Saturday, May 2

Neil Parker

2015-05-02

 

 

Alexander Burmistrov returning? And a look at the Conference Semi Finals.

 

 

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It appears Alexander Burmistrov is returning to the National Hockey League. The eighth overall selection in 2008 has played the past two seasons with Kazan Ak-Bars of the Kontinental Hockey League. He tallied 37 points — 10 goals — through 54 games during the 2013-14 season, but then he fell to just 26 points with 10 goals through 53 games this year.

 

Interestingly, and significantly shifting gears, former Kitchener Rangers scoring star Justin Azevedo lead the Bars with 50 points over 58 games this season. Azevedo’s 124-point campaign in the 2007-08 season paved the way for another 36 points over 20 playoff games en route to the J. Ross Robertson Cup as the Ontario Hockey League Champions.

 

Continuing briefly, that Kitchener team had a 16-year-old Nazem Kadri, Calder Trophy winner Steve Mason and NHLers Mikkel Boedker, Nick Spaling, Matt Halischuk, Yannick Weber and Robert Bortuzzo. Plus, our friend Mike Clifford’s favorite Varsity Red Ben Shutron was on the team coached by Peter DeBoer.

 

 

The fact James Wisniewski and Jiri Sekac haven’t played yet, and Tomas Fleischmann has suited up for just two games, also highlights the team’s depth. As long as Frederik Andersen doesn’t lose a series for Anaheim they look to have the easiest path to the Stanley Cup Finals. They might lose a game to Calgary, but it would be less surprising if they didn’t.

 

 

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Nikita Kucherov became the youngest Lightning Bolt to score an OT game winner in the playoffs Friday. But should his first goal have counted?

 

It appeared to be a pretty cushy call. Jon Cooper acknowledged it was likely the correct ruling, though, and nonetheless Ben Bishop improved to 8-0-0 over his last eight starts against the Habs.

 

Montreal’s scoring wasn’t there, again. And realistically, their only goal was squarely on Bishop’s shoulders. He should have made the save, and while he turned away 43 shots, the one he missed could have cost the Lightning Game 1.

 

The Canadiens are now at eight goals over their last six games, which isn’t good enough. However, the real question is where is the goal scoring going to come from? Max Pacioretty scored Friday, but it was just his third goal of the playoffs. Do the Habs have the offensive horses to keep pace?

 

Who is realistically going to step up?

 

Holding the Lightning to two goals or fewer is unlikely to happen in the majority of games this series. Until Montreal shows a few more signs of offense, it is difficult to give them a legit chance of moving on.

 

 

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The Western Conference playoff games becoming higher scoring has been an interesting trend over the past two years. The 4-3 finish between the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild was just another example, and interestingly, all seven goals were scored in the first two periods.

 

While both goalies allowed a few softies, they also kept the score close after Minny tied it, Chicago pulled ahead, and throughout the third. A three-goal lead would single game over in the East, but it is just part of the gig in plenty of games in the West.

Again, Devan Dubnyk looked mediocre on a few of the goals against, but he made big save after big save to keep the Wild in the game. This series projects to continue going back and forth and be a real grind fest. Overall, the stats were pretty even, too.

 

It was noticeable to see Jonathan Toews play just over 17 minutes, while Patrick Kane and Brandon Saad led the Blackhawks in ice time. Saad led them in Game 6 against the Nashville Predators, too.

 

Expect Toews to see a few more minutes in Game 2.

 

Similar to Dubnyk, Crawford looked weak on a few goals. It is going to be the case frequently, though, at least it appears that way. Chicago won’t be in the clear with any lead, and it’ll be interesting to see what next year brings. Winning a Stanley Cup carries plenty of worthiness credence, but frankly speaking, Crawford has been awful.

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