Okay that was a bit of an awkward sentence but you get what I mean, right? Last night was pretty awesome. The Habs/Sens series seems like it's going to end with both teams having to ice AHL lineups by game 3 since the NHLrosters will all be injured/suspended/dead.
The Islanders began their march to losing in the finals, Chicago and Nashville gave us our first double OT game, and Calgary is still flipping off the odds and beat Vancouver. Here's your preview for tonight games and again, use this for the GDT if you don't want to leave the comfort of your own blog.
Pittsburgh Penguins at New York Rangers
7:00P - CBC, NBCSN, TVA, ROOT, MSG
SBN: Pensburgh / Blue Shirt Banter
Season Series: Rangers win 2-1-0-1 16GF 8GA
Ex-Leafs: Dominic Moore (NYR), Daniel Winnik (PIT)
The Rangers were pretty damn good this year. Everything was chugging along then bam! Their goalie, one of the best in the world goes down. What do they do? Toss in the backup and pray for the best.
They have pretty close to the best with Cam Talbot in net. This is the year that backups made a difference. Talbot kept the Rangers high in the standings until King Henrik returned. At the other end, the Penguins have taken quite the meteoric fall from grace.
Crosby was injured, then Malkin, then they both were. Fluery is average at best. Letang went down. They've floundered a bit and barely made the playoffs. I doubt this changes going forward. Well Penguins, enjoy your 800th bankruptcy in a couple years.
Detroit Red Wings at Tampa Bay Lightning
7:30P - CNBC, TVA2, Sportsnet, FS-D, FS-F
SBN: Winging it in Motown/ Raw Charge
Season Series: Tampa wins 3-1-0 12GF 9GA
Ex-Leafs: None
Man do I want Detroit to lose. I don't know what it is about that team I want to collapse into itself and move to Houston but I do. Detroit with its veteran players Datsyuk and Zetterberg against a young Tampa led by NHL dreamboat Steven Stamkos.
You always want to count Detroit out of the payoffs but they always manage to make it. Will they upset Tampa? No, probably not.
Minnesota Wild at St. Louis Blues
9:30P - NBCSN, TVA3, Sportsnet 360, FS-N, FS-WI, FS-MW
SBN: Hockey Wilderness / St. Louis Game Time
Season Series - Minnesota wins 2-2-0 13GF 11GA
Ex-Leafs: Carl Gunnarson, Olli Jokinen, Alex Steen (StL)
Remember that goalie thing I said? Yeah Dubnyk's tale is probably the best of the three backups that just got shit done.
Now, has he played too much? Will his heart explode? That's what we want to find out. The Blues are the guys that just can't get it done, like a mid-western San Jose Sharks, but easier to forget they exist. I would like to see them win, but they're just one of those teams people pick and pick and pick that will never win. They'll win this series though.
Winnipeg Jets at Anaheim Ducks
10:30P - CNBC, TVA, Sportsnet, Prime
SBN: Arctic Ice Hockey / Anaheim Calling
Season Series - Anaheim wins 3-0-0 13GF 8GA
Ex-Leafs: Francois Beauchemin (ANA), Jiri Tlusty & Lee Stempniak (WPG)
The Ducks! My pick to win it all. No I'm not explaining it.
They take on the Atlanta Thrashers in a series that will basically be covered with people oohing and aahing at Winnipeg's arena and how wonderful it is in there and how great it is to have the Jets back (even though they aren't "back" since the One True Jets reside in Arizona) and my gosh aren't those Winnipeg fans so darn passionate like there's anything else to do there. Go Ducks!
