Playoffs, Night Two Revisited

So last night, there were only three games to pay attention to, and only two of them were at the same time, but I still had a hard time! Get this: I LIVE in Buffalo, and it took me ten minutes just to find the channel that was showing the Sabres- Bruins game. Ugh. All that aside, I did have a very enjoyable time watching the games, though one of them was a shocker.

Sabres beat Bruins 2-1, take 1-0 lead.

Low-scoring, as I suspected. A little bit boring in the third, yeah. But it's great to see the Sabres get off to an early start, just for the benefit of seeing all those devoted fans celebrating not only in HSBC Arena, but in the tent outside. When they say "standing room only" in Buffalo, they MEAN it. Ryan Miller was his usual sharp self, as was Tuukka Rask despite allowing more goals. And while it got scrappy... why wouldn't it? It's the playoffs!

Canadiens beat Capitals 3-2 (OT), take 1-0 lead.

WOW. I mean it. WOW. Ovechkin was very much a non-factor in this one, and the Habs did what they had to do to keep the game close and eventually beat the #1 seed in OT. Yes, it is just the first game of the series, but if possible the Habs have made a statement: we're here to play, just like Washington is. The Caps are gonna have to buckle down to prove that they're not going to turn out to be the San Jose Sharks of the East. P.S. How about the trash talk going down between both teams?

Canucks beat Kings 3-2 (OT), take 1-0 lead.

This was to be expected, even if the Kings got to a 1-0 lead in the first period. Vancouver's a tough team to play, and they outshot and outplayed the Kings for much of the game. However, Jonathan Quick held up there for a while and the fact that they're such a young team and kept it from being a blowout helps things.

Tonight, it goes like this...

(7) Nashville at (2) Chicago, 8:30 p.m.

The final Game One of this round. I have no idea why they started it so late, but oh well. It should be good. The Blackhawks won this series 4-2 but haven't played the Predators in months, though they're division rivals. The Hawks haven't lost in regulation in seven, but the Preds shouldn't be overlooked- they have strong goaltending with Pekka Rinne, though they'll need to deal with a dangerous Chicago offense. As for Antti Niemi, well... he'll need to keep from allowing soft goals so often.

Ottawa at Pittsburgh (Ottawa leads 1-0), 7:00 p.m. - the last game was high-scoring... look for more of the same.

Philadelphia at New Jersey (Philly leads, 1-0), 7:30 p.m.- maybe a goalie change? Martin Brodeur was not at his sharpest, and perhaps Jacques Lemaire will go for a lineup shakeup.

Detroit at Phoenix (Phoenix leads 1-0), 10:00 p.m. - Detroit will need stronger special teams, particularly the penalty kill, against the Coyotes, while Phoenix will need to keep winning faceoffs and peppering Jimmy Howard.

Colorado at San Jose (Colorado leads 1-0), 10:30 p.m.- The outcome of Game One should be a wake-up call for the Sharks, who have tons of pressure on now while Colorado should be looking to just keep this momentum going on the road.

FIVE GAMES! Wow. I'm going to be paying the most attention to Chicago-Nashville, Philly-New Jersey and Detroit-Phoenix, though all of these series are great to watch. Something tells me I'm going to be crawling out of bed to do tomorrow's blog post. Well, that's the playoffs for ya.