Bruins, Rangers, Red Wings, Black Hawks Win Again

It occurred to me while watching the Boston Bruins dominate the Montreal Canadiens that so far this years playoff race is offering no real surprises with the exception of the Anaheim Ducks beating the San Jose Sharks in their first meeting.  Last night saw the Boston Bruins, the New York Rangers, the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Black Hawks all defeat their opponent to take a 2-0 lead in their respective series.

The Bruins beat Montreal 5-1 showing that they are not going to be pushed around by the Canadiens.  Constantly throughout the game Boston out hustled and out muscled Montreal at every opportunity.  Carey Price made some great saves to keep Montreal close early on but stupid penalties did the Habs in once again as the Bruins scored three power-play goals.  Bostons offense was led by Marc Savards 4 point night, he had 2 goals and added 2 assists.  The series now moves to the Bell Center in Montreal where 21,000 plus rabid fans await game 3.  The Canadiens will have to defend their home ice to have a chance at coming back and even winning the series.  There is a lot of bad blood between these two teams and I expect game 3 to be an all out battle to the end.  Also expect to see a lot of aggressive play from Montreal sprinkling in a few fights on the way.

The New York Rangers won a grind it out type of game beating the Washington Capitals 1-0.  New York got a strong performance by goalie Henrik Lundqvist who recorded his third career playoff shutout turning away all 35 shots he faced.  The Capitals have now lost six of their last eight playoff games and have dug themselves a big hole against the seventh-seeded Rangers.  Alex Ovechkin the NHL’s regular season goal scoring leader has been held scoreless so far in the playoffs.

The Detroit Red Wings continue to roll as they disposed of the Columbus Blue Jackets 4-0.  Chris Osgood collected his 14 career shutout.  Osgood is playing at a very high level right now.  The Blue Jackets have managed just one goal on 46 shots in the first two games of the series.  If Detroit keeps up this type of play they’ll be hoisting up the Stanley Cup Trophy above their heads once again come the beginning of June.  Four different Red Wings scored a goal as seven different Red Wings have now scored a goal in the series.  Only Jiri Hudler has two goals.  So now the series shifts to Columbus, you better believe the Blue Jackets will be ready to host their first ever playoff game.  Expect Columbus to put up a fight but ultimately the Red Wings should prevail.

The Flames continued their slumping ways last night.  Calgary rushed out to a 2-0 lead early in the 1st period but then the Black Hawks scored 3 unanswered 2nd period goals to win by a score of 3-2.  Chicago is getting awesome goaltending from netminder Nikolai Khabibulin.  With the win the Hawks took a 2-0 lead in the series.  Chicago fans are definitely feeling playoff fever grip the city.  What a great season this extremely young team has had so far and they’re showing that they still have some unfinished business to achieve their goal of winning it all.