Everyone around here knows about the two NY series by now, and if you don’t, Derek has some fine recaps up on the site for the Rangers and Islanders (both going back home this weekend down 3-2 in compelling series).  There’s exciting hockey being played outside of NY too, and once again the NHL playoffs is showing it’s must-see TV.  Particularly in the first round, which tends to produce the most exciting series and unpredictable results – much like the first two rounds of March Madness incidentally.  Already two higher seeds in Vancouver and Montreal have gone down, much to the consternation of Canadians all over the Great White North.  Outside of Ottawa, anyway – where the Sens are celebrating an unexpected second-round appearance after a 4-1 series win over the Northeast rival Canadians.

A nice bounceback season for Montreal went down in flames after three straight defeats, including two 6-1 drubbings which sandwiched a devastating Game 4 OT loss where the Habs blew a late 2-0 lead.  Series-ending injuries to captain Brian Gionta and goalie Carey Price (who again didn’t distinguish himself in the postseason) didn’t help, but Montreal had already been fading down the stretch anyway so perhaps this kind of result was inevitable sooner or later.  Especially against an Ottawa team that looks like the early-season juggernaut again with the dynamic Erik Karlsson back in the fold.  Karlsson looks like he hasn’t missed a beat barely ten weeks removed from Achilles surgery.  Memo to the rest of the East: if you dare to call Jack Adams favorite Paul MacLean a big, fat walrus you’d better do it with a smile.  Brandon Prust learned that lesson the hard way after dissing the Ottawa head man early in the series, and Montreal’s theatrics as a team at the end of Game 3 didn’t win them any new friends.

At least Montreal doesn’t face a full-scale rebuild/overhaul the way Vancouver does out West after a shocking sweep by the Sharks.  San Jose proved one goalie is better than two, at least when that one goalie is named Antti Niemi (a Vezina Finalist this year).  Vancouver’s goalie carousel was about as disasterous as the New York Jets’ quarterback follies, with a hurt Cory Schnieder coming in for Games 3 and 4 and laying an egg allowing nine goals after the embattled Roberto Luongo actually played well in his two defeats.  After two straight postseason wipeouts at the hand of California teams, it’s time for ch-ch-changes in Vancouver.  Has Alain Vigneault reached the end after eight seasons as the coach?  That remains to be seen, but GM Mike Gillis needs to clear the goalie traffic jam once and for all this offseason.  Having both guys around benefited neither, though Luongo responded like a trouper all year, aside from his famous – and brutally honest – post-trade deadline press conference where he admitted he wasn’t dealt because his own contract sucks.

Might Niemi face his former team (the Blackhawks) in the next round?  That’d be great theater, especially considering Chicago let Niemi go after winning a Stanley Cup due to cap issues.  Unlike Pittsburgh in the East, the Hawks have responded to the favored tag well, with a convincing five-game triumph over a Wild team that quite frankly looked like it didn’t belong in the postseason after swooning for most of April, putting coach Mike Yeo‘s job in jeopardy.  While Ryan Suter lived up to his contract for most of the season – garnering a Norris nomination and playing well for the most part – the other half of the bromance didn’t fare as well with Zach Parise contributing only a single goal to go along with a -7 in the series.  Can’t say I shed any tears about that, though I did feel a little bad for Josh Harding, who was put in a brutal spot when starting goalie Nicklas Backstrom went down with a sports hernia minutes before the series began.  Harding actually responded well for the most part, holding the mighty Hawks at bay in that Game 1 and winning Game 3 in OT, before his own injury and the Hawks’ talent proved too much to overcome.

Also out West, the Blues and Kings squared off again, a season after the Kings spoiled the Blues’ revival with a shocking second-round sweep.  While it wasn’t as convincing this year, the result ultimately remained the same – and the Kings actually stared down adversity this time, dropping the first two games of the series in St. Louis (including a Game 1 OT loss after a horrendous gaffe by Johnathan Quick behind the net) before winning the next four, all by a single goal.  Those scores will haunt Blues fans all summer…1-0, 4-3, 3-2 (OT), 2-1.  While Brian Elliott was a lot better in goal this year than he was last year against the Kings, the Blues showed they still need at least one top-quality forward and perhaps more.  They scored by committee in the regular season finishing middle of the pack, but when your leading threats up front are Chris Stewart and Alex Steen, that’s not good enough to get goals in the playoffs, as this series showed.  

Most hockey fans (especially in Canada) wanted a Montreal-Toronto series in the worst way, but the Bruins’ April collapse was even worse than the Habs’, so they slipped to the #4 seed and drew the Leafs in the first round.  After a slow start to the series where two ho-hum victories for the Bruins in Games 1 and 3 sandwiched an eyebrow-raising 4-2 Leafs win at Boston in Game 2, that Original Six matchup has proven to be compelling with Toronto missing a big opportunity to tie the series in Game 4, blowing a 3-1 lead at home in a 4-3 OT loss, before rebounding last night with its second road win of the series, a taut 2-1 game that ensured at least one more playoff game in Toronto this Spring.  If there was a player of the series award,  Bruins center David Krejci would be winning it hands down with five goals and eleven points in the five games thus far, including a hat trick in Game 4 that proved decisive in the game if not the series.

Finally, saving the best for last – we have the Anaheim-Detroit series, which for some reason is already in a Game 7 with everyone else playing a Game 6 this weekend.  While the action has flown by, anyone who’s watched the series has had time to savor it with an astounding four OT games including last night’s classic.  Anaheim’s jumped in front three times in the series, and each time the Wings have responded with an OT win.  Last night’s game was a tour de force for stars Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg (see above YouTube), who combined for three of the four goals including Datsyuk’s highlight-reel marker in the first period which saw the skilled Russian put on a puck-handling clinic before firing a sick backhander past Jonas Hiller with his body turned.  Just par for the course for him, as well as captain Zetterberg who scored in the third period to put the Wings back in front, then in OT to keep them in the series after they’d blown their second big late lead of the series.  To the Wings’ credit, they haven’t lost either game after blowing a 4-1 lead late in Game 2 as well as a 3-1 lead in the final four minutes of Game 6.

To the Ducks’ credit, they haven’t wilted against their more playoff-tested opponents and nearly stole the series last night.  Instead, they get a Game 7 back in the Pond – which should be another great show for the fans.  Funny thing about that rally is I was watching a bit of the third period before the Rangers-Caps OT last night, I didn’t turn off the game until there was about four minutes left and it was still 3-1.  When I heard Sam Rosen say during the Rangers’ OT that the Anaheim-Detroit game had also gone to OT I was floored.  After the Ranger game ended, I did turn back in time to see Zetterberg’s goal.  That’s playoff hockey for you, seeing two OT goals in a matter of minutes.