The Great Goalie Race Part 2: Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference is the toughest conference in the NHL. They are hard hitters and goal scorers, with terrific players all around. In this part of the great goalie race, I will tell you about the goalies from the Eastern Conference from Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
New York Rangers vs Ottawa Senators– These two teams had good goaltenders. I believe the better goalie won Henrik Lundqvist has been a wonderful net minder for the Rangers and will continue to be until he retires. He is just phenomenal. Not much to say about Craig Anderson, because it’s basically the same as any good goaltender. He comes to play game in and game out. I strongly think that the Rangers could have won in 5, but just got a little shocked by how quick Ottawa was.
Boston Bruins vs Washington Capitals– What a blunder. The goaltender issue in Washington made me sure they were going out in 4 or 5 games. Tim Thomas, defending Cup champ, was sure to stop everything that Washington put his way, and he did a great job. But rookie goaltender Brayden Holtby tore up the ice and stopped the Bruins from passing to the next round. If you hadn’t already heard the goalie issues in D.C., the starting goalies were injured and couldn’t play, so the Caps brought Holtby up from the AHL and he showed his stuff. I think this player is the next Brodeur, especially with the post-season he’s been playing. I think he has a future start in Washington.
Florida Panthers vs New Jersey Devils– I have always been a Martin Brodeur fan. I love how he plays and defends the crease. He definitely deserved a round 1 win, which wasn’t easy. The Panthers showed us what we didn’t believe, and blew our minds. The team was fast and furious for sure, but couldn’t put away the game 7 opportunity. Switching between Scott Clemmensen and Jose Theodore, the Devils scored more and just won the series.
Philadelphia Flyers vs Pittsburgh Penguins– To start off this paragraph, I want to tell you this tweet I had seen during the series.
I found this quite hilarious, because it is so true. This was an unbelievable series of goals and no saves. A lack of defense and an energy boost of the offense. It was just ridiculous. I like Ilya Bryzgalov, but I was pulling for Marc-Andre Fleury even better. I hate the the back-up goalies had to see so much ice time, but that’s how the game is played, I guess. The fact that everyone thought Philadelphia was going to sweep Pittsburgh was just plain stupid. They are two great organizations, who strongly hate each other, and you think they could sweep one another? You had to know Evgeni Malkin, Sidney Crosby, and Jordan Staal were going to crawl back from the 6 foot hole they were pounded into tho see the light once again. I also seen a sign, which I don’t have a picture for, that said, “You can’t beat us cheers (Philadelphia fans), Lose 10-3!” I think that’s also funny because it shows that just because you are leading a series 3-0, the other team can come back because you get a big head and blow it all away.
All in all, I was happy with every advancement, even though some I felt should have lost rather than won, (ahem… PHILLY!) but I found the final results refreshing and challenging for the next round (and rounds) to come.