I did not expect the Washington Capitals to lose the first two games of this series to an inferior team. Everything seems to be going well for the Tampa Bay Lightning right now, and that's good for a team that literally has been poor and below average for several years since winning the Stanley Cup.
I did not expect the Boston Bruins to win the first two games of their series on the road in Philadelphia, a louder building now that they have managed to navigate the first round. Regardless, the Bruins have had clutch scoring and better goaltending. The Flyers have some serious decisions to make going forward. It is very clear that they are stuck with Boucher being the least-likely to leave them hanging out of the three goalies that they have. However, Boucher doesn't inspire confidence. They would have been better off going after Giguere, Roloson, or someone of that calibre. It's obviously paying dividends for the Lightning.
The Western Conference is another story. I expected it to be a tight, hard battle between Vancouver and Nashville. With two games coming up in Tennessee, it's likely to be a bloody and hard-hitting couple of nights.
San Jose has proven to be a major contender. If they can steal one in the Motor City, they're going to be home and dry within a week. If they don't, it's a series again. You'd bet on San Jose beating just about anyone at the moment, wouldn't you?
So that's that. We're already looking at three 2-0 series leads and it's going to take some major pushing from the teams who are looking up from that hole to make any of those series long. Philadelphia has the talent and personnel to do it, as does Detroit. Washington should be able to, but I don't know if they've learned their lessons just yet.
Enjoy the action tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment