Power Play and Penalty Kills are the Keys To Success
Penalties are designed to cause your team to feel some pain. That's why there's a penalty box in the NHL. For two minutes, sometimes more, your team gets to skate shorthanded against a full-strength opponent. The only thing tougher than 5-on-4 hockey, if you're shorthanded, is if your team really went on tilt and you're skating 5-on-3 hockey.
Take a look at the Boston Bruins. They have scored a power play goal one out of every four times on the power play throughout the playoffs. They've also killed better than 93% of the penalties they've faced. Is it any wonder they beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-2 in the opening round, and now lead the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 in the Conference Semi-finals? This is the balance teams need to strike in order to be successful in the playoffs.
On the flipside of that coin is why the Buffalo Sabres are watching the remainder of the playoffs instead of skating in them. They didn't score a single power play goal against the Bruins, and killed only 70% of their penalties. They gave up 5 power play goals, including two in the final game of the series, so it comes as no surprise they're no long in the hunt for Lord Stanley's Cup.
If you're like me, then you're recording the playoffs on your DVR so you can look back at your favorite moments. And if you're really paying attention, cheer for your team to keep their penalties to a minimum, kill 'em when they're shorthanded, and score when they've got the man advantage. These are the keys to winning in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Winning on the Road In The Stanley Cup Playoffs - Could it be sweeter?
If you can't win on the road in the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, you may as well hang up your skates and dust off your golf clubs.
Road wins matter almost as much as good goaltending in the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs. In just the first round alone, road teams won 28 out of 42 games or two-thirds of all games played. The Montreal Canadiens, the #8 seed in the East, took 3 out of 4 road games against the #1 seed Washington Capitals, so it really comes as no surprise that #1 is on vacation and #8 is tied in the Eastern Conference semi-finals against the #4 Pittsburgh Penguins, having already snatched one on the road.
In the Western Conference the #5 Detroit Redwings grabbed 3 out of 4 on the road against the #4 Phoenix Coyotes, which led to a 4-3 series win for the Redwings and a shot at the #1 San Jose Shark, who also took some key roadies against the #8 Colorado Avalanche.
Defense is the key to any championship in the NHL, and that's exactly how the best teams win on the road. The San Jose Sharks took 2 out of 3 on the road against the Avs, which can be traced directly to the play of Shark's keeper, Evgeni Nabokov, who has allowed less than 2 goals per game, pitched a shutout, and has a save percentage of nearly 92%.
In the NHL it's all about winning on the road and shutting down your opponents where they're most comfortable: their home ice. When this year's Cup is decided in June, I won't be the least bit surprised if I discover that the team that won it all also won the most road games and had the most productive defense in the entire league.
I'm going to spend the next couple of days watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Versus (available with some DIRECTV packages), where I get the most hockey year 'round. Ahem, thank you DIRECTV. I'll be back on Wednesday when I'll breakdown the power of the Power Play and which teams play best Short Handed.
Stanley Cup Playoffs - Nothing Beats OT Hockey
Playoff hockey is just about the most exciting sporting event to watch, live or otherwise, especially when a #8 seed beats a #1 seed. Who cares if it was a freak goal? A win is a win.
I’m not a big fan of either the #1 seeded San Jose Sharks, or the #8 seeded Colorado Avalanche, so it’s easy for me to pull for a great hockey game hoping in the end that David nips Goliath. In game #3 Sunday night in Colorado, that’s exactly what happened, even if it happened in a weird way.
First, the great game. Craig Anderson, goaltender for the Avs, stopped a whopping 51 shots on goal, beating the Sharks 1-0 in overtime. Now for the weird. San Jose’s Dan Boyle was attempting to clear the puck out of his own zone by shooting it around the dasher boards when the puck took a freak bounce and careened into his own goal, just getting past Sharks’ goaltender, Evgeni Nabokov, who was hugging the other post.
These things happen in hockey, but you’d know that if you watched the NHL through the regular season on NHL Center Ice, and into the playoffs. Now normally I wouldn't pick on people like this but I'm going to say it, if you are a hockey fan and you don't have NHL Center Ice from DISH Network, you are an amateur my friend. It's time you got with the big boys.
U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, The Game Must Go On
Unfortunately, with the winter Olympic season now at a close, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame cannot boast of an Olympic win or any of the keepsakes that may have come with it. It cannot say that it had the pleasure of adding two cases of beer to its collection of memorabilia like the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto did. The two cases, a Yuengling Lager from privately held Yuengling Beer Co. Inc. and a case of Molson Canadian from Molson Coors Brewing Co. was donated last week to the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The cases were payment from President Barack Obama who bet Harper that the U.S. men's hockey team would beat Canada in the gold medal game at the Vancouver Olympics. The taste of victory for Canada must have been sweet. The 3-2 Olympic overtime U.S. upset against Canada on February 28 still lingers in the minds of many U.S. hockey fans. It was so close. Despite the disappointment, the U.S. men's hockey team played well and had a great run. The game must go on.
The U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame is still accepting nominations from the public for the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Class of 2010. USA Hockey called last year's class one of its best classes of inductees.
