Round 2 preview

Buff (99pts - 5^th) vs NYR (92pts - 8^th)

Reg season: Rangers won season 2W(1OT) – 1 L

Luongo had a hard time against the Bruins’ offensive during the first round but he was good enough in game 7 to pull it off.   Steen, Carter and Johnson all got 7 points against Boston, Steen might need to work harder on the defensive side of his game ending this series with a minus 5 differential.  Drew Doughty, Justin Faulk, Andrei Markov  and Duncan Keith will need to be more efficient as they combined for only 5 points and a poor – 10 in those 7 games.  They Sabres were really disciplined  against the Bruins getting only 8 penalties and they didn’t allow a single goal on the PK.

Ben Bishop was on top of his game against the Wings ending the series with a 2.21 GAA and a .930 save%.  Patrick Kane scored 6 times (league leader) and added 4 assists, Couture, Saad and Pacioretty all got an average of 1 or more point per game against Detroit.  Neal, Pageau and Komarov all finished that series with only one point and a minus 5.  Special teams were just good enough to win that series but will need to improve against Buffalo if they want to play in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Phi (104pts – 3^rd) vs NYI (102pts – 4^th)

Reg season: Islanders won season 3W – 2 L

The Islanders power play was 1 in 17 against the Jackets and it almost cost them the series.  Devan Dubnik had some rough starts and he’ll need to be more consistent if NY wants to beat the Stanley Cup champs.  They got goals from Dubinsky, Pavelski, Thornton and Stepan but Ribeiro and Turris didn’t generate much offense after a good regular season.

The Flyers did slow down a bit after winning the first 3 meetings of their series against the Caps, they could have won in 4 straight.  Marty Jones and 2 PP goals from the Caps switched the momentum away in game 4.  But the Flyers are back in playoffs and they still own the Cup title so be ready to fight hard to beat them.  This being said Antti Niemi will need to improve his game, he pretty much has the same numbers as he got in last year’s playoffs but the Flyers’ offensive is not as strong as what they got last season and this time goaltending might me a huge factor. With a success rate of 27% on the PP during the first round, Foligno, Bjugstad, Josi, Sharp, Kopitar, Karlsson, Hossa and Spezza will make you pay in you don’t stay away of the penalty box.

Anaheim (96pts – 3^rd) vs San Jose (87pts – 7^th)

Reg season: San Jose won season 3W – 1 L

The Ducks got their revenge on the Flames and it was a quick one, only 5 games.  The series was closer than it appears but night after night Rask was simply better than Schneider and he was the difference. Patrice Bergeron leads the entire league in playoffs with 11 points in only 5 games, Matt Moulson did a pretty good job too with 2 goals and 5 assists.  Ryan Kesler was somewhat discreet against the Flames and he’ll have to contribute offensively for the Duck to advance to the next round. On the power Play, the Ducks rank 6 among the 8 teams remaining, on the PK, only the Blues and the Sabres have done better.

Fear the Sharks and Frederik Andersen as they kicked the LA Kings out of the playoffs, the regular season champions, a team  loaded with playoffs performers.  Anderson ended that series with a 2.01 GAA  and a .938 save %.  The PP was atrocious with a 6% success rate and the PK was just okay at 80%.  To support Anderson, they got just enough offense from  Anisimov, Landeskog, Daniel and Henrik, Pominville, Bonino and Schwartz.  If special teams are not improving against the Ducks, they’ll need more miracles from their goaltender.  Might not mean anything at this point, but it looks like the Sharks had the Ducks’ number during the regular season.

Dallas (95pts – 4^th) vs STL (122pts – 2^nd)

Reg season: Blues won season 3W – 2 L (1OT)

The Blues scored 8 PP goals out of 20 attempts and only got one penalty against them in the series against Vancouver.  Nyquist, Nielsen, Gaborik, Giordano and Tarasenko all got 8 points or more.  Varlamov didn’t give much to the Canucks, 1.99 GAA and a .942save %.  Now that the King are gone, who’ll stop the Blues?  This being said, the Canucks managed to win 2 games with a back up goaltender in the net, can the Stars do better?

The Avs didn’t really have a NHL caliber goaltender and the Stars forwards enjoyed playing against them.  Teddy Purcell and Cody Eakin got 10 points, Fiddler, Jones, Lee and Paquette did really good too with 6 or more points.  Stephane Robidas and Matt Green finished the series at + 6.  Both goaltenders saw action in that series, statistically Lehtonen had a slight advantage on Anderson and he was unbeaten in the  2 starts he got.  The Stars had the second best power play in the first round (33%).