Monday Morning Musings With Me "The Big E": Looking at the Worlds and More

Toronto Maple Leafs goalie Jonas Gustavsson made 32 saves for team Sweden en route to a 3-1 defeat over a mostly lethargic team Canada on Sunday afternoon.

The "Monster" is 2-1 so far in these 2010 IIHF World Hockey Championships. His impressive 94.51 save percentage and 1.67 goals-against is only good enough to rank him eighth in the tournament though.

Nikolai Kulemin is almost on a point per game pace at these championships. With two goals and two assists in five games for team Russia, he is a plus-four so far in the tournament and  just four points behind the tournament leader Brandon Dubinsky of Team USA.

Sweden, Russia, and Switzerland are the teams that have a place in Thursday's quarter-finals. The top four teams in the two groups make it to the quarter-finals where they will crossover and the play the other group (No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3).

Russia is the top team, winning all four games and having 12 points (three points per win). Canada is third in their group with six points after falling 3-1 to Sweden on Sunday.

Carl Gunnarsson and Rickard Wallin have both had strong tournaments for Sweden. Gunnarsson has recorded two points with a plus-three rating while averaging 12:48 of ice time. Wallin is second on the team in scoring with four assists and he also is a plus-three.

Francois Beauchemin has picked up one assist with Team Canada, while Christian Hanson has also recorded a point as Team USA tries to avoid relegation from the top level of the IIHF World Championships. The U.S. have won both their relegation games but they won't know their fate until after Tuesday's game.

Mikhail Grabovski has recorded two points, but Belarus can't advance to the quarter-finals. Despite his gritty performances, Grabo just wasn't much of a factor.

NHL Playoffs                                                 

San Jose and Montreal both find themselves one game behind in their respective series. While San Jose did play a pretty solid game Sunday afternoon, the Canadiens, who haven't advanced this far in the playoffs since the last time they won the cup in 1993, simply looked like they didn't have any kind of answer for Philadelphia and goaltender Leighton.

Montreal won't be worried, though, as their game one performances in these 2010 NHL Playoffs have gone similarly thus far.

San Jose will have to rely on a balanced scoring attack if they are to fight off a younger, faster Chicago squad.

I'll take San Jose and Montreal both advancing to the Cup finals in seven games.