Eastern Conference Second Round Recap

Here is a brief recap of the games we saw in the second round of the Eastern Conference.

Pittsburgh vs. Washington

Oh boy, what a series we had on our hands; the best team in the league against the hottest team in the league.

The question mark for Pittsburgh seemed to be whether their defencemen would be able to handle the offence that Washington had showed off in the regular season. Coach Mike Sullivan’s swarm defence and extremely quick neutral zone movement meant that Washington was not able to take advantage of Pittsburgh’s defence for long periods of time. Washington won game 1 in OT with the help of a T.J. Oshie Hat-trick, but it Pittsburgh dominated the play for large amounts of the game.

Pittsburgh’s line of Kessel, Bonino, and Hagelin created two goals in game 1, troubling a Washington defence which was already worried about Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin on two separate lines. It was the Washington defence which looked weak trying to cover the depth of the Penguins. Game 2 was tied late in the game when an unstoppable Malkin made a pass out to Eric Fehr in the slot who tipped the puck past Braden Holtby. Series Tied.

Pittsburgh started game 3 showing off their speed again and took an early 2-0 lead. Washington already struggling with the Pittsburgh offense, was without the service of Brooks Orpik who was suspended for 3 games. Near the end of the second period the Kessel, Bonino, Hagelin line again took over a shift and victimised Nate Schmidt who could not properly tie up Hagelin’s stick. Despite this, Washington peppered the Pittsburgh net, putting 14, 14, and 21 shots in each of the periods. Alexander Ovechkin scored a very Ovechkin like goal, and assisted on another, but the caps could not tie the game up.

This was the most dominant Washington looked in the series. For the rest of the series, Pittsburgh looked more dangerous than Washington, and had chances to show for it. Game 4 went into overtime, and Mike Weber could not handle a puck in the slot. Trying to control the puck, he ended up poking it into the slot to Patrik Hornqvist who shot it past a sliding Holtby. This was Washington’s chance to push back because Kris Letang was suspended in this game for his hit on Marcus Johansson. But the Pens defence, well aware of the hole in the line-up, was able to play even better.

Washington was able to force a game 6 with the help of two powerplay goals, and a 3-1 insurance goal that Matt Murray would probably like to have back. In game 6 Pittsburgh outplayed Washington for the first half of the game scoring two times on a Brooks Orpik high-sticking double-minor, taking a 3-0 lead. But Washington pushed back. Washington put 18 shots on goal in the third period and were able to tie the game on a John Carlson powerplay goal. Pittsburgh got back to playing their game in the overtime period, and eventually broke the Capitals defense, the line of Kessel, Bonino, and Hagelin scoring their 6^th even strength goal of the series.

The Capitals were not able to score enough even strength goals because Pittsburgh did a really good job of hunting down the puck, out-manning the Capitals forwards down low, and moving it up ice within a couple seconds. Kuznetsov, Burakovsky, and Williams had a lot of one chance rushes, and could not support the other Washington forwards. Matt Murray also played really well and did not give Washington any easy goals, they had to work for them, or score on the powerplay.

New York Islanders vs. Tampa Bay

This series could have been a sweep for Tampa Bay had it not been for sub-par Ben Bishop performance in game 1. Tampa Bay scored three times in the game but that was not enough and the Islanders won the game 5-3.

Tampa Bay used an early 2-0 lead in game 2 to power their way onto an easy 4-1 win. Thomas Greiss faced 31 shots and had one he would have like to have back on Jonathan Drouin, but was not the only reason the Islanders lost. The Isles offence struggled to get going and was only able to throw 20 shots towards Ben Bishop.

Game 3 was an exciting one. After multiple exchanges of goals, the game was tied 3-3 with less that nine minutes left in the game. Jason Garrison turned the puck over to Cal Clutterbuck who absolutely rifled it over Bishop’s glove hand. The game seemed to be over, but with the goalie pulled, Drouin was able to create some magic with his patience and vision on the half wall. He held onto the puck long enough to let Nikita Kucherov find an empty spot in the slot, and then slid over a perfectly timed pass to him for a late Tampa Bay equalizer. The lightning then scored a controversial overtime goal when Brian Boyle hit Thomas Hickey late and up high with no call on the play. Boyle followed the play towards the net and was able to control the puck after a bounce off the back boards, putting the puck into a nearly empty net, while Hickey had just gotten up to get back into the play. The refs missed the call but it didn’t seem like it would have helped the Islanders.

It was Nikita Kucherov again who tied the game for the Islanders in game 4. Similar to his game 3 goal in which he found the perfect spot on the ice, he skated into the slot briefly before eluding the check of Cal Clutterbuck and finding an empty spot right in the middle of the left faceoff dot. This overtime period, the Islanders scored even quicker; Jason Garrison let go of a point shot and it made it way past a screened Thomas Greiss.

With their backs against the wall, the Islanders once again failed to find offence, getting shut out by Ben Bishop who turned away all 28 shots he faced. The Lightning however made scoring look easy in the game and for most of the series, scoring an average of 3.6 goals per game in the series.