After a night where the NBA used its evening for a travel day, the NHL playoffs were still in their full glory. Here are a few thoughts from the night before.
The Calgary Flames lose to the Dallas Stars 2-0 as the Stars even up the series. This was always going to be the way Dallas had to win, grinding, physical hockey. The Flames gave the puck up 21 times against the Stars as Calgary struggled to hold up against ferocious Stars forecheck.
Jake Oettinger was the star of the night making 29 saves on the night to secure the shutout, he and the talented Star’s D core have evened up the series. Is this type of win sustainable though? Likely not.
Joe Pavelski scored the most meaningful goal of the night for the Stars and is still doing it, just defying time and being a great hockey player that shows up when it matters most, in the playoffs. The guy is something to behold, it makes sense guys like Crosby and Ovechkin with their superb skill are still at the top, but Pavelski has never been an ultra-skilled player and yet he does all the little things just well enough to be a really good hockey player.
The Flames will make adjustments and should come out flying in game 3. Calgary’s coaching staff, known as one of the strictest in the league, will not let those turnover numbers happen again and the Flames will play better.
The Rangers bought the pain in game two of the series against Pittsburgh in Maddison Square Garden. Hitting the penguins 40 times, including a controversial hit from Jeff Carter on Igor Shesterkin.
TNT analysts were convinced Shesterkin played up the hit by Carter but I err on the side of the goaltender in these situations, if you’re Carter and the puck is gone as it was at that point, then you need to pull up and away from the goal crease as fast as you can instead of hurtling towards the goaltender.
In this day and age, teammates and referees are always going to protect goaltenders. Igor, was once again incredible between the pipes making 36 saves including an incredibly athletic blocker side stop on Sidney Crosby. One of the two goals he gave up on the night only came as a result of sloppy Rangers defending as Crosby would bury a rebound on the rush.
Shesterkin closed the door in the final period and once again flexed his brilliance on display as one of the best keepers in the NHL.
The Panthers bounced back in a big way against the Caps putting up five goals on helpless Capital’s goaltending. The man in between the pipes was always going to be an issue for the Caps in this series but it really showed up in game 2.
The Caps defense didn’t help much either as Carter Verhaeghe scored the most memorable goal of the night a two-on-one back-and-forth passing play that left Caps goaltender Vitek Vanecek out to dry.
The Caps either have to go back to Ilya Samsonov full time or risk being swept out of this series, the Panther’s firepower was just far too much for the Caps in game two.