Looking at the Round 2 Match up While advertisements for the series don’t necessarily elude to it, there is more to this match up than the “Sid versus Ovi” storyline. This is the first NHL experience for all three, so we’ll see how they fare under the glare of the national spotlight that will shine on this series.The Penguins took the 2009 conference semifinal series in seven games – three of which were decided in overtime – and then went on to win the Stanley Cup. With that being said, although the series indicates a final score of 4-2, it should’ve really been 4-1.
Advertisement
How the Capitals got here: After losing the first three games of the opening round, the Flyers made the Capitals sweat by winning the next two, mostly because of the brick-wall play of Michal Neuvirth.
Dmitry Orlov – After a rough start, the Capitals defenceman was stapled to the bench, playing just 5:44 in a 69-minute game.
While the second line wasn’t directly putting points on the board, they were still creating scoring chances. Time to savor the history moments of the coming series. They received outstanding goaltending from Jeff Zatkoff and in the last three games by Matt Murray. They scored eight times while their penalty kill allowed just one goal in 23 attempts. Pittsburgh, on the other hand, had plenty of secondary players step up.
Crosby celebrated Canada’s victory over Ovechkin’s Russian team in the 2005 world junior final. It’s hard to see their high powered offence being slowed down.
After eliminating the Flyers on Sunday, the Capitals had to wait two days to find out when their second round series would begin against the Pittsburgh Penguins. At this stage, the Penguins are a well oiled machine rolling on all cylinders.
Former Penguins Brooks Orpik, Matt Niskanen, and Taylor Chorney all wear red now, and probably would love to make an impact against their old team too.
The Islanders will no doubt be underdogs in this matchup.
The big names from that series – Crosby, Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeni Malkin – are still with their respective teams. John Tavares single handedly won the series for the Islanders versus Florida.
Ex-Bruins update: Kessel is flying on a line with Carl Hagelin and Nick Bonino. We’ll give an assist to Thomas Greiss, who was a pleasant surprise in the absence of Jaroslav Halak posting a 1.79 GAA and a. 944 save percentage.
The Flyers, who made a late-season surge under rookie coach Dave Hakstol just to reach the playoffs, have not won the Stanley Cup since 1975. As great as Tavares is, and his chemistry with Kyle Okposo, the Isles will need to fill a major void with secondary scoring. They’ve got it now, unlike how they haven’t had it sometimes in the past, especially previous year against the Rangers. “You have to respect him and make sure you pay attention to him”. Let me remind you, even without Stamkos, this team has tons of firepower. And surprise surprise, round 1 was also the Jonathan Drouin show.
The bad: If he doesn’t, he’ll fail to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs yet again.
Advertisement
They are considered to be among the most bitter of rivals. “We played a little bit back more than we usually do”. “They’re the two superstars in the game that the league has promoted for a long time”. The Ducks are the deepest they have ever been down the middle, and with quality goaltending from Frederik Andersen, they are a team that will be tough to stop. They were a combined minus-7 in that series. Hats immediately flooded the Verizon Center ice, but it took several minutes – and at least four different replay angles – to confirm it was in.
