Bye Bye Capitals

Round two of the NHL playoffs are finished for the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Washington Capitals. The Capitals got swept and embarrassed by the Lightning. After placing first in the regular season in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals lost four straight games to the Lightning. The Lightning are on fire as of late, each player on there team is doing there part to help out the team. The teams leading scorer in the regular season Steven Stamkos is doing his part, helping his team out with points. He is not at his highest potential yet. Once he starts getting hot the lightning will not be able to be stopped. He is ninth on his team in scoring with six points. Alexander Ovechkin lead his team like a captain should do. He finished the playoffs with 10 points, 5 goals, and 5 assists. Only two players on the Capital roster finished with more then two goals. The other player was Alexander Semin who finished with four goals, and two assists. This was a high scoring series. In four games a combined total of 26 goals were scored. That's an average of 6.5 goals per game. The Lightning have a good offensive team, but allow to many goals to win the cup in my eyes. I predict they make it to the Cup series, but lose to the winner of the Vancouver, Nashville series.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning are probably the hottest team in hockey right now. They are on a six game winning streak, and have not lost since being down 3-1 in the Pittsburgh series. After winning tonight 4-3 the Lightning are leading the series 3-0. Only 3 teams have ever come back from a 3-0 deficit , one of those teams being the Philadelphia Flyer's who came back last year against the Boston bruins. The Lightning in my eyes will take this series in four games. I don't think Washington has enough momentum to come back. Vincent Lecavalier has scored in two of the three games against Washington, and has 5 points in the three games. Both Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis have 11 points in this years playoffs. They are both tied for 2nd place in the playoff scoring race. Only 1 point back of Philadelphia's Claude Giroux. Steve Downie and Teddy Purcell both follow up with 10, and 9 points. Steven Stamkos only has 6 points so far, and when he starts to catch fire it will only help the Lightning benefit more. With the Way they have been playing of late I wouldn't be surprised to see them competing for the Cup in the Stanley Cup finals. Once again the Capitals are going to be upset in the playoffs after wining the Eastern Conference.

End of Round 1

With the Final games of round one ending a couple up sets have been created. Montreal lost a heart breaker today in overtime. after tying the game up with less then 2 minutes left in the game off a power play goal the Canadiens were unable to hold on to the momentum.  In the second game seven of the night the Pittsburgh penguins lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning in another close 1 goal game. I picked 5 out of 8 of the series winners this year. I called each series in the Western division; calling the Nashville upset. for the second round i predict Washington, Boston, Nashville and San Jose to come out Victorious.

Canucks win

Wow! what a dramatic end to this series. Everyone thought the Canucks were going to finish this series easily after taking an early 3-0 lead. The Canucks you could say were no where to be found in games 4 and 5. In both these games Luongo got the Start. He allowed 10 goals combined in those two games and had to be pulled and replaced by Cory Schneider. The Canucks started back up goaltender Schneider in game 6 to try and change the momentum of the series back into there hands. Schneider was injured and had to be pulled in game 6, bringing Luongo back into the net as the Canucks goalie. The Canucks would eventually drop this game, and force a sudden death game 7. This brought up the question who do you start for game 7.? The Canucks would go with the guy that got them there Roberto Luongo. Game 7 did not disappoint, with all the drama this series brought u knew it would end in a dramatic way. Both teams fought hard and fought the entire game, never letting up. The Canucks had the early lead 1-0 which they fought hard to maintain. with less then 2 minutes left the Chicago Blackhawks Jonathan Toews somehow managed to score a short handed goal to tie up the game. This dramatic sudden death game 7 was going to a sudden death overtime. One goal would win the series for their team, the question was who would score it. The Blackhawks had an advantage early going on the Power play, but were only capable of getting one shot on net. Alexandre Burrows would revenge his penalty and score the series winning goal for the Vancouver Canucks. Fianlly Finishing the series for his team. With the Canucks biggest threat down can they fight throught Nashville and go all the way. I predict the Winner of the Canuck Nashville series take the cup.

San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks are the next team to join the winners market and move on to the second round of the playoffs. It took the Sharks six games to beat the LA Kings. These were six hard games. three of the games that the sharks won were games which went to overtime. Each game in the series that went to overtime the Sharks came out victorious. San Jose is the Fourth team to win there series and continue there season. Before the playoffs started I predicted the Sharks to come out on top. I am currently 4 or 4 in this years playoffs. My picks for the remaining four series are Buffalo over Philadelphia, Pittsburgh over Tampa Bay, Montreal over Boston, and Vancouver over Chicago. Each of those teams that I predicted to win have lost there previous game. Its going to be interesting to see what happens in the remainder of the 2011 playoffs.

Nashville & Vancouver

The Nashville Predators are the second team to advance to the second round in the western conference. Before the series started my prediction was for Nashville to win and they have done just that. I am 3 for 3 so far in this years NHL playoffs. The Predators  scored at least three or more goals in each of the six games to take the series 4-2 over the Anaheim Ducks. Nashville was, and still is my second choice to win the Stanley Cup. My first choice is the Vancouver Canucks. The way the Canucks are playing right now they might not make it to the second round. They have dropped the past three games and have had to use both goalies in each game. They played better today but were unfortunately still came out on the losing end in overtime. If the Canucks don't get it together they will be eliminated. The next game is due or die sudden death so it will be interesting to see how the first round ends.

Washington Capitals

The Washington Capitals are the second team to make it through to the second round of the playoffs. It is still unclear who they will be facing. They beat the NY Rangers in 5 games. Just because the series was 4-1 Washington doesn't mean they blew the Rangers out. Washington had to fight hard to win this series cause the Rangers put up a good fight. Two of the games that the Capitals won were games that went into sudden death overtime. Washington managed to come out on top for both of those game. Now the Capitals can sit back relax, and ice there bodies for the next challenger. The Capitals will be rested up for who every they face next, and might have an advantage by being able to spend more time practicing for there opponent and studying there game tapes.