May 3, 2015

Ian Gooding

2015-05-03

Rangers even series, McDavid to OHL Final, Tripleheader Sunday

It's disappointing that there were no NHL playoff games on tonight, but the NHL's decision not to schedule any games for this time makes sense.

You probably don't believe that everything the NHL does makes sense, but attempting to schedule, say, the Flames vs. Ducks Game 2 at the same time as the self-proclaimed "Fight of the Century" would be a ratings disaster for Bettman and Co. I'm typing this as the fight goes on because I'd like to go to bed at a reasonable time (I have two kids – enough said). Don't get me wrong: I like boxing, but not enough to pay the $100 to watch this fight at home, or go to a pub three hours early just to get a seat. And with Mayweather winning, a few people might be wishing they didn't drop a Benjamin (or in Canada, a Borden) on this fight. For those people, at least you got to see a full 12-round fight, even if it didn’t live up to the hype. When I was a kid, I can remember a local bar selling admission to watch a Mike Tyson fight for $20 (which was a lot of money at the time), and the fight lasted 90 seconds!

There was an NHL playoff game on Saturday, and it happened way early in the day (in the morning here on the West Coast). The Rangers were able to even their series with the Capitals at 1 with a 3-2 win.

Chris Kreider was a deserving first star, scoring the game's first goal just 38 seconds while landing four hits. A couple interesting related stats on Kreider: 1) He leads the Rangers in playoff goals (13) since his playoff debut in 2012 (ESPN), and 2) He is third on the Rangers in hits (25) during this postseason, behind J.T. Miller and Tanner Glass.

The majority of playoff poolies will probably be relieved that the Rangers won Game 2, since the strategy of many was to load up on players from the President's Trophy winners. I did the same in my leagues. But having said that, I decided to hedge a little bit in a playoff box pool that allowed trades for Round 2. The trades allowed me to pick up the aforementioned Kreider, but I decided to pick up Evgeny Kuznetsov and John Carlson in my multiple choice picks instead of Carl Hagelin and Ryan McDonagh, respectively.

My strategy involved not only a backup plan in case the Rangers get bounced by the Capitals, but also the fact that Kuznetsov and Carlson could put up as many points in one round than Hagelin and McDonagh might in two or three. In a playoff pool, sometimes a top scorer on an underdog team is too tempting to pass up.

In spite of the loss, Alex Ovechkin scored an amazing goal. If you haven't seen it yet, or you'd like to check it out again, here it is.

So what was Connor McDavid up to on Saturday? Well, not much. He only scored a goal and added four assists in leading the Erie Otters to a 7-3 win over the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in Game 6 of the OHL Western Conference Final to clinch a spot in the OHL Championship Series against either Oshawa or North Bay. The Memorial Cup will be must-see TV if McDavid and the Otters represent the OHL.

This was a particularly interesting series because of the sheer number of NHL prospects playing. To give you an idea, Erie's roster includes McDavid and fellow projected high first-round pick Dylan Strome, along with Nicholas Baptiste, who scored seven goals over his last four games, and Alex DeBrincat, who scored a hat trick in Game 6. You can find out more about Baptiste, the seventh-highest ranked Sabres' prospect, over at Dobber Prospects. DeBrincat, by the way, is draft eligible in 2016.

The Soo Greyhounds have many intriguing prospects of their own. The Soo's roster includes Darnell Nurse (#2 prospect – Oilers), Nick Ritchie (#4 prospect – Ducks), Anthony DeAngelo (#6 prospect – Lightning), Jared McCann (#7 prospect – Canucks), and Justin Bailey (#8 prospect – Sabres). All prospect rankings are according to Dobber Prospects.

Considering the number of junior teams in the CHL, college teams in the US, and various teams in Europe, that's quite an assembly of talent playing in one series. And I'm sure I left somebody out too. My only wish is that this series would have gone seven games.

📢 advertisement:

Let's move ahead to Sunday's tripleheader, in order of games.

I don't care how all-world Carey Price is, the Montreal Canadiens are going to have a tough time getting past Tampa Bay if their scoring doesn't improve. During the playoffs, the Habs have averaged a lousy 1.86 goals per game, a number that is only higher than (believe it or not) the Pittsburgh Penguins.

If a defenseman leads your team in scoring, your team probably has scoring issues (except if you're the Bobby Orr-led Boston Bruins). It's a small sample size, but P.K. Subban currently leads the Habs in playoff scoring with five points in seven games. Perhaps we shouldn't be that surprised that the Habs have struggled to score, considering that they finished 20^th in goals during the regular season, and all the teams below them in offense missed the playoffs. Defense wins championships, but offense helps you get to the playoffs.

The Blackhawks have a different sort of problem right now: a goaltending problem. The tandem of Corey Crawford and Scott Darling have allowed an average of 3.43 goals per game. In the playoffs, only Ondrej Pavelec and the Winnipeg Jets have a higher number at the moment (4.00).

This is the kind of problem that the Hawks will need to solve – and quickly – if they hope to go on another serious Stanley Cup run. The funny thing is, though, that the Hawks seem to have applied more of the caretaker model in net in their two previous recent Stanley Cups. Antti Niemi in 2010 and Crawford in 2013 were both good but not great between the pipes. Perhaps if a team has enough offense, then it doesn't need to invest big bucks in a goalie.

You could argue that the Hawks' defense is responsible for their high goals-against totals. The Hawks have allowed an average of nearly 38 shots on goal per game, which is the highest among playoff teams. But this is sometimes why we need to look beyond the numbers. The Hawks played both a double-OT game and a triple-OT game in the first round against Nashville. I wasn't able to find a shots against per 60 minutes stat on the NHL website, even though there are a lot more stats on there than there used to be.

Karri Ramo is expected to start in net for the Flames in Game 2. This after Jonas Hiller has been pulled from both of his previous two starts. Bob Hartley wasn't afraid to switch to Ramo or even Joni Ortio for a stretch of games during the regular season, so Ramo could keep the job for awhile if he's able to reverse the Flames' fortunes from Game 1.

That will be a tall order, however. The Ducks manhandled the Flames during Game 1, having their way with smaller Flames such as Johnny Gaudreau and Kris Russell. At least Hudler and first round hits machine Micheal Ferland are expected to return to the Flames' lineup for Game 2 (NHL.com). But the Flames are finding out very quickly that the Ducks are a much tougher animal than the Vancouver Canucks were.

Hartley is obviously hoping that the goaltending switch will lead to a momentum switch as well, but I'd be surprised if that will do it for the Flames. Corey Perry has been the MVP of the playoffs thus far with 11 points in just five games. You don't need to be a statistical expert to predict that he will should keep on rolling.

Enjoy the games on Sunday.

UPCOMING GAMES

Apr 10 - 19:04	CBJ	vs	BUF
Apr 10 - 19:04	FLA	vs	DET
Apr 10 - 19:04	BOS	vs	CHI
Apr 10 - 19:04	NYI	vs	NYR
Apr 10 - 19:04	WSH	vs	CAR
Apr 10 - 20:04	DAL	vs	WPG
Apr 10 - 21:04	UTA	vs	NSH
Apr 10 - 21:04	COL	vs	VAN
Apr 10 - 22:04	L.A	vs	ANA
Apr 10 - 22:04	VGK	vs	SEA