NHL Playoffs: Overtimes Common Theme of Day Two

Boston Bruins 1

Washington Capitals 0

Sometimes all it takes is one goal. That was the case with Game 1 of the Boston Bruins vs. Washington Capitals series. Both offenses came out a bit sluggish and both these goaltenders were determined to let nothing cheap in. Both teams had some chances in regulation, but neither one could light the lamp. About one minute into overtime, Capitals center Marcus Johansson took a shot that was saved by Bruins goalie Tim Thomas. That started a counterattack by the Bruins. Brian Rolston found Benoit Pouliot who quickly passed it to Chris Kelly. Kelly buried the winner over the glove of Capitals goalie Braden Holtby. Despite being the Caps third-string goalie, Holtby played extremely well, saving 29 Bruins shots. But it was the Bruins who capitalized on the opportunity early in overtime.

San Jose Sharks 3

St. Louis Blues 2

Early in the season, many Sharks fans whined and complained about Martin Havlat's play. Then, he injured his hamstring and was forced to miss nearly half of the regular season. Havlat returned just in time to aid the Sharks in their playoff push. He aided them in a big way in Game 1 in St. Louis. With the game knotted at 2, it headed to overtime. No one scored in the first period and the second one was drawing to a close, until the Blues struggled to clear the puck and Havlat found the puck on his stick and made them pay for the second time on the night. Thus, the visiting Sharks took Game 1.

Phoenix Coyotes 3 Chicago Blackhawks 2

The Blackhawks got on the board first when Jonathan Toews scored in his first game back. The Coyotes responded though in the second period with two goals of their own to take the lead. Goaltender Mike Smith and the Coyotes looked like they could hold off the Blackhawks to secure the win in regulation, but Brent Seabrook put in a rebound for the equalizer with 14.2 seconds left to send this game to overtime. In overtime, Coyotes center Martin Hanzal barely redirected Adrian Aucoin's shot, but it turned out to be enough to be the winner. Smith played outstanding in net for the Coyotes. He finished with 43 saves.

Photo Credits

Boston Bruins Celebration: Brian Babineau/Getty Images

San Jose Sharks Celebration: Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images

Martin Hanzal Celebration: Ross D. Franklin/AP Photo

NHL Playoff Scenarios a Plenty Coming Into Final Day

Thursday was certainly a big day for the NHL. All sixteen teams locked their place in the playoffs. However, there is still a lot of seeding to be determined in the teams' final games Saturday. All thirty teams will be in action for just the 4th time in NHL history. There are 29 potential first-round playoff series matchups. The talented folks at NHL.com put together this chart, so that you can easily see all of them. I will try and breakdown and explain some of the possible implications of Saturday's games.

The Presidents' Trophy is up for grabs. The St. Louis Blues (107 points) came into Friday trailing the Vancouver Canucks (109 points) and New York Rangers (109 points) for the lead. A win on Friday would make it a three-way tie with all three teams playing decisive games on Saturday. The tiebreaker is total wins, which means the Rangers hold the edge with 51. The winner gets guaranteed home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

Blogger Update: The Phoenix Coyotes defeated the St. Louis Blues 4-1 Friday night. This eliminates the Blues from Presidents' Trophy contention. The Coyotes now lead the Pacific Division and have the correlated #3 seed.

With a win Friday, the Phoenix Coyotes would take the Pacific Division lead with 95 points. The Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks are both in contention for the division title as well with 94 points heading into Saturday's games. On Thursday, the Kings beat the Sharks 6-5 in a shootout at home. On Saturday, the teams faceoff again in San Jose. The Coyotes play at the Minnesota Wild in their final game. The division winner will get the #3 seed for the playoffs and home ice for the first-round.

The Southeast Division title is still able to be won. The Florida Panthers have had the lead for awhile, but they saw their lead shrink to just two points when the Washington Capitals defeated them on Thursday. The Panthers play the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday, but are just 1-3-5 in their last nine games. The Capitals will win the division if they beat the New York Rangers on Saturday and the Panthers lose to the Hurricanes. These two teams are fighting for the pride that comes with the division title, the #3 seed in the Eastern Conference, and the first-round home ice that comes with it.

2012 NHL Playoff Hunt

With the season drawing to a close, teams fight for a playoff berth. I breakdown the teams in the hunt for the last remaining spots.

Eastern Conference

Clinched Playoff Spot

New York Rangers (103 points)

Pittsburgh Penguins (100 points)

Philadelphia Flyers (96 points)

Should Be In

Boston Bruins (93 points)

Florida Panthers (89 points)

New Jersey Devils (92 points)

On the Bubble

Ottawa Senators (88 points)

• 5 games remaining
• 2 home, 3 away
• 3 vs. quality teams
• 5 vs. Eastern Conference opponents

Buffalo Sabres (86 points)

• 5 games remaining
• 2 home, 3 away
• 3 vs. quality teams
• 5 vs. Eastern Conference opponents

Washington Capitals ( 84 points)

• 5 games remaining
• 2 home, 3 away
• 4 vs. quality teams
• 5. vs. Eastern Conference opponents

Western Conference

Clinched Playoff Spot

St. Louis Blues (105 points)

Vancouver Canucks (101 points)

Detroit Red Wings (97 points)

Should Be In

Nashville Predators (96 points)

Chicago Blackhawks (93 points)

On the Bubble

San Jose Sharks (88 points)

• 6 games remaining
• 2 home, 4 away
• 5 vs. quality teams
• 6 vs. Western Conference opponents

Dallas Stars (87 points)

• 6 games remaining
• 2 home, 4 away
• 5 vs. quality teams
• 6 vs. Western Conference opponents

Phoenix Coyotes (87 points)

• 5 games remaining
• 3 home, 2 away
• 2 vs. quality teams
• 5 vs. Western Conference opponents

Los Angeles Kings (86 points)

• 6 games remaining
• 2 home, 4 away
• 3 vs. quality teams
• 6 vs. Western Conference opponents

Colorado Avalanche (86 points)

• 4 games remaining
• 2 home, 2 away
• 3 quality teams
• 4 vs. Western Conference opponents

Calgary Flames (85 points)

• 5 games remaining
• 4 home, 1 away
• 4 vs. quality teams
• 5 vs. Western Conference opponents

Night of Shootouts Reminds Us How Important They Are

When the regular season draws to a close, there is usually only a few points difference between playoff positioning and even making or missing them all together. These few points can often be made or lost in one simple thing. Shootouts. Every team plays them multiple times each season. If you win, you get two points. If you lose, you only get one. If you win enough of them, those additional points can start to add up nicely. Amazingly, five of the nine NHL games played tonight ended in a shootout. I will take a look at each one and give a breakdown of its importance.

Minnesota Wild 3 Florida Panthers 2

The Minnesota Wild have slid farther out of the playoff picture, but their steady goalkeeping came through for them again in this game. The Panthers are in the hunt to win the Southeast Division (currently only 1 point behind Winnipeg for the lead). If they win the division, they will likely get the #3 seed in the playoffs. If they don't, they are barely clinging onto the eight and final playoff spot. Ideally, they obviously want to win the division. However, this is yet another disappointing shootout loss. This now puts their shootout record for the season at 3-7. That is the most losses of any team currently in the playoffs. If the Panthers don't fix this soon, it might be the difference between the #3 seed and missing the playoffs all together.

Anaheim Ducks 3 Carolina Hurricanes 2

Both of these teams are considerably far out of their respective playoff pictures, so the importance is rather minimal. The Ducks have played better as of late. They are 7-1-2 in their last ten games. It is interesting to note that the Hurricanes are now 0-5 in shootout games. They are the only winless team in that regard.

Vancouver Canucks 4 Detroit Red Wings 3

This is the granddaddy of them all. The Red Wings came in with their NHL-record 23-game home winning streak. The Canucks came in with the NHL's best road record. As you might have imagined, these are the two teams with the most points in the Western Conference. With time running down in the third period, the Red Wings were clinging to a 3-2 lead. The Canucks pulled goalkeeper Roberto Luongo to get the extra attacker. With 16 seconds remaining in the game, Henrik Sedin found his brother Daniel, who blistered home the tying goal. In the shootout, Luongo shut down all three Red Wings shots. On the third shot for the Canucks, Alexandre Burrows netted the game winner. He reacted by pretending to snap his stick to signify the record steak being snapped. This game was a great one and could be a preview of the Western Conference finals further down the road.

St. Louis Blues 3 Nashville Predators 2

These two teams currently seem destined for a #4 vs. #5 playoff matchup in the Western Conference. With how evenly matched these teams appear to be, it could be very valuable to finish ahead of the other to secure the home ice for the matchup. By winning the game, the Blues increased their lead over the Predators to four points. There is still a lot of hockey to be played, but every point between these two could end up making the difference.

Phoenix Coyotes 4 Calgary Flames 3

The Coyotes are currently the #7 seed in the Western Conference playoff picture. They currently hold a five point lead over the hotly contested #8 seed (currently six teams within 4 points of that spot). The Coyotes should do all they can to keep winning to avoid getting involved in that mess. That is just what they accomplished by winning the shootout tonight. The Flames are one of those six teams currently in the hunt for that final playoff spot. Every point matters to those teams right now, so they didn't do themselves any favors by losing this shootout. They are now 3-5 in shootout games, which isn't terrible, but at this point, every point matters in these teams' pursuit of a playoff berth.

NHL's Radical Realignment Brings Big Changes

When the NHL approved the former Atlanta Thrashers' move to Winnipeg to become the Jets, we knew realignment would have to be done. However, no one expected it to be this radical.

The simple plan people thought would take place was for the Jets to move to the Central Division and either the Detroit Red Wings or Columbus Blue Jackets would move to the Southeast. In regards to this, Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that "The simple one wasn't as simple as it looked when you got done with it." Reports stated that some clubs didn't approve of this move either.

Thus, the scope broadened and the league discussed bigger changes. One concern that was expressed was the large amount of travel some Western Conference teams, such as Detroit, Dallas, Columbus, and Nashville, have to do during the course of the season.

From about an hour of deliberation between team representatives, a new four conference idea began to emerge. For the realignment to be approved, 20 out of the 30 teams had to approve. The teams have already approved the decision. The NHLPA has expressed concern and claims it needs to approve as well, but Bettman denies this claim.

Teams are pleased with the new conference alignment. They were concerned about keeping historic rivalries alive. "It was important to us to stay with longtime rivals. Not just Philly ... I think it was important to us to make sure we maintained the rivalries that we developed over the years and they're very good rivalries and our fans love to hate some of the teams we play against. I'm sure their fans love to hate us, too. So we're encouraged by that," Penguins CEO and President David Morehouse said Monday. "In the end, I think this will be a good thing for the league."

The proposed realignment creates two eight team conferences and two seven team conferences. This was a wise decision for two reasons. First, the looming sale of Phoenix Coyotes could have created a problem. However, the NHL solved this by placing the Coyotes in one of the eight team conferences. While the NHL wants to keep the team in Phoenix, it seems unlikely that a buyer will want to keep them there. This allows a new owner to move the team basically anywhere. Based on the new geographic location, the team could remain in the same division or switch to one of the two seven team conferences. Second, this opens up the opportunity for expansion down the road. The NHL could add two teams to even out the conferences to have eight teams each. There has been some interest in moving the Coyotes to and/or starting an expansion francise in Canada. Media tycoon Pierre Karl Peladeau is already building a $400 million arena in Quebec City and has openly expressed his desire to own a team.

Below is the proposed realignment. Reports state that the change could occur as soon as next season. Conference names have yet to be determined. The original idea was to develop geographical names, but a new idea that is popular among fans is to bring back the original division names of Adams, Patrick, Norris and Smythe.

Conference “A”
• Anaheim
• Calgary
• Colorado
• Edmonton
• Los Angeles
• Phoenix
• San Jose
• Vancouver

Conference “B”
• Chicago
• Columbus
• Dallas
• Detroit
• Minnesota
• Nashville
• St. Louis
• Winnipeg

Conference “C”
• Boston
• Buffalo
• Florida
• Montreal
• Ottawa
• Tampa Bay
• Toronto

Conference “D”
• Carolina
• New Jersey
• New York Islanders
• New York Rangers
• Philadelphia
• Pittsburgh
• Washington