Eastern Conference
The second round of the Eastern Conference playoffs are over, and how unexciting was that? Two sweeps against teams that should be more evenly matched against each other than their first round opponents. It was a sore dissapointment for general hockey fans as there was minimal intrigue throughout both of the series.
Washington did not feel like showing up apparently, as they were dominated in every facet of the game pretty consistenly. They couldn't seem to score with some powerhouse players, including of course Alexander Ovechkin, and they had no answers for the Lightning's style of defense, and offense for that matter. Some of the games were close, but you just had that feeling that Washington just was not going to get it done. The Lightning played solid in every area, and Roloson has been outstanding for the most part throughout these playoffs. Neuvirth did not play badly for Washington either, but he didn't have the support that he needed very often. The difference in the upcoming series will be that Tampa Bay beat a team that was rolling right along and playing good, strong hockey. Boston beat a struggling Flyers team that rode their early and some mid season success into a high playoff seed.
The Flyers and Bruins series could essentially be summed up in one word: goaltending. The Brian Boucher that showed up for this series is not the one that helped the Flyers to a Stanley Cup berth by any stretch of the imagination. It was a terrible showing by Boucher, while Thomas was THE series changer. You could say that the majority of the periods in the series belonged to the Flyers, but you saw way too many routine saves turn into goals. The Flyers didn't play their best hockey at all, but it wasn't terrible, and a large part of that was that they seemed to be playing too defensively to compensate for the lack of goaltending. There were way too many free outs for Boston, and the Flyers seemed to be trying to fill lanes to block shots rather than be aggressive on the puck in the defensive zone. The series really can be summed up by Tim Thomas's outstanding play in net though. Without that kind of play in net the Flyer's are leading the series heading into victory lane, not getting swept.
The upcoming series between Boston and Tampa Bay should be interesting, but I would have to say Tampa has the best shot of making it to the Stanley Cup. They have very good goaltending right now, solid defense, and an explosive offense. They should be able to outscore the the Bruins where the Flyers couldn't mainly from their goaltending. Also, the Bruins are not very disciplined, and the Tampa powerplay has been lethal so far throughout the playoffs. There will be no sweep here, but the Lightning shouldn't be too nervous throughout the series. Tampa Bay advances to the Stanley Cup with a 4-2 series win.
