NHL Playoff Schedule 2012: What Each Team Facing Elimination Must Do to Survive

Sunday will be an exciting day for NHL playoff action because last year's two Stanley Cup finalists, the Boston Bruins and Vancouver Canucks, along with many expert's pick to win the title this year, the Pittsburgh Penguins, all face elimination.

For the Canucks, a loss in the first round after coming into this season with so much hope would be quite a disaster, and some major changes could be made to the roster in the summer.

The Penguins and Bruins have battled injuries and poor play from their star players, but will still like their chances to stay alive given their recent Stanley Cup-winning experience.

Let's look at what each team facing elimination on Sunday must do to keep their drive for the cup alive.

Matchup	Time (ET)	TV Info
Pittsburgh Penguins at Philadelphia Flyers	12:00 p.m.	NBC
Boston Bruins at Washington Capitals	3:00 p.m.	NBC
Los Angeles Kings at Vancouver Canucks	8:00 p.m.	NBC Sports Network

Key for the Bruins: Score first

Since the All-Star break in late January, the Bruins have had a really difficult time scoring first. They got away with it during the regular season because their offense was ranked second in the NHL in goals per game, and they have strong defense and goaltending.

However, in the playoffs against top competition, it's so hard to play from behind time and time again. Boston must score first on Sunday for a couple reasons:

• It will calm the team down and allow them to relax
• An opening goal will damage Capitals goalie Braden Holtby's confidence
• When Boston scores first, it has the ability to break the game open with its offensive depth

The Bruins' top forwards including Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Tyler Seguin, all of whom have zero goals in this series, must play better offensively in Game 6 or they will have the rest of the spring and summer to think about their failures.

Key for the Penguins: Marc-Andre Fleury must give his team a chance to win

The Penguins offense has had little trouble scoring in this series but star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has not been able to keep the Flyers offense from dominating as well.

With a solid Game 5 performance in which he allowed just two goals, Fleury looks like he's rounding back into form, which is bad news for the Flyers.

Philadelphia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov has allowed 20 goals in five games during this series, and his confidence is very low right now. It's clear that the edge in goaltending lies with Pittsburgh.

The blueprint to a successful comeback for the Penguins is pretty simple: Get good goaltending and everything will be fine.

With star forward and likely Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin starting to score goals and dominate offensively, Fleury just needs to give the Penguins a chance to win on Sunday and there will be a Game 7 on Tuesday in Pittsburgh.

Key for the Canucks: Ryan Kesler must play well at both ends of the ice

Ryan Kesler is one of the better two-way forwards in hockey, but he has been dominated for much of this series by Kings star center Mike Richards.

Kesler has no goals and three assists in this series, which isn't good enough for a Canucks team that doesn't have much offensive depth.

With their lack of size on the top two forward lines, Kesler must be Vancouver's power forward who is being physical at both ends of the ice and providing the scoring punch the team needs to force a Game 6.

If Kesler can return to the level of play he was at during last year's second-round series against the Nashville Predators, then the Canucks will have a strong chance to win this series.

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Nicholas Goss is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report and was also the organization's on-site reporter for the 2011 Stanley Cup Final in Boston.