Second Night Of Playoffs Begin

Three new series kick off tonight while one proceeds to the second game in as many nights. Starting in the East, the top-seeded Montreal Canadiens take on the injury-plagued Boston Bruins. Although Patrice Bergeron has been cleared to practice it is unlikely he will be ready for the first few games of the series which could be detrimental to the Bruins playoff success. The Canadiens come in with a rookie goaltender backstopping them and young talent spread throughout the line-up. People have been drawing comparisons to the Patrick Roy era in regards to Price but hockey has changed much since those days. Can he carry this team or will the offence be enough to get by the first round? Only time will tell.

Now to the West where also the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings face the new-look Nashville Predators. Detroit seems to be the same-old dominating puck possession team with sufficient goaltending but will it be enough? Meanwhile, the Nashville Predators have been stripped of many top-notch players in the passed year, yet find themselves still in the playoffs in a very competitive Western conference. Many experts are speculating that this series could be the biggest upset all playoffs, but that is the case every year with the Red Wings due to their dominance of the regular season each year.

Even further West, we have the Flames and Sharks facing off again at the HP Pavillion. The eventual game-winning goal last night came at the expense of a Brian Campbell misplay at the Calgary blueline where Jarome Iginla powered himself to the net and Stephane Yelle completed the play with a very controversial goal. The net appeared to come off its moorings at about the same time as the puck crossed the goal line, fortunately for the Flames the goal stood and they lead the series 1-0.

Finally, the Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks match up in which looks to be the biggest goaltending duel of the first round. The Stars won the season series 5-3 but that was before the additions of the trade deadline and the returning Philippe Boucher. Brad Richards looks to lead another team to the Stanley Cup Finals, now for the Stars, while the Ducks look to be the first team to repeat championships since the Detroit Red Wings in 1997-1998.