The Pennsylvania Cold War

While you were most likely doing something else over the weekend, hockey fans watched the Stanley Cup Semi-Finals knock out a couple of games.

 Starting with the Pens/Flyers:

 Thanks to Evgeni Malkin in game 1 and Sidney Crosby in game 2, the Pens swept their homestand and have become the first NHL team to go 10-1 in the playoffs since the 1995 Red Wings.  They also set a franchise mark for 7 straight playoff victories on home ice.  Game 1 was just a man-handling offensive attack by the Pens which got started off by this poster’s favorite, Petr Sykora.  Game 2 didn’t show as many offensive results on the scoreboard but was certainly a big offensive game for both teams which came down to the wire.  The Penguins got a couple of lucky openings and found themselves going to Philly up 2 - 0 in the series.

 Now the Red Wings/Stars:

 On Saturday the Red Wings barely made it past the Stars to keep their home playoff record perfect.  The Stars were obviously more energized as they sobered up from that 7 period marathon from several days before, and were able to skate with the Red Wings, and actually controlled a lot of the action in the last two periods.

Analysis thus far is that the East and West have swapped strategies thus far.  The West is usually known for it’s offensive juggernauts and the East is usually dependant upon defense and superb goaltending.  Not the case this round.  The West games have been at a slower pace and the outcomes have been packed with amazing saves and concentration by the goalies.  Meanwhile the East teams have been skating fast and throwing the puck on net from all different directions with amazing highlights of brilliant passing and shots.

Returning home, you can expect the Stars to bounce back and the Flyers to put up a good fight as well.  The Stars can take 1 or 2 games here but the Flyers’ fate depends on how well they can keep up on the 3rd period.

This entry was posted on 12. May 2008 at 16:32 and is filed under NHL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.