Allsports Views on the NHL Playoff Picture

If you have been following sports on the web and in particular the NHL playoffs, your aware by now that the Boston Bruins have the Montreal Canadians on the brink of elimination. Boston handed Montreal a 4-2 loss last night to go up 3-0 in the best of seven series.

Montreal at least tried to use their team speed more in this game than in the previous two in Boston where they tried to match brawn with the Bruins. We know how that turned out. Alex Kovalev seems to be the only Canadians forward who is dangerous.

The Habs stayed out of the penalty box too but in the end, it did not matter. This was Montreal’s game to win because they caught a break when the league suspended Milan Lucic for the game. Lucic crosschecked Maxim Lapierre in the head at the end of game two.

No matter the Bruins inserted Byron Bitz into the line up to replace Lucic, he is almost as big so they did not miss a beat in the physical department. Bitz even recorded an assist in the game. Michael Ryder scored the winner last night and yes this is the same Michael Ryder that was not good enough to play for the Canadians.

Will the Canadians win a game? they might but I doubt it. As I stated at the start of the series, just too much BIG, BAD, Bruins.

In Philadelphia the Flyers did what they had to do, playing a physical game against the Penguins but staying out of the penalty box to post a convincing 6-3 win. We have a series here and game four goes tonight.

In New York the Washington Capitals finally solved Henrik Lundqvist to post a 4-0 win. This was a good thing for the Caps because Lundqvist was in their heads pretty good after game two.

Rookie Simeon Varlamov posted the shutout in his second game after replacing an ineffective Theodore after game one. Varlamov may be working is own brand of syke on the Rangers. Sean Avery was up to his usual stunts last night and coach Tortorella did not look impressed.

I don’t know about others but I have no room for a jerk like Avery on my team. He is a total embarrassment to his teammates and the league. Its to bad because he can play, he is just an idiot though.

New Jersey won in overtime the other night in Carolina. Allsports does not care to much about this series because I am not a fan of either team. It will be a long series and I would like to see Carolina come through for Paul Maurice.

He got a raw deal in Toronto because of the clowns he had to report to. Martin Brodeur and Brendan Shanahan would be the only two reasons why I would care about the Devils.

Calgary came through at home last night and beat the Blackhawks 4-1. The Flames managed to hit the young legs on the Hawks into submission on this night and played a full 60 minutes of hockey. Something they had not done in the first two games.

This series is starting to get ugly too and the teams just don’t like each other. That makes for great hockey to watch. The Flames will try and take more swagger out of the Hawks tomorrow night. The guys in the trenches did the job for Calgary, not their big guns.

Vancouver is up on St. Louis 3-0 and the story here begins and ends with Roberto Luongo. He did let in 2 goals the other night but the Canucks got three. Luongo has stopped about 196 of 200 shots the last six or seven games he has played.

Right now I don’t think you could shoot a pea by him. That does not bode well for the Blues and they will be singing them shortly.

Detroit is looking every bit the defending champs and is playing there brand of mistake free hockey. Osgood has been very good for the Wings so that won’t help Columbus who will be singing the Blues along with St.Louis.

You have to feel sorry for the San Jose Sharks, another great regular season and then snake bitten in the playoffs again. They are playing tight and squeezing those sticks. Jonas Hiller is outplaying Nabokov and the Sharks are being out coached as well. Unless this changes the Sharks are dead in the water.

Thats Allsports take on things so far.

“No Guts No Glory”

Walt Webb