The first round of the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs is in the books and an entertaning first round it was. Three series went the distance a few suspensions had to be handed out and a few upsets took place. We will kick things off with the East and the 1-8 between Ottawa and the Rangers.
This series ended up needing to go the full seven games before the Rangers finally knocked off Ottawa to advance to round two. This was a good series to watch for the fact it was back and forth the entire series and a pair of Overtime games too, both of which were won by Ottawa, game two was a 3-2 win and game four, also a 3-2 senators win. One of the staples of tjhis series was physical play espically in the first few games, and involving ranger Defenseman Brian Boyle. The head coach of the Senators, Paul MacLean, responded to New York's checking center Brian Boyle roughing with defenseman Erik Karlsson in Game 1 by adding enforcers Zenon Konopka and Matt Carkner for Game 2 Konopka harried Boyle as he conducted a live TV interview during the pre-game warm-ups, earning himself and his club fines. In addition, Carkner immediately attacked Boyle at the beginning of the game resulting in a five-minute major and game misconduct. The Rangers' Brandon Dubinsky was also ejected as the third man in on the altercation; he threw a Gatorade cooler as he exited. Carkner received a one-game suspension for fighting an unwilling player. An unrelated incident in that same game resulted in New York's rookie skater Carl Hagelin receiving a three-game suspension for elbowing Ottawa's captain Daniel Alfredsson, prompting a question of ruling consistency by the New York Rangers. The series has featured the NHL debuts of three players – Chris Kreider for the Rangers in Game 3, Mark Stone for the Senators in Game 5, and Jakob Silfverberg for the Senators in Game 6. So as you can see this was a bit of a chippy series to start.
But as the series wore on it started to become more evenly played. Every game in the series was decided by 2 goals or less. Craig Anderson, the Senators starting goalie, and Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers starter, each had a shutout in the series. Anderson shut the Rangers out 2-0 in game five at MSG while Lundqvist shut out Ottawa 1-0 in game three. The teams kept trading wins the entire series before the Rangers were able to take the last two games of the series and knock out the Senators. Jason Spezza led the senators in scoring with 5 points on 3 goals and 2 assists followed by Sergei Gonchar and Nick Foligno with 4 points each. The surprise was the fact that Daniel Alfredson was held to only two goals as his only points in the series. Granted he was injured with a concussion through part of the series, that's still a bit low ofr Alfie. And another surprising fact was that Erik Karlsson registered only one point, a goal, in the series despite taking 31 shots in the seven games. Karlsson had 78 points during the regular season. As for the Rangers, Brad Richards led the team with 5 points followed by 4 points each coming from Derek Stepan Dan Girardi, Anton Stralman, and Ryan Callahan. The difference between the two clubs in this series was the fact that the Rangers were the deeper and more balanced team then the Senators. Yes I will give Ottawa credit for winning two games in OT and forcing the Rangers to go seven games, but they just got outworkd at the end of the day. And as of last night the Rangers are 4-0 all time in Game 7's in the playoffs.
Next up is the 2-7 matchup in the east The Bruins against the Capitals. This was another series that went a full 7 games and shockingly the Bruins were upset by the Capitals as Washington beat the big bad B's in 7.This was the first ever playoff series in NHL history in which all seven games were decided by only one goal. In addition, four of these games were decided in overtime. Rookie Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, who started in place of injured regulars Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth, allowed only two goals in the first two games, matching his Bruins counterpart Tim Thomas. Thomas recorded a shutout in Boston's 1-0 overtime victory in Game 1. Capitals forward Nicklas Backstrom was suspended for Game 4 after his post-game cross-check on Bruins forward Rich Peverley in the Bruins' 4–3 win in Game 3. Even without Backstrom, the Capitals evened the series with a 2–1 victory in Game 4. Washington's Troy Brouwer then scored the winning goal on a power play with 1:27 left in regulation of Game 5. Boston then extended the series with Tyler Seguin's score in overtime of Game 6. But Washington's Joel Ward scored in overtime to give Washington a 2–1 victory in Game 7 and eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion Bruins. With Washington's victory in the series, Holtby became just the third rookie goaltender in NHL history to defeat the reigning Stanley Cup champions.
Joel Ward of the Capitals has had a tendency to score an overtime winner in the playoffs as he did that in game two of the West Semifinals last year while playing for Nashville against the Vancouver Canucks. Rich Peverley and Andrew Ferrance led the Bruins in scoring with 5 and 4 points respectivly. The suprising thing about this was that both Patrice Bergeron and Nathan Horton, two of the scoring hero's from last years playoff run by Boston, were held in check for the whole series. Bergeron had only 2 assists and Horton didn't play due to injuries. As for the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin led them in scoring with 5 points while Brooks Laich had 4. Every Caps player who dressed in this series had at least one point except for two guys, Jeff Schultz and Mathieu Perreault who were held off the sheet. The Caps seemed to have a more balanced attack then Boston did in this round, a surprisng fact considering the Bruins were one of the more balanced scoring teams in the east this season.
Next up is the 3-6 matchup wich was the Devils and Panthers in another very entertaning series. In the first two games of the series, the winner scored the first three goals. In Game 1, Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur won his 100th career playoff game, only the second netminder after Patrick Roy to do so, as New Jersey won 3–2. The Panthers' 4–2 win in Game 2 was their first playoff win since April 17, 1997, and ended a streak of nine straight defeats in a 15-year span. Game 3 saw both starting goaltenders pulled from the game. Florida's Jose Theodore surrendered three goals in the first period before being replaced by Scott Clemmensen, appearing in only his second playoff game. Brodeur was then pulled after the Panthers rallied to tie the game in the second period en route to 4–3 win. This was the first time since Game 1 of the 2006 Eastern Conference Semifinals against the Carolina Hurricanes that Brodeur was pulled in a postseason game, which ironically marked Clemmensen's playoff debut. Brodeur bounced back in Game 4 and broke another one of Roy's records with his 24th career playoff shutout, as the Devils beat the Panthers, 4–0. But Theodore responded with his second career postseason shutout, as the Panthers took a 3–2 series lead with a 3–0 victory in Game 5. The Devils then tied the series and forced a Game 7 with Travis Zajac's winning goal 5:39 into the overtime. And just as in the previous contest Game 7 also needed extra time. This one went into double overtime when Adam Henrique won the game and ended the series just over three minutes into the 2nd overtime period.
Sean Bergenheim led the Panthers in scoring with six points. As for the Devils Travis Zajac led the team with 6 points followed by Ilya Kovalchuck and Zach Parise with 5 points each. What was so surprising about this series was the number of lead changes in a few of the games. First in game one the Devils had a 3-0 lead and were able to hold on for a 3-2 win. Then it happened again in game three with the Devils taking a 3-0 lead before losing 4-3. I have to admit this series was a fun one to watch because it was a baack and forth series and the Panthers reall did show me something in this series. I thought honestly this would have been a cake walk for the Devils. But the Panthers showed me something and impressed me in this series, and after what I saw in this, if the Panthers can keep this team in tact they will be a playoff contender for a while to come.
Finally its the 4-5 matchup in the East as it was the Flyers and Penguins in by far the most physical series in the playoffs in recent memory. The series went six games and was won by the Flyers, who basically put a beating on the Penguins over the six games. Pittsburgh struggled defensively, giving up eight goals in each of Games 2 and 3. The Penguins did however score 10 goals in their Game 4 win, becoming the first team to do so in a playoff game since the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings scored 12 in the 1990 Smythe Division Semifinals against the Calgary Flames. The Flyers' goaltending flaws resurfaced in that game, with neither Ilya Bryzgalov nor Sergei Bobrovsky able to stop the Penguins' torrid shooting. Again facing elimination, Pittsburgh went on to win Game 5, 3–2, in the lowest scoring game of the series. But Philadelphia rebounded to eliminate Pittsburgh in Game 6 by the score of 5–1. Game 3 was overshadowed by a flurry of penalties drawn between the two teams, reminiscent of their penultimate regular season meeting on April 1. Three Penguins players drew suspensions. Arron Asham was suspended four games for a cross-check on Brayden Schenn, Craig Adams was suspended one game for instigating a fight, and James Neal was suspended one game for charging Claude Giroux. Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma was fined $10,000 because of Adams' instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the game. The 45 goals scored through the first four games set an NHL record for goals in the first four games of a seven-game series. A total of 56 goals were scored over the course of the entire series.
Claude Giroux led all playoff scorers after this series with 14 points while Jordan Staal led the Penguins with 9 points and 6 goals. The play of the series in my book was a slick pass by Jaromir Jagr:
So that takes care of coverage of the east. Now we will slide over to the western conference and the 1-98 matchup of the Canucks and Kings. Everybody thought the Canucks would dominate the series after winning the Presidents Trophy as the best team in the league, However, the Kings won the first three games of the series en route to eliminating the Canucks in five games. Vancouver struggled offensively, while Los Angeles goaltender Jonathan Quick only allowed eight goals in the series, including a shutout in Game 3. The Canucks' Byron Bitz was suspended for two games after boarding the Kings' Kyle Clifford in Game 1. Cory Schneider then replaced Roberto Luongo as Vancouver's starting goaltender for Game 3, prompting speculation that Luongo might be traded after the season. Game 4 saw the return of Vancouver's Daniel Sedin, in his first appearance since suffering a concussion on March 21. He had an assist in the Canucks' 3–1 victory in Game 4, and the team avoided becoming the first Presidents' Trophy winner to be swept in a conference quarterfinal series. However, Vancouver became the sixth Presidents' Trophy winner to lose in the first round after their 2–1 overtime loss in Game 5, the only overtime game of the series.
Henrik Sedin was the leading scorer for the Canucks in this series with 5 points and Dan Hamhuis was 2nd with three points. Daniel Sedin missed three games in the series due to injury and Roberto Luongo loook off all series before being replaced by Cory Schnider. A little less than half the Canucks skaters failed to score at least a point in the series, unlike last year when they went to the stanley cup. So now both teams from last years finals are out in the first round. As for the Kings, Dustin Brown led them in scoring with 5 points, while Jonathan Quick played rock solid in net for the Kings, further solidifying his claim for the Vezna Trophy as the leagues top goalie. The Canucks really look out of wa and off their game in this entire series and the Kings just plain jumped all over them and walked away with an easy series win.
Next up is the 2-7 matchup featuring the Blues and Sharks. This came as no surprise to anybody that the Blues walked all over the Sharks and easily walked away with the victory in five games. The Blues began the playoffs with Halak on goal, partly based on his playoff experience playing for the Montreal Canadiens. The Sharks took Game 1 off of Martin Havlat's goal in double overtime. Halak then suffered a lower-body injury early into Game 2, but Elliott picked up where Halak left off in a Blues' 3–0 shutout, and subsequently allowed only 5 total San Jose goals in St. Louis' victories in Games 3, 4, and 5 to capture the series.
The Sharks once again failed to make any noise in the playoffs. Joe Thorton led the team in scoring with 5 points and Antti Nemi has look average at best in net for the Sharks. Nemi if you remember was the playoff hero in goal for the Blackhawks when they won the stanley cup in 2010. San Jose thought by bringing him into the fold might help them get over the hill and reach the stanley cup finals and he hasn't been the answer in goal to solve the Sharks playoff troubles. I can't really come up with a solution for the Sharks in their playoff woes as of this moment in time, as I'm not really sure why the Sharks just can't seem to get it done come spring time. As for the Blues, Andy MacDonald led the team in scoring with 8 points followed by Patrik Berglund who had 7 points. With the Blues they had Jaroslav Halak but he got hurt early in the series and Brian Elliot had to finish up and did a terrific job diing it. Halak started to play back to the form that got him sent to the Blues in the first place. He had a great playoff run with the Canadians in 2010 and has seemed to regain that form before the injury. So with Halak and Elliot doing a great job pulling the tandom. The Blues have really turned their game around since Ken Hotchcok took over coaching.
Now its the 3-6 matchup of the Blackhawks and Coyotes. The Coyotes won thier first playoff series since moving to the desert beating the Hawks in six games. This became only the second playoff series in NHL history in which the first five games went into overtime, the first being the 1951 Stanley Cup Finals between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Montreal Canadiens.Games 1 and 2 both saw the Blackhawks score the tying goal with less than 30 second left in regulation. In Game 2, Chicago's Andrew Shaw was ejected, and later suspended for three games, after hitting Phoenix goalietender Mike Smith in the head. Smith laid on the ice for five minutes but remained in that game. Then in Game 3, the Coyotes' Raffi Torres hit the Blackhawks' Marian Hossa in the open ice. Although Torres left his feet, Hossa was carted out on a stretcher, and Hossa did not have the puck when Torres hit him, Torres did not receive a penalty during the game, but was later suspended for 25 games and next season's preseason games. The hit violated three rules: interference, charging, and hit to the head. Game 6 ended up being one-sided as Smith shutout the Blackhawks, 4–0, and the Coyotes won their first playoff series since moving from Winnipeg to Phoenix in 1996, and the first one in franchise history since 1987.
Finally we look at the 4-5 matchup in the West as it was the Red Wings and Predators. Nashville got the jump on the Wings in game one and never really looked back on a way to a five game series win. The Predators defeated the Red Wings in five games, with four of them each being decided by only one goal. In the final seconds of Game 1, Nashville captain Shea Weber slammed Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg's head into the glass, cracking Zetterberg's helmet. Weber was later fined $2,500 for the action with no suspension or further disciplinary action. Although the Red Wings had one of the best home records in the league during the regular season with a 31–7–3 mark, the Predators won both Games 3 and 4 on the road, Nashville's first ever playoff victories at Joe Louis Arena.
So there you have it. The first round is in the books in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. the 2nd round preview will be posted tomorrow.
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