2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 5th

1-1 last night. Chris Drury left it until 19:52 of the third period but he did eventually provide the offence that I suggested he would. Tonight Ottawa has a chance to send New Jersey home at home. Home is the key here, the Devils will win tonight only to lose game 6 in Ottawa.

Tonights Games :

Ottawa Senators (3) at New Jersey Devils (1) : The Senators, and more specifically Ray Emery, have outplayed the Devils through this entire series. However, the Devils have been there and done that before and aren't thrown by being on the brink of elimination. The Devils are at home tonight and that should give them enough extra punch to win game 5.

San Jose Sharks (2) at Detroit Red Wings (2) : The Sharks have blown 2-0 leads twice in this series to allow the Red Wings to knot things up at 2. With the return of Thomas Homlstrom the Red Wings have a power play threat again and with game 5 being in Detroit I see the Wings taking a 3-2 series lead tonight.

Last Nights Recap :

New York Rangers 1 (2) at Buffalo Sabres 2 (3) : This series has definitley been a home affair but last night the Rangers did everything in their power to break that streak. Chris Drury scored the game tying goal with just 8 seconds left and Maxim Afinogenov scored the game winner in OT to preserve the home winning streak. Afinogenov was benched for parts of game 4 but came back last night to score the winner with a slapshot through Tomas Vanek's and Henrik Lundqvist's legs. Lundqvist was absolutely stellar stopping 36 shots in regulation time to give the Rangers a shot at the series lead. Unfortunately Buffalo's offence woke up late and took the game from the Rangers.


Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions

NHL Playoffs Video Highlights - May 3rd

From the NHL Highlight Machine

2007 NHL Playoffs Video Highlights

Anaheim Ducks 2 (4) at Vancouver Canucks 1 (1) :

2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 4th

1-1 last night. As expected Vancouver went home last night after losing in double OT to Anaheim despite the heroics of Roberto Luongo. Tonight Buffalo will regain the lead in their series vs New York and we will see their vaunted offense wake up a little.

Tonights Game :

New York Rangers (2) at Buffalo Sabres (2) : Coming home is good and it should be enough to spark the Buffalo Sabres offense in game 5 of this round 2 series. Buffalo has managed only 2 goals in their last 2 games and lost both matches in New York by 2-1 scores. Henrik Lundqvist has arguably outplayed Ryan Miller so far this series but it won't be enough tonight. Chris Drury
has only managed 1 goal and 1 assist in this series (all in game 2) and tonight he will remind us why he is such a valuable player for Buffalo. Drury will be the most effective Sabre tonight on both the offensive and defensive ends and his inspired play will light a fire under the rest of the Sabres tonight as they take game 5 for a 3-2 series lead over the Rangers.

Last Nights Recap :

Anaheim Ducks 2 (4) at Vancouver Canucks 1 (1) : Vancouver was completely outplayed by Anaheim last night but Roberto Luongo decided his team was going to win anyway. Luongo made 63 saves in a bid to singlehandedly force game 6 in this series. Unfortunately the rest of the Canucks didn't hold up their end of the bargain and only managed 1 goal on just 27 shots. The Niedermayer brothers combined to end the game in the 2nd OT with a crunching hit and a quick wrist shot that Roberto Luongo missed because he was too busy trying to get the ref to make a penalty call on. Tough way to end a stellar performance for Luongo, but he should have many more chances in the post season. Despite the lackluster performance of the Vancouver Canucks as a whole Luongo has cemented himself as a playoff performing goalie with his play in the first and second rounds of this years playoffs.

Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions

2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 3rd

1/2 last night. Martin Brodeur has been uncharacteristically human in round 2 of this years NHL Stanley Cup Playoff's. My prediction for the Ottawa vs New Jersey Series was the Devils in 6. With the play of Brodeur I don't think the Devils can beat the Senators. Sens in 6 as they make it to the Eastern Conference finals for the second year in a row.

Tonights Games:

Vancouver Canucks (1) at Anaheim Ducks (3) : Tonight the Canucks go home. Roberto Luongo has been solid in net for Vancouver but their front lines simply cannot provide him with enough offense to win a game. Despite Markus Naslund managing to find the score sheet recently the rest of Vancouvers offence seems to be asleep. Anaheim wins 3-1 tonight and advances to the third round.

Last Nights Recaps :

New Jersey Devils 2 (1) at Ottawa Senators 3 (3) : The Senators took another early lead and managed to protect it with two weak goals on Martin Brodeur. Dany Heatley scored an unassisted goal in the second period on an attempted pass across the net that went in off Brodeur's skate and Mike Fisher scored the game winner on a 40 foot wrist shot. Brodeur has seen a lot of rubber in this series and still has a strong .922 save percentage, but several of the goals against him have been suspect. Brodeur simply cant' do it all for the Devils (despite the fact that he also got an assist in this game) and they are not playing well enough as a team to get past the Senators.

Detroit Red Wings 3 (2) at San Jose Sharks 2 (2) : The San Jose Sharks squandered a 2-0 lead and lost in overtime to allow the Red Wings to even up the series at two games apiece. Robert Lang came out of his season long obscurity to score the game tying goal with 34 seconds left in the third period and Mathieu Schneider won it at 16:04 of the first overtime. At one point in the second period the Red Wings outshot the Sharks 20-1 but Evgeni Nabokov was stellar and only gave up the one goal to Tomas Holmstrom. I told you Holmstrom would help the Wings power play. With Holmstrom out of the lineup the Wings were 1-10 on the power play, last night they were 2-5.

Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions

2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 2nd

1-2 last night. The Buffalo Sabres forgot to show up and ruined my predictions. Thanks Anaheim for a third period surge to keep me from an o'fer. Tonight both Detroit and New Jersey will attempt to tie their series at 2 games apiece.

Tonights Games :

New Jersey Devils (1) at Ottawa Senators (2) : The Devils have to come out swinging to even this series up in Ottawa. Brodeur played to expectations in Game 3 but the Devils forwards didn't give him any support. Expect the EGG line to push things tonight and regain their scoring touch as Martin Brodeur puts in a stellar performance to help the Devils even up the series.

Detroit Red Wings (1) at San Jose Sharks (2) : Tomas Holmstrom is expected to return tonight in San Jose which should help the Red Wings struggling power play. Detroit is 1-10 on the power play in this series and has lost two games by 1 goal. Change their power play conversion percentage to just 20% and the look of this series changes dramatically. Joe Thornton continues to be a major problem for Detroit but they need to focus more on generating their own offence tonight. Expect the Wings to knot this series up at two games apiece tonight.

Last Nights Recaps :

Buffalo Sabres 1 (2) at New York Rangers 2 (2) : Daniel Briere admitted that the disallowed goal in game 3 by Rangers defenseman Karel Rachunek should have been a goal and hoped that the NHL had not made a miscall two games in a row when they disallowed his game tying goal with 17 seconds left last night. Regardless, the Sabres played a lackluster first period in game 4 and despite 4 power plays in the second period (5 in the game) couldn't manage a single PP point in the game. The Sabres are only 3-25 on the power play in this series and they need to step it up if they expect to continue to round 3.

Anaheim Ducks 3 (3) at Vancouver Canucks 2 (1) : The Canucks found some offense early from their former stars in Brendan Morrison and Markus Naslund to take a 2-0 lead into the third period. Then the wheels came off. Anaheim got timely goals from Chris Pronger and Teemu Selanne in the third to allow Travis Moen to score the OT winner just 2:07 into the extra frame. Vancouver just can't seem to get their act together in this series and offense has been a major issue, just like it was in the regular season. Bye bye Vancouver, your going home Thursday night.


Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions

NHL Weekly Highlights April 24th

NHL Playoffs Video Highlights - April 30th

From the NHL Highlight Machine

2007 NHL Playoffs Video Highlights

New Jersey Devils 0 (1) at Ottawa Senators 2 (2) :



Detroit Red Wings 1 (1) at San Jose Sharks 2 (2) :

2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 1st

2-2 last night as Ottawa beats Brodeur on a disputed goal and San Jose holds on to beat Detroit. The Rangers and Canucks have a chance to even up their series at home tonight but neither will manage it.

Tonights Games :

Buffalo Sabres (2) a New York Rangers (1) : The Sabres still haven't turned on the afterburners in the 2007 NHL Playoffs, expect them to turn it up a notch tonight in New York as they win to take a 3-1 series lead. Tomas Vanek will continue to chip in offensively and Chris Drury will get on the score sheet tonight.

Anaheim Ducks (2) at Vancouver Canucks (1) : Vancouver can't score, they can't do it 5-5, they can't do it on the power play and in game 3 they couldn't manage it on 2 lengthy 5-3 man advantages. The Ducks will take a commanding lead in the series by winning tonight in Vancouver. Teemu Selanne's line is giving the Canucks fits and while his line hasn't put up a lot of points they are deflecting pressure from the second line of Corey Perry, Ryan Getzlaf and Dustin Penner who are picking up the offensive slack.

Last Nights Recaps :

New Jersey Devils 0 (1) at Ottawa Senators 2 (2) : The game winning goal came on a sharp angled shot by Tom Preissing immediately after Mike Fisher bumped Martin Brodeur. Lou Lamoriello was upset that the ref's didn't call goaltender interference on the play and looking at the replays it seems obvious that Brodeur was out of position on the shot. Regardless, Ray Emery was solid in net to get his second shutout of the playoffs. If New Jersey cannot find a way to generate more offense then even Brodeur can't help them win this series.

Detroit Red Wings 1 (1) at San Jose Sharks 2 (2) : The Red Wings dominated most of game 3 but the most dominant player on the ice all night was Joe Thornton. Only Niklas Lidstrom and Craig Rivet were on the ice longer than Thornton's 23:01 minutes. Thornton's presence paid off as he assisted on Ryan Clowe's game tying goal and drew the penalty that resulted in Jonathan Cheechoo's game winner. Good news for Detroit as Tomas Holmstrom has been cleared to play game 4 in San Jose on Wednesday night. San Jose's Bill Guerin has yet to score in the post season making his costly pickup at the trade deadline a questionable investment.

Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions

2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - Apr 30th

Yesterday I had some issues with a slippery tranny and was unable to post my usual. Hey, get your mind outta the gutter, the transmission in my car was acting up. The bad news is that I would probably have gone 0fer yesterday. Vancouver was a letdown at home and the Rangers showed some sign of life in New York.

Tonights Games :

New Jersey Devils (1) at Ottawa Senators (1) : The Devils squeaked one out in overtime in Game 2 as Martin Brodeur returned to form. Ottawa was the stronger team for much of the game and should come out hot tonight to take game 3 of the series.

Detroit Red Wings (1) at San Jose Sharks (1) : The Wings game back in the 3rd period to win game 2 and tie up the series. The Sharks are determined not to let what happened to them in last years playoffs occur this year. They will come out pressing the Wings tonight and take a 2-1 series lead with game 3 at home.

Last Nights Recaps :

Buffalo Sabres 1 (2) at New York Rangers 2 (1) : Game 3 in this series was beginning to look eerily like game 2 as the Rangers held a lead into the third period only to see Buffalo tie it up late. This time New York managed to hold onto the tie in regulation and force overtime finally winning the game in the 2nd OT on a hard shot by defenseman Mical Rozsival. The Rangers looked determined to win game 3 and the Sabres couldn't capitalize on a number of power play chances in the game. The Sabres went 1-7 on the power play in regulation and were blanked on 2 more PP chances in overtime.

Anaheim Ducks 3 (2) at Vancouver Canucks 2 (1) : The scoring problems that have plagued Vancouver all year are continuing into the playoffs despite the fact that they are getting some production from Markus Naslund. Vancouver was limited to 1 goal on 7 power play opportunities 2 of which were lengthy 5-3 advantages while Anaheim converted on 2 of 5 chances. That was the story as the Ducks weathered a late offensive storm from the Canucks to win game 3 in Vancouver. Vancouver is now a miserable 4-58 on power plays in the playoffs this year, that simply will not do as Vancouver looks to be heading to the golf course early this year.