We were just sittin’ here thinking…
-- If we had a Conn Smythe vote this early, our finalists would be… Jaroslav Halak, Joe Pavelski, and… Miroslav Satan?
-- Satan has five goals and ten points in nine games, three of his goals being game-winners. Three of his goals gave the Bruins a lead in games, the other two came with the Bruins up a goal.
-- Find it a little odd that at this juncture of the playoffs, not one goaltender has a GAA under 2.00 (last year, Tim Thomas had a 1.85 GAA in 11 games, and Chris Osgood had a 2.01 in 23 games). Only Tuukka Rask is close at this point – 2.18.
-- How little does goaltending seem to matter this spring? Evgeni Nabokov and Marc-Andre Fleury, both of whom are still playing, and neither of whom backstop a team trailing in their respective series, have save percentages under .900. Four goalies have save percentages above .920, and two of them are on teams that have been eliminated (Buffalo’s Ryan Miller and Colorado’s Craig Anderson). And the guys ranked fifth and sixth – Brian Boucher and Jimmy Howard – are on the brink of elimination.
-- Johan Franzen, 6-11-17… Henrik Zetterberg, 7-8-15…, Pavel Datsyuk, 6-7-13… Nicklas Lidstrom, 4-6-10… Brian Rafalski, 2-8-10. They’re getting the scoring. So why are the Wings on the brink of elimination? Well, they’re allowing San Jose 33.5 shots a game (compared to their regular season average of 29.4). The puck control team isn’t controlling the puck as much as it needs to, and the rookie is seeing too much rubber in goal.
-- Yeah, Philly is missing Jeff Carter and Simon Gagne. But when the snow settles back onto the ice, one is going to wonder… where were Scott Hartnell (no goals) and James Van Riemsdyk (no goals)? And between them, they are a minus-10. OK, Van Riemsdyk is a rookie, but when Daniel Carcillo and Arron Asham are in your top six in scoring… not good.
-- It has become blindingly clear at this point… as Crosby goes, so go the Penguins. No one else is stepping up consistently. And he is 0-3-3, minus-2 in his last five games with only 11 shots on goal (five of those last night). Is Sid finally getting tired?
-- OK, who what deal did Mikael Samuelsson make with the Devil? The guy has eight goals (career playoff best) and 12 points (within one of a career playoff best), and he’s done it in nine games. He might not be this year’s “John Druce” (he did have 30 goals for the Canucks this year), but you wouldn’t have picked him to be second among all players in postseason goals, now, would you?
-- OK, hits are something of an arbitrary statistic, dependent on what the official scorer sees, but tell me you had “Darren Helm” leading the postseason in hits.
-- And in the “take one for the team” category… Hal Gill, first in blocked shots… Josh Gorges, third… Roman Hamrlik, fifth... Ryan O’Byrne, ninth. There are more blocks there than the Redskins offensive line had against opposing defenses last season.
-- Not liking that John Carlson still leads all players in giveaways (ok, he’s tied). But hey, what’s Duncan Keith doing up there only one behind?
