Unpredictable.
That's the best word to describe the Stanley Cup playoffs year in and year out. While some favorites move on, others are sure to fall by the wayside and allow underdogs the chance to earn championship rings. No matter what teams advance to the later rounds, their path is never easy and is always full of surprises.
This year is no exception, with 12 opening−round games going past regulation, including a Game 5 triple−overtime thriller between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Ottawa Senators. Grinder Matt Carkner picked up the winning goal for the Senators to force a sixth game, in which the defending Stanley Cup−champion Penguins eliminated Ottawa in its own building. Pascal Dupuis scored halfway through the first overtime thanks to hard work in the corner by Jordan Staal, lifting Pittsburgh to its third straight conference semifinals.
However, the biggest surprise from the East was that the last team to qualify for the playoffs, the seventh−seeded Philadelphia Flyers, was the first club to clinch a semifinal matchup.
Flyers goaltender Brian Boucher saw his first playoff action as a starter in 10 years during his first stint with the Broad Street Bullies. It was in those 2000 playoffs that Boucher lost to the New Jersey Devils in seven games, en route to the Devils' second−ever Stanley Cup trophy. This time around, Boucher stood on his head all series long, and the Flyers' revamped defensive core, led by grizzled veteran Chris Pronger, helped to shut down the Devils, leading to a five−game upset of second−seeded New Jersey.
Devils netminder Martin Brodeur, who holds the NHL record for most regular season wins, picked up his 99th career playoff victory in Game 2 but will have to wait until next year to try to reach that magic number 100. The Devils scored more than two goals only once in the series, giving Brodeur little offensive help along the way.
The Flyers' special teams unit stole the show, posting an impressive 27.6 percent power−play conversion rate and an even better 87.5 percent penalty−kill rate. Last year, both the Flyers and the Devils were eliminated in the first round by the Penguins and the Carolina Hurricanes, respectively.
In the West, the top−seeded San Jose Sharks have clinched a second−round spot after a hard−fought series against the Colorado Avalanche. The Sharks, who lost an embarrassing series to the last−seed Anaheim Ducks in the first round last year, didn't earn a lead in regulation over the Avalanche until Game 4. That being said, San Jose managed to pull off two clutch overtime victories that helped it clinch the series. In what was one of the most physical series of the playoffs thus far, several side stories developed that earned the attention of hockey fans everywhere.
Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle, who won gold with Team Canada in the Vancouver Olympics just a few months ago, took the blame for a 1−0 overtime loss to the Avalanche in Game 3. Boyle attempted to make a pass to his defense partner behind the San Jose net, but the puck deflected off of the stick of Colorado's Ryan O'Reilly and slid right past Evgeni Nabokov, ending the game and leaving spectators everywhere stunned.
Instead of ignoring the media and getting down on himself, Boyle answered all reporters' questions with great poise and maturity, and he acknowledged that bad breaks happen and must not define a series.
Without missing a step, Boyle opened the scoring just a minute into the Sharks' next game and notched the tying goal late in the third period of Game 6. Aside from Boyle's blunder in overtime, the biggest story coming out of San Jose has been the emergence of Joe Pavelski as Mr. Clutch.
In Game 2, Pavelski scored with 32 seconds left in regulation to knot the score at 5−5 and send the game into overtime, where the Sharks outlasted the Avalanche thanks to a power−play goal by Devin Setoguchi. Two games later, Pavelski notched an overtime−winner of his own when he fired a screened wrist shot past Colorado goalie Craig Anderson halfway through the extra stanza. Finally, with the series on the line, the U.S. Olympian scored twice in Game 6, including the game−winner in the final period to eliminate the Avalanche and propel San Jose into the second round.
In addition to the exciting series that have already ended, the fourth−seeded Phoenix Coyotes and fifth−seeded Detroit Red Wings will battle in a winner−takes−all Game 7 tonight in Arizona. The 'Yotes managed to stave off elimination with a decisive 5−2 victory at Joe Louis Arena on Sunday, forcing tonight's matchup to decide who will move on to the conference semifinals.
The Stanley Cup playoffs never follow analysts' expectations or predictions, and the regular season statistics of each club are generally discarded come April and May. Favorites are only favorites on paper, and the players on the ice are the only ones who will decide who takes home the hardware at the end of the day.
