Today is without a doubt the biggest day in the playoffs so far. Today is the day where we find out who WIM and continues to live another day.
First game on the undercard is an afternoon game at 4:30 PM EDT between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers. These 2 teams have quite a bit of recent history and the Rangers need to win today in order to force a game 7.
Series Results:
Game 1: 3-1 Wash
Game 2: 1-0 Wash
Game 3: 4-3 NYR
Game 4: 4-3 NYR
Game 5: 2-1 Wash (OT)
Don't be confused by what ESPN tells you, the Rangers do not have this reigning 2-time league MVP on their team...
Instead the big move that they made this offseason was in fact for this Nash:
Rumors are that Rick will show up to play for game 6. The Rangers have some key injuries that are likely to miss game 6. Clowe, Powe and Staal are all likely out. Kreider and Newbury are candidates are replacements.
The Capitals have good ol' Holtby in net who was a former Saskatoon Blade along with Mike Green in front of him trying to keep the puck out and on forward they have Marty Erat. The Capitals also have the heartless Russian Alex Ovechkin on their roster so we'll have to see if they can overcome the inevitable choke job that is in front of them. To give you perspective, the Saskatoon Blades have never won a WHL championship (worst drought in CHL for a team that's been in league that long) and no Russian captain has ever hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Here are some signs of the Washington Capitals passion:
Next on the sched we have Boston vs. Toronto at 7:30 EDT and this is an original 6 matchup that features the Toronto Maples Leafs who haven't made the playoffs in 9 years! They can't even operate their synced clocks properly!
Series Results
Game 1: 4-1 Bos
Game 2: 4-2 Tor
Game 3: 5-2 Bos
Game 4: 4-3 Bos (OT)
Game 5: 2-1 Tor
A lot of people thought Toronto would be done by now but thanks to the failures of guys like Tyler Seguin and Brad Marchand, the Leafs are still in this series, luckily for the Leafs, Seguin and Marchand were spotted at a bar with Marchand sporting a misspelled tattoo of their Stanley Cup vicoty.
Luckily the Leafs have the reiging SE posting champ on their side:
And finally at some ungodly hour due to the game being on the West Coast, we have the main event. Game 7, what people dream of scoring the winning goal in OT when they play road hockey. We have the Detroit Red Wings visiting the Anaheim Mighty Ducks for the right to play in the second round. In the one corner you have the underdogs, the Detroit Red Wings! Although they are underdogs, they still won the season series against Anaheim 2-1. Let's meet the Red Wings...
First off we have a non-heartless Russian in Pavel Datsyuk whose body of work is very impressive, here are some nice goals he's scored...
Then we have another Euro who is our captain and although he's been the worst captain that the Red Wings have had in ~25 years, he's still pretty good and hey, he has a really, really, really hot wife
The Red Wings have not missed the regular season for 22 straight years and our still riding guys like Yzerman and Lidstrom but luckily the team still has guys on there that were able to learn from those legends.
Anyway, the Wings have passionate posters who show up right when the team needs them. It doesn't matter how many combined posts fans like tuq, noze or Steroid Boy had during the Irregular Season. What matters is the passion that this fanbase has when they need them most. It also doesn't matter that Zimmer has to go to bed before OT starts or that dinner plans make him miss game 7, we still have by far the best fans in the World.
Series Results
Game 1: 3-1 Ana
Game 2: 5-4 Det (OT)
Game 3: 4-0 Ana
Game 4: 3-2 Det (OT)
Game 5: 3-2 Ana (OT)
Game 6: 4-3 Det (OT)
As you can see, the Red Wings could set a record for most OT wins in one series if they win in OT so let's hope for that.
No Ference or Redden tonight for Boston! 3rd pairing is going to be weaaaaaak. Smells like a 7 gamer to me! Can't WAIT
Redden is a game time decision afaik.
Interesting to note that the Bruins top 3 goal scorers from the regular season have 0 combined goals in this series. Time for a couple of them to finally get on the board.
He typed they haven't missed the regular season in 22 years...I think he meant playoffs in the past 22 years...how does a team miss the regular season, that's I thought it was funny.
He typed they haven't missed the regular season in 22 years...I think he meant playoffs in the past 22 years...how does a team miss the regular season, that's I thought it was funny.
Just 48 pre-season games this year due to the lockout