NHL playoffs round one update: Blackhawks face the broom
After five days and nights of action, we already find one team on the brink of being eliminated from the 2011 NHL playoffs. Following Sunday’s 3-2 loss in Chicago, the Blackhawks now stand one game away from being given the broom treatment by the Canucks.
But before they drop the puck on Tuesday night however, we will know if Vancouver will be without the services of Raffi Torres who delivered a ferocious shot to the head of Brent Seabrook behind the Chicago goal. Torres was playing his first game since returning from a four-game suspension after a similar hit on Edmonton’s Jordan Eberle.
Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville certainly thinks Torres deserves more time to sit and think about what he has done. After the game he said, “I thought it was a major [penalty] live and after seeing the replay, clearly”.
Either way, the Fat Lady may be delivering her first performance of the spring tomorrow night in the windy city.
Elsewhere around the league…a pair of other teams will look to go up three games to none in their series tonight. The Montreal Canadiens have taken a 2-0 lead on the Boston Bruins behind Carey Price’s 65 saves on 66 shots performance in the first two games. It took the Bruins 87:38 to finally slip one past the Habs netminder, Patrice Bergeron doing the honors for Boston.
Meanwhile, the Big Red Borg travel to Arizona for games three and four after taking the initial pair of games back in Detroit. The Coyotes just fell short of their comeback bid Saturday, losing 4-3 after surrendering four goals to the Wings in the first 21:11.
Tonight’s action will also include game three of the Penguins vs. Lightning and Sabres vs. Flyers series. Both of those are knotted at one game each.
Elsewhere, the Rangers won their all-important game three with the Washington Capitals Sunday afternoon to close the gap on the Caps. Game four is Wednesday night and New York will look to tie that series up.
Back out west, the Kings bounced back from their overtime loss to San Jose and blanked the Sharks 4-0 in game two. Jonathan Quick stopped all 34 shots he face Saturday night to earn his first NHL playoff shutout. That series now heads to L.A. for the next two games.
And the Nashville / Anaheim series is turning out to be as much fun to watch as I thought it’s be. Last night the Predators made Mike Fisher’s goal halfway through the third period stand up as they fought off the Ducks. They take a 2 games to 1 lead into game four on Wednesday evening.
AHL Schedule Modifications
Here’s something else to discuss if you wish. Last week the AHL Board of Governors approved modifications to the league’s schedule and playoff format. Starting this fall, teams will play 76 games. Each team will lose two home and two away games.
Eliminated are any possibly scenarios where four games would be played in a five-day period.
Also, the first round of next year’s AHL playoffs will be a best of five series, instead of a best of seven.
AHL President and CEO Dave Andrews explained the reasoning behind these modifications saying, “As our league has grown and our game has become faster and more physical, the wear and tear on our players has begun to affect player development and at times the quality of competition. These steps are intended to provide a safer environment for our players through increased rest and recovery time, and also to provide our fans with an even higher caliber of play as a result of reduced player fatigue.”
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128 comments Add your comment
Tom
April 19th, 2011
4:58 pm
Now a brutal question. If the league has a decade long television deal, what is the benefit for keeping the team in Atlanta?
I desperately want the team to remain here. It would gut my family as we are devoted fans.
However one of the biggest rationales that was floated on why the NHL would not move the Thrashers was because of negotiating the television deal. That went off the table today.
World Be Free
April 19th, 2011
5:04 pm
Badger-summer yes!, winter-no unless you ski!
Tom-you wonder if a guarentee was given to the networks that the team in Atlanta will stay there; you think?
Tom
April 19th, 2011
5:06 pm
WBF – I hope so. I really, really hope so.
Red Light
April 19th, 2011
5:09 pm
While in the grand scheme of things the Atlanta TV market boasts great numbers, I’m not sure it’s exactly a bargaining chip. Timmins, Ont. (population 43,000) has more people watching hockey on a nightly basis than we do.
World Be Free
April 19th, 2011
5:22 pm
Red Light-ever been to Timmins? Not much to do there 10 mos of the year except watch hockey and hope another Shania Taiwan comes walking down the dirt road.
Potential for greater viewership is here in Atlanta, especially in a city where better than 50% of the population is from the northern states and/or Canada.
Badger Bob
April 19th, 2011
5:42 pm
What do you do in Timmins the other two months?? Swat flies is my guess.
Red Light
April 19th, 2011
7:18 pm
So far, my fishing trip has led to the following “catches”
Keepers: Burmistrov, Byfuglien, Dvorak, Enstrom, Hainsey, Kane, Ladd, Little, Pavelec, Stuart, Thorburn, Wheeler
Optional stringer: Boulton, Meyer
Bait fish: Antropov, Bogosian, Mason, Oduya, Stewart, Slater
Developmental Pond: Cormier, Maxwell, Zubarev
Tossed ‘em back: Schremp, Stapleton
Red Light
April 19th, 2011
7:49 pm
A good summer of spawning and no buyers leads me to move Antropov back among the keepers for now, but the other five have been dealt to another fish processor, freeing up about $8-9 million in the boat.
With the newly discovered monies, I made the following offers to two free agents: 6 years at an average cap hit of $4.45 million to 25-year-old defenseman Keith Yandle of Phoenix/Winnipeg; and 4 years at an average cap hit of $1.55 million to 24-year-old defenseman Michael Sauer of the Rangers.
The trades allowed me to acquire 25-year-old RFA forward Lauri Korpikoski from Phoenix/Winnipeg (signed him to a 3-year deal at $1.5 million per season) and 23-year-old RFA forward Patrik Berglund from St. Louis (signed him to four-year deal at $2.25 million per season).
So, I took on $9.75 million in salary but added players 25-and-under, have sacrificed a couple of future first-round picks but have the defensive pairings and line options I wanted. And, now I have two PP and PK units I need going forward.
Red Light
April 19th, 2011
8:00 pm
Depth Chart…
Center: • Little • Berglund • Burmistrov • TBD
Wing: • Ladd • Kane • Korpikoski • Thorburn
Wing: • Wheeler • Antropov • Dvorak • TBD
Defensive Pairings
• Byfuglien & Enstrom
• Yandle & Hainsey
• Stuart & Sauer
1st PP Unit: • Ladd • Berglund • Wheeler • Buff * Yandle
2nd PP Unit: • Kane • Little • Antropov • Enstrom • Sauer
1st PK Unit: • Dvorak • Burmistrov • Yandle • Hainsey
2nd PK Unit: • Korpikoski • Thorburn • Enstrom • Stuart
Hopefully, the two TBD will come from a UFA signing or Cormier, Machacek, Klingberg, etc.
Obviously, it’s still a work in progress. Who’s next?
Brendan
April 19th, 2011
8:03 pm
I’m rushed right now, Red Light, but I’d kinda like to keep Schremp. I see some potential there. And he won’t cost diddly squat. Stapleton … I saw a few glimmers, but no enough to sustain my interest. Also, I have to believe Dvorak is gone. If he wants to stay, then he adds value to our PK unit, but at price of less offensive production. Boulton I’d could go either way. If Matt Cooke could just control himself, and not put our PK unit out there all the time, he’d be a nice upgrade to Boulton. Check his stats. Boulton’s career-best was this year, with six goals. Cooke has, eight times (8x) in his career, potted ten (10) or more goals in a season. He’s also a +50 in his career. The issues are his age and his control/reputation. He’s under contract for $1.8 million, which Red Light said we’d have to hike up salaries a bit, which is way more than Boulton makes. Cooke his the open market in the summer of 2013. It’s risky, but it’s an upgrade. Cooke also has 13 career playoff goals, and has played in 76 postseason games. Boulton has 27 career goals in the NHL, and has played in 4 playoff games. Boulton makes $650,000. Cooke makes $1.8 million. What would Pittsburgh take for him? How ’bout a “Hardy ‘thank you’ and a handshake,” with the infamous ‘future considerations’ tag. Cooke does have 126 career goals in the regular season.
Brendan
April 19th, 2011
8:04 pm
Trixie, I’m in SPAM filters.
World Be Free
April 19th, 2011
8:54 pm
Red Light-I do like your “plan” sure beats what we have seen for 11 seasons. What the heck, might at well role the dice if we can get the $$$ to do the deals. You gotta spend money to make money, that’s been stated several times on this blog over the last 2 seasons. Think you can save some $$$ for NHL depth?
World Be Free
April 19th, 2011
8:56 pm
One more thing for the shopping list-a top-flight enforcer, looks like the NHl is still not serious about cheap shots. Need a Tony Twist-type thumper to keep the peace.
Great seeing “Magnum Force” on TCM tonight. Family entertainment, 1973-style.
ZAvalanche
April 20th, 2011
1:37 am
Holy @#$^%^&^$#$%#, I can’t believe SJ came back from a 4-0 deficit to win that.
World Be Free
April 20th, 2011
5:30 am
Maybe saved McLellen’s job with that win. I think Todd is a good coach, but it is tough to figure out the mentality of the San Jose locker room. All starts and ends with Joe Thornton.
Cliff Fletcher
April 20th, 2011
7:15 am
congratulations to the nhl for the new tv deal with versus/nbc, if for no other reason then being able to tell espn to stick it!
Fan from Carolina
April 20th, 2011
7:41 am
Saw the Kunitz elbow. One Game?? Let’s just imagine if that was Downie delivering the same hit to Crosby. One game??
Red Light
April 20th, 2011
7:51 am
Incredible night in those two playoff games. Hawks showed a lot of mettle in front of their home crowd and destroyed the Canucks, while the inexplicable occurred in LA. Down 4-0, the Sharks rallied with three straight goals in the second period, gave up the fifth goal and then scored twice more before the end of the period. Smoothie’s Setouguchi got the game winner in OT. Worth watching the highlights of that one!
Cliff: With NBC Universal and Comcast merger, the US hockey market is now squarely in their corner and virtually cuts off all but Fox’s regional networks for local broadcasts. In the future, you’ll see more games on Comcast’s regional networks too. I hope it works out for all concerned because they are monopolizing the NHL broadcasts. Has to be good for all the clubs.
Cliff Fletcher
April 20th, 2011
8:00 am
r/l-just great to see espn eat dust after the crappy deal they offer the league after the kockout season. i hope espn has their day someday, sorry to see fox fall back, i was hoping they would take espn head-on.
Joe Friday
April 20th, 2011
8:37 am
Hawks are probably too far out of it already to come all the way back, but man was that game fun to watch. How does Bieksa not get the instigator with under 5 left, he should be out of tomorrow’s nights game. Refs did a pretty good job of keeping a lid on it, but they blew that one. I was shocked to see the Sharks came back to win that. Niemi was a sieve in the 1st period. Shows how tremendous that Hawks lineup was last year to overcome his shaky goaltending. Kings aren’t out of it still, Nittymaki can be hot and cold as well.
Great TV contract for the league, helps stabilize things a bit but up goes the cap, no? Which digs us a deeper hole to compete against the big spenders and will give those cap stressed teams some room to keep guys that we could’ve poached.
Hockey Biltong
April 20th, 2011
9:10 am
Next Canucks/Hawks game will be very chippy….
Agree on the Kunitz comment. He might as well have been trying to deliver a haymaker!!!
Red Light
April 20th, 2011
9:17 am
It has been bandied about that the cap could rise to $62.4 million and the floor would be around $46 million.
ZAvalanche
April 20th, 2011
9:21 am
RL, yes, that was an awesome night of hockey. I still think the ‘Nucks will win the series but a good butt whoopin can sometimes be a good thing for a team. I was hanging with a buddy watching the SJ LA game and we were ready to turn it off when all of a sudden I come down from getting another soda (and yes, it was just a soda) and to my surprise, it was game ON! That was a thriller to watch but I know it was quite a late finish for you all in the East.
Tom Lysiak
April 20th, 2011
9:32 am
I noticed our old friend Ben Eager had 3 shifts last night, and was a -2. TOI was 1:07.
Smoothie
April 20th, 2011
9:35 am
R/L – with all due respect big guy, no way in hell does Mark Chipman not spend enough of Thompson’s money to match ANY contract that is dangled in front of him via an offer sheet. But I do like the Lauri Korpikoski idea, very fast and versatile. So do you really think the NYR will let Sauer get away that easy? Kid’s a player!
Rawhide
April 20th, 2011
9:35 am
NHL Playoffs Round One Update: Blackhawks Don’t Fear The Reaper!
Alan R.
April 20th, 2011
10:32 am
The always funny Down Goes Brown has done some searching, in light of the recent suspensions and non-suspensions, and dug up an updated map of the NHL playing surface.
http://www.downgoesbrown.com/2011/04/official-map-of-nhl-rink.html
Moe
April 20th, 2011
2:49 pm
Will the Sharks play Nittymaki for the rest of the playoff series? I hope the coach makes that mistake and replaces Niemi, it will breath liife into the current LA corpse..!