2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - Apr 16th

50/50 last night. Calgary surprised me with a lackluster effort. Sidney Crosby and Daniel Alfredsson lead all playoff scorers with 3 goals and 2 assists with rookies Alexander Radulov and Evgeni Malkin close behind with 4 points each.

Tonights Games:

New Jersey Devils (1) at Tampa Bay Lightning (1) : The series shifts to Tampa and the Lightning have to be happy with a split in New Jersey. Look for the big guns in Tampa to go after Martin Brodeur tonight. Tight game but Tampa will pull it off to take a 2-1 lead in the series. Preview

Buffalo Sabres (1) at New York Islanders (1) : The Islanders were rejuvenated by the return of Rick DiPietro and the Sabres looked a little weak in game 2. Expect the Sabres to come out hot and put this game away early. Preview

Nashville Predators (1) at San Jose Sharks (1) : The Predators won game 2 handily but will be missing rookie spark plug Alexander Radulov for game 3 in San Jose. Expect the Sharks to take game 3 and a 2-1 lead in the series. Preview

Recaps Day 5:

Calgary Flames 1 (0) at Detroit Red Wings 3 (2) : The Flames put themselves in a hole early as Detroit scored two power play goals within the first 4 minutes. Pavel Datsyuk is continuing to prove that he can perform in the playoffs and Nicklas Lidstrom pots the game winner.

Ottawa Senators 4 (2) at Pittsburgh Penguins 2 (1) : The Senators were determined not to repeat their third period collapse from Saturday night and pulled together to bury the Penguins in game 3. Colby Armstrong knocked Patrick Eaves out of the game with a shoulder to the head behind the Pittsburgh net. Even more shocking may have been Ottawa's Chris Phillips dropping the gloves with Evgeni Malkin? No that is not a typo, it happened.

Anaheim Ducks 2 (3) at Minnesota Wild 1 (0) : The last time the Minnesota Wild were in the playoffs they were swept in 4 games by Anaheim. History looks like it is going to repeat itself as the Ducks take a commanding 3-0 series lead. Minnesota's power play has been absolutely non-existent as the scored their first PP tally last night in 15 chances. So long Minnesota, as of now I doubt that you will push this series to 5 games, let alone the 7 I predicted.

Vancouver Canucks 2 (2) at Dallas Stars 1 (1) : Marty Turco still has some demons to excorcise. Coming off his first playoff shutout Turco saw his chance at two in a row disintegrate in the third to be followed by an overtime loss 7:47 into the first overtime period. Turco is now 1-9 in postseason over time games and has lost 5 straight home games in the playoffs. As easy as it would be to blame this loss on Turco the problem is likely up front for Dallas. Mike Modano and Jere Lehtinen were the teams leading scorers in the regular season but have yet to tally a point in the postseason.

Past playoff posts:

Round 1 Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions