The “never say never” factor is perhaps the most resplendent quality of the Stanley Cup playoffs. It’s easy to jot numbers and names into a bracket and look at the usual suspects of determining factors, but nothing is said and done until the teams settle it on the ice.
And this year has lived up to the billing. The tournament is less than a fortnight old and teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, San Jose Sharks, and Detroit Red Wings are bound for warm climates and freshly-mown fairways. The defending Western Conference champion Vancouver Canucks are teetering on the brink of elimination and the Boston Bruins – who hoisted the Cup less than a year ago – need a win today in the national’s capital to play another game. And it’s still the first round.
Most of the aforementioned teams will tell you their early exits are equal parts stunning and wickedly disappointing. The Bruins went the better part of five weeks in November-December while losing just once (and it was in a shootout), and the Red Wings strung together 23 consecutive home victories in the meat of the regular season schedule. What does this say? It makes me think of an old golf adage: it’s not how you drive, it’s how you arrive.
Which of these teams would qualify as “most shocking” to depart in the opening round?
PITTSBURGH
A team that was loaded for bear and happened to get Sidney Crosby back in time for the playoffs – and had one of the game’s best players (Evgeni Malkin) spending the year tearing up NHL defenses. What happened to these guys? Conventional wisdom was the first-round matchup between the Penguins and Flyers would be such an emotional donnybrook that the winner would be a depleted bunch in the second round. I don’t buy into that, especially considering most of the discussion focused on the offensive outpouring from both sides. But should it be that surprising? The Penguins (3.33) and Flyers (3.17) finished 1-2 in goals per game in the regular season, and were 17th and 20th in goals-against, respectively.
Marc-Andre Fleury (12th) and Ilya Bryzgalov (21st) didn’t light up NHL goals-against statistics in the regular season and certainly didn’t in the playoffs. The Penguins were supposed to be the team defiant to controversy and one that plays its game with aplomb; yet the Flyers managed to rattle their cage and force Pittsburgh into costly penalties, and take advantage of poor goaltending. The Penguins are no longer participating in these playoffs because they allowed eight goals in a game twice and had home-ice advantage taken away when they blew a 3-0 first period lead in Game 1. Crosby was a non-factor in the six-game series and Pittsburgh was so desperate and depleted on defense that Simon Despres and Brian Strait suited up.
BOSTON
While they haven’t been officially eliminated at the time I wrote this, the defending champions are in a tenuous spot and must win at Verizon Center to force Game 7. Let’s say they are eventually knocked out: is there another team with a more perplexing first-round loss, and to an equally perplexing Washington Capitals team, no less? Aside from one incident involving Nicklas Backstrom, the series between Washington and Boston has been hockey at its best: two teams with no fondness for the other and two goaltenders doing everything possible to keep their teammates in the battle. One of those netminders (Tim Thomas) has a Stanley Cup ring, the other (22-year-old Braden Holtby) has a decorated AHL resume with the powerhouse Hershey Bears.
But the second-seeded Bruins have not played well at home in this series and lost a pivotal Game 5 by letting Troy Brouwer lead a power-play rush opportunity, and finish off the game-winner in the closing minutes of regulation. Keep in mind, this is a Capitals team that barely found its way into the playoffs and has Mike Green finally contributing after just one point in 22 games after the All-Star break.
Thomas has not been particularly sharp in the series, but can you really fault him for this mess?
EDIT: Boston’s 4-3 overtime win today in D.C. means there’s a Game 7 on Wednesday night. But my points remain.
SAN JOSE
Where to start? I picked the Sharks to bounce the St. Louis Blues in six games to kick off the postseason, but that since gone up in flames. Todd McLellan’s team has plenty of room to improve, and several of its weaknesses were exposed by the tactical approach of Blues coach Ken Hitchcock. They wanted Vladimir Sobotka and Jamie Langenbrunner to match up against Patrick Marleau’s line as much as possible, and Marleau was nowhere to be found in the six games. Antti Niemi is a solid goalie, but no goaltender can withstand the recurring defensive meltdowns committed by the Sharks – only augmented by the opportunistic nature of the Blues. Unfortunately, this is an annual conversation: is there something missing in San Jose? Who will take the fall for yet another early exit from the Stanley Cup tournament? The thinking around the NHL is McLellan won’t have his job for long, but I’m not sure that changes anything. Yes, captain Joe Thornton was their best player in the series and probably gave the Sharks more than they expected. But there’s no excusing the no-shows by Joe Pavelski, Marleau, Ryane Clowe, Martin Havlat (one game-winner) and others.
San Jose had to get the most out of its stars because this was not the deepest Sharks club, despite GM Doug Wilson adding Daniel Winnik and T.J. Galiardi from Colorado. Think the Sharks could have used someone like Jamie McGinn against St. Louis?
But in all seriousness, tonight’s game will be entertaining and full of energy — and I look to the Blue Jackets first, who feel they have a lot to prove in this contest especially given the results of the previous two.
