2011 NHL Playoffs: Day 4

On the 4th day of the 2011 NHL playoffs, once again two teams went up 2 games to 0, and two teams tied their series. The four brightest stars of the night were Drew Doughty, Pavel Datsyuk, Jon Quick, and Carey Price. LA shocked me, while Philly and Detroit are who I thought they were (as Dennis Green might say). Montreal has been a big surprise, especially Price is right.

Here are my recaps of the night's games:

Detroit beats Pheonix: How good is this team going to be when Zetterberg comes back, assuming he comes back? Datsyuk was incredible with a goal and 3 assists while Holmstrom and Lidstrom picked up 2 PTS each. The Coyotes are a terrible home team and the fans have given up on them ahead of their imminent move to Winnipeg. Detroit will win the series. The Jets will move back to Winnipeg. (Det leads series 2-0)

Montreal beats Boston: Carey Price is on his way to being the first star of this series, though an honourable mention has to go to PK Subban. Montreal has two great young players that you can build a team around. Hall Gill might be the most under-appreciated very valuable player in the NHL. Boston doesn't look right. How many teams who lost the first two games at home went on to win the series? I have lost a little bit of respect for Milan Lucic, though not having Chara tonight was a huge blow for the Bruins. (Mtl leads series 2-0)

Los Angeles beats San Jose: In December a dude in my fantasy hockey league offered me Drew Doughty for Tyler Ennis (Doughty started slow). I accepted the trade as fast as fast could be. Drew led the Kings to a 4-0 victory tonight collecting points on every goal. San Jose had a lot of shots but couldn't beat Quick, and LA took advantage of some power plays. This could get interesting, but I still think the Sharks are the better team. They have to play better than this to win the series. (series tied 1-1)

Philly beats Buffalo: Here is the high scoring game that I expected in game 1, with the Flyers winning 5-4. The Philly's scoring was spread evenly throughout the line-up, with 3 of their top 4 point getters coming from the blue line. Tom Vanek scored 2 goals for Buffalo, with Boucher collecting the win in place of Bobrovsky (which is odd because what about Bob played very well in game 1). (series tied 1-1)