Finals; both teams hot on offense with good goalies. This is possibly the series to end all series’ this playoffs. I cannot wait for Game Four.
As for the other series in the East, Boston vs. Carolina, get back to me if the Canes win Game Three on their ice in Raleigh.
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