Studs & Duds - Friday 5-3-2013

[NoWayOut]

Studs


Somebody get ready to hose Pierre McGuire down

His favorite man-crush is back. And Sidney Crosby announced his return in his usual style, scoring goals. He netted two in his first game back from the broken jaw. While there was the natural speculation about what effect the mask would have on his game, he proved that it wasn't a hindrance. Judging by his play it would be fair to wonder if the portions on the left and right are some sort of sonar/radar array for locating the puck, and the portion straight ahead is a laser targeting system.


This is my brother Pat, and this is my other brother Pat.

Patrick Sharp and Patrick Kane played pivotal roles as Chicago smacked the visiting Wild around and took a 2-0 lead in their series. The two tag teamed, Kane feeding the puck to Sharp, twice, and he promptly knocked them home past the Wild's Josh Harding. Sharp's two goals effectively killed any chance the Wild had to climb back into it and make a game of it. The pair of scores are his first points of the post-season, while Kaner now has three points in the first two games.


An army of one

The Canucks entered last night's game trying to draw even with the Sharks in their opening round series. Offensively Ryan Kesler was the only one to show up. Kesler scored both of Vancouver's goals, but it wasn't enough as the Canucks lost 3-2 in overtime. He lead the Canucks with seven hits and took 29 faceoffs, winning 19, in addition to the two goals. It was a good bounce back from his mediocre performance in game one, but without the offensive support of his teammates the Canucks are now down 2-0 in the series.


Oh it's the Price we gotta pay and all the games we gotta play...

As we all know Carey Price had more than his share of struggles down the stretch. Those struggles followed him into game one of the series with the Senators. Last night though it was good Carey in goal for the Habs. After the ugliness of Thursday night, and amid all the talk of fat walruses, Price delivered a 29 save performance, in a 3-1 Montreal victory. On a night that saw the Habs down not only Lars Eller, also Patches and Gionta, Price came through with exactly the kind of game his team needed.



Duds



Fleury's folly

Fresh off a shutout of the eighth seeded Isles, Marc-Andre Fleury and the Pens were looking to take command of the series in front of the home crowd. The events of the evening didn't follow that script, as the visitors from New York scored three unanswered goals to pull off the 4-3 comeback win. While there was plenty of blame for the loss to go around, Fleury was front and center for the coup-de-grace. Kyle Okposo's shot should have been a fairly routine save for Fleury, but he mis-played the puck and essentially kicked the puck into his own net. That gaffe turned out to be the game winner, and evened the series at one-a-piece.

Can I help you pack for your trip?

Mikko Koivu had one of those nights you just prefer to forget. The fact that he didn't register a single point isn't the main reason he landed in this spot. No that would be his two ill-timed tripping penalties on Jonathan Toews in the final 10 minutes of the third period. Both came with the Wild down by two, so still technically in the game in spite of having been outplayed all night. Chicago didn't score on either power-play, but the penalties were just as devastating as Minnesota lost four valuable minutes on the penalty kill. Koivu finished minus-3, with just two shots.



Hey, little help over here please

Derek Roy's start to the playoffs has been remarkably unremarkable. Two games in and Derek still hasn't logged a single point. Last night was an even bigger dud than game one. Roy finished with a minus-one and not even one shot. His .456 faceoff percentage during the regular was nothing to write home about, except that it's pretty sizeable improvement over his .391 so far in the playoffs. He's not the only Canuck who's struggled, but it would help their cause if he can get things rolling.



Deep thoughts from a shallow mind


Islanders 4 - Pens 3

- Mark Streit and Matt Moulson led the Isles with two points apeice. Streit had two helpers, while Moulson had a goal and assist.
- John Tavares contributed an assist, plus six shots, and went 15-9 on faceoffs.
- Evgeni Nabokov rebounded nicely from a rough start. After allowing three goals in the first period, he slammed the door, stopping the last 25 shots he faced.
- Jarome Iginla had two assists in the loss.
- Evgeni Malkin had a goal and an assist, plus a league leading 10 shots.


Blackhawks 5 - Wild 2

- Zach Parise joined Mikko Koivu as a minus-3 with zero points.
- Jonas Brodin and Ryan Suter were like-wise held scoreless, and finished minus-two.
- Josh Harding made 43 saves, but took the loss.
- Michael Frolik scored the first two goals of the game. Not that anybody was really paying attention in post season pools.
- Andrew Shaw added two assists, one on the opening score by Frolik and one on Bryan Bickell's empty-netter.
- Niklas Hjalmarsson had a team leading plus-3, while Brent Seabrook wore the yoke of shame with a minus-2.
- Corey Crawford saved 26 of the 28 shots he faced notching win number two of the playoffs.


Canadiens 3 - Sens 1

- Marc Methot, Colin Greening, Jared Cowen, and Erik Condra all wound up at minus-2.
- Craig Anderson stopped 31 shots, but took the loss.
- Ryan White, Brendan Gallagher, and Michael Ryder each contributed a goal to the winning effort.
- Alex Galchenyuk and P.K. Subban each picked up their second assist of the playoffs.


Sharks 3 - Canucks 2

- Brent Burns is really getting into this whole forward thing. He had two assists and five shots.
- Antti Niemi continued his great play with 29 saves on 31 Canuck shots.
- Joe Thornton scored his first goal of the playoffs and ended the night plus-3.
- Raffi Torres of all people had the game winner in overtime. Guess that's what happens when you focus a bit less on trying to behead the opposition.
- The Sedin's each had an assist on the Kesler power-play goal. Henrik also was 12-8 on faceoffs for the night.
- Roberto Luongo kept the Canucks in this one stopping 30 of the 33 pucks fired at him.

[PrairieDog]

Somebody get ready to hose Pierre McGuire down

Worth the price of admission right there! Hilarious!

[Dakkster]

Worth the price of admission right there! Hilarious!

I missed that one Anyone hinting towards Pierre's apparent latent homosexuality gets points in my book