Re: 2009-2010 NHL Playoffs Part 1: How will the Sharks screw it up this time?
Not really sure what the deal is with Darche over SK74...that play on the third goal was just brutal.
Montreal's D needs to continue to step up at the blue line instead of backing off (which they did on goals 5 & 6). Halak just needs to be Halak again.
Ovechkin ramping up the smack talk by saying that Halak "is nervous" and that "his hand was shaking badly while taking a drink of water" after giving up a goal.
As an aside - how great have the playoffs in general been this year? Maybe I've got a short term memory, but they just seem better than what we've had in year's past - perhaps because every game/series has been so close.
The series have been close, but there has been some poor play/odd coaching decisions. I'll give two examples.
I live in Denver and watch the Avs' games on TV, even though I am a lifelong Montreal fan. In the game the Avs lost to San Jose 6-5 in overtime, Colorado surrendered a goal in the final minute of play in the first, second and third periods. Said in slightly different wording: if Colorado had played sound defense in the final minute of
any period it would have won the contest. Yes, the team is young, but defensemen Scott Hannan and Adam Foote have been in the league for many years. Coach Joe Sacco made a mistake in not playing his two most veteran d-men in the final minute of each period to give the Avs their best chance to take a lead to the lockerroom.
Example number two. Les Habs score late in the second period to take a 4-1 lead over the Caps only to allow a critical goal to Washington shortly thereafter allowing it to go to the lockerroom down only 4-2 with a period remaining to be played. Yes, Montreal played terrible defense in the final period, but in my view, surrendering that second goal to the Caps was the turning point of the game. Regardless, an NHL team should be capable of protecting a two goal lead over a twenty minute period.
Like many fans I'm watching bits and pieces of several games rather than all the action from start to finish in any particular game. As of yet, no one team has so impressed me that I think it is head and shoulders above the rest of the teams in the playoffs. Perhaps that will change in succeeding rounds of the playoffs, but after the first week of the playoffs from my vantage point, I cannot see a clear cut favorite to win the Cup.
