NHL Playoffs 2009 eh?
Time for the marathon known as the NHL playoffs to get started. 2 months of hits, fights, and pucks. Here's my breakdown of the 1st round matchups in the east, for the West matchups click here. All times of games are EST.
East
1 Boston Bruins vs 8 Montreal Canadiens (Boston wins series 4-0)
Season Series: Boston took 5 out of 6 games vs Montreal
Games
Game 1: Boston 4-2 (Kessel 2 goals and an assist, Krejci a goal and an assist)
Game 2: Boston 5-1 (Savard: 2 goals and 2 assists, Ryder: a goal and an assist)
Game 3: Boston 4-2 (Wideman: 2 assists, Y.Weber: 1 goal and an assist in loss)
Game 4: Boston 4-1 (Ryder: 2 goals and an assist, Krejci: a goal and an assist, Thomas: 26 saves)
Starting Goaltenders:
Boston: Tim Thomas (led the league in wins, save %, and goals against average)
Montreal: Carey Price (young 21 yr old netminder who has a tough task in going against the league's best goalie and likely Vezina trophy winner Thomas)
Records:
Boston 53-19-10, 116 pts
Montreal: 41-30-11, 93 pts
Team stats
Boston: 3.34 goals per game, 2.4 goals allowed per game, 2nd best PP in east, Tied for 2nd worst PK in the East, best home and away records in the east, won 8 of last 10
Montreal: 3.04 goals per game, 3.01 goals allowed per game, 4th best PP in east, tied for 2nd best PK in east
Key players:
Boston
Marc Savard-C (25 goals, 63 assists, 88 pts)
Phil Kessel-RW (36 goals, 24 assists, 60 pts)
David Krejci-C (22 goals, 51 assists, 73 pts)
Zdeno Chara-D (19 goals, 31 assists, 50 pts)
Montreal
Alexei Kovalev-RW (26 goals, 39 assists, 65 pts)
Andrei Markov-D (12 goals, 52 assists, 64 pts)
Saku Koivu-C (16 goals, 34 assists, 50 pts)
Injuries
Montreal
Markov-D (knee injury)
S.Kostitsyn-F
Tanguay-F
Boston
Andrew Ference-D
Lucic-F (suspended)
Prediction: Boston wins in 6 games
2 Washington Capitals vs 7 New York Rangers (New York leads 3-1)
Season series: Capitals won 3 out of 4
Records
Washington: 50-24-8, 108 pts
New York: 43-30-9, 95 pts
Games
Game 1: New York 4-3
Game 2: New York 1-0 (Lundqvist: 35 saves)
Game 3: Washington 4-0 (Semin: 2 goals and an assist, Backstrom: 3 assists, Varlamov: 33 saves)
Game 4: New York 2-1 (Lundqvist: 38 saves)
Game 5: Washington 4-0 (Varlamov: 20 saves)
Game 6: Washington 5-3 (Poti: goal and 3 assists, Steckel: 2 assists, Gomez: goal and an assist in the loss)
Game 7: in Washington 4/28 7pm
Team stats:
Washington: 3.32 goals per game, 2.99 goals allowed per game, best PP in the east, 5th best PK, 2nd best home record in the east
New York: 2.56 goals per game, 2.66 goals allowed per game, worst PP in the east, best PK in the east, 3rd best home record, worst road record of any team left in east
Starting Goaltenders
Washington: Jose Theodore (had a solid regular season, but Theodore has always been very inconsistant in his career)
New York: Henrik Lundqvist (another very strong season from "King Henrik", 2.43 GAA go to with 38 wins)
Key players
Washington
Alexander Ovechkin-LW (56 goals, 54 assists, 110 pts)
Alexander Semin-LW (34 goals, 45 assists, 79 pts)
Nicklas Backstrom-C (22 goals, 66 assists, 88 pts)
Mike Green-D (31 goals, 42 assists, 73 pts)
New York
Scott Gomez-C (16 goals, 42 assists, 58 pts)
Chris Drury-C (22 goals, 34 assists, 56 pts)
Nikolai Zherdev-RW (23 goals, 35 assists, 58 pts)
Markus Naslund-LW (24 goals, 22 assists, 46 pts)
Injuries
Washington
Nylander-F
New York
Prediction: Capitals in 7...i just don't trust Theodore. Luckily for him, the Rangers don't have enough firepower
3 New Jersey Devils vs 6 Carolina Hurricanes (New Jersey leads 3-2)
Season series: Hurricanes took 3 out of 4
Records
New Jersey: 51-27-4, 106 pts
Carolina: 45-30-7, 97 pts
Games
Game 1: New Jersey 4-1 (Langenbrunner a goal and an assist)
Game 2: Carolina 2-1 (ot) (Tim Gleason: game winning goal, C.Ward: 33 saves)
Game 3: New Jersey 3-2 (ot) (Zajac: Game-winning goal plus an assist, Parise: a goal and an assist)
Game 4: Carolina 4-3 (J.Jokinen: goal and an assist, scored with 2 seconds left for the win!, Seidenberg/Pitkanen: 2 assists each)
Game 5: New Jersey 1-0 (Brodeur: 44 saves, Clarkson: goal)
Game 6: Carolina 4-0 (Whitney: goal and 3 assists, E.Staal: 2 goals and an assist, C.Ward: 28 saves)
Game 7: in New Jersey 4/28 at 7:30pm
Team stats
New Jersey: 2.98 goals per game, 2.55 goals allowed per game, 5th best PP in east, worst PK of any team remaining in east
Carolina: 2.91 goals per game, 2.76 goals allowed per game, 6th best PP in east, 2nd worst PK in the east, worst home record of any team left in the east
Starting Goaltenders
New Jersey: Martin Brodeur (the winngest goalie in hockey history, Brodeur has injured a lot of the season and for once, is not playing completely well coming into the playoffs. I would bet he should return to good form once they start)
Carolina: Cam Ward (already having a Cup win and an MVP along with it, Ward had 39 wins this year. He's the perfect goalie for the playoffs...or is he the worst kind of goalie for the playoffs? He's as inconsistant as they come, never know if your going to get a great or horrible game out of this guy)
Key players
New Jersey
Zach Parise-LW (45 goals, 49 assists, 94 pts)
Patrick Elias-LW (31 goals, 47 assists, 78 pts)
Jamie Langenbrunner-RW (29 goals, 40 assists, 69 pts)
Travis Zajac-C (20 goals, 42 assists, 62 pts)
Carolina
Eric Staal-C (40 goals, 35 assists, 75 pts)
Ray Whitney-LW (24 goals, 53 assists, 77 pts)
Tuomo Ruutu-RW (26 goals, 28 assists, 54 pts)
Matt Cullen-C (22 goals, 21 assists, 43 pts)
Injuries
New Jersey
Langenbrunner-F
Carolina
Prediction: Upset special....Hurricanes in 7
4 Pittsburgh Penguins vs 5 Philadelphia Flyers (4-2 Pittsburgh wins series)
Season series: Pittsburgh took 4 of 6 in this matchup
Records
Pittsburgh: 45-28-9, 99 pts
Philadelphia: 44-27-11, 99 pts
Games
Game 1: Pittsburgh 4-1 (Malkin and Crosby: a goal and an assist each, solid game from Fleury)
Game 2: Pittsburgh 3-2 (ot) (Guerin: 2 goals including the game winner in ot, Malkin: a goal and 2 assists)
Game 3: Philadelphia 6-3 (Gagne: 2 goals, Giroux: 1 goal and an assist, Malkin 2 goals in loss)
Game 4: Pittsburgh 3-1 (Fleury: 44 saves, M.Cooke: 2 assists)
Game 5: Philadelphia 3-0 (Carle: 2 assists, Biron: 28 saves)
Game 6: Pittsburgh 5-3 (Crosby: 2 goals, Fedotenko: a goal and an assist, Malkin: 2 assists)
Team stats
Pittsburgh: 3.22 goals per game, 2.91 goals allowed per game, 2nd worst PP in the east, 3rd best PK in east
Philadelphia: 3.22 goals per game, 2.9 goals allowed per game, 3rd best PP in east, 2nd best PK in the east, struggling in the past 10 games
Starting Goaltenders
Pittsburgh: Marc-Andre Fleury ("The Flower" has looked inconsistant at times, but has really picked up his play lately. 35 wins 2.61 GAA and .912 Save % on the year)
Philadelphia: Martin Biron (Biron had a not so great year: 29 wins, 2.76 GAA, and .915 save %)
Key players
Pittsburgh
Evgeni Malkin-C (35 goals, 78 assists, 113 pts)
Sidney Crosby-C (33 goals, 70 assists, 103 pts)
Jordan Staal-C (22 goals, 27 assists, 49 pts)
Philadelphia
Jeff Carter-C (46 goals, 38 assists, 84 pts)
Mike Richards-C (30 goals, 50 assists, 80 pts)
Simon Gagne-LW (34 goals, 40 assists, 74 pts)
Scott Hartnell-LW (30 goals, 30 assists, 60 pts)
Prediction: Pittsburgh in 6
for West matchups click here
