A few thoughts, in no particular order, as the first-round comes to a close.
(1): I haven't really gotten a chance to write about it in depth, but the one match-up that really surprised me -- and a lot of other people, I'm sure -- was Montreal's manhandling of Tampa Bay. Yes, there's always a different feel when you don't have your starting goaltender in net, and for the most part, Anders Lindback was atrocious. The officiating stuff in this series was eyebrow-raising, too.
But, Ben Bishop couldn't have saved Tampa Bay from the fate they deserved. At the most, he could've provided a stay of execution to games five or six. Tampa Bay was totally out-played by Montreal in just about every single game -- which isn't something we said about Tampa Bay often during this regular season. Conversely, Montreal never impressed me this regular season like they did last, but here they are, moving on into round two. And, in impressive fashion.
I don't like their chances against Boston, but that series should be a fun one.
(2) Speaking of Boston! I wrote before the post-season that if there's one team I'd be concerned about as a Bruins fan, it's the New York Rangers. I bet Claude Julien and the rest of the staff aren't upset with Philadelphia pushing that series to 2-2. I thought New York was probably the second-best Eastern Conference team from November or December on, and although Philadelphia's definitely an improved club from one year ago, I don't know how they take care of New York in this best-of-three here.
He hasn't really gotten a lot of attention, but assuming the Blueshirts can win two of three here against the Flyers, I'd like to see more praise for the work Alain Vigneault has done in just one season. There's truth to the fact that he really inherited a talented hockey club, but it's tough for a first-year bench boss to come in and just put together a really sound club on both ends of the rink.
Having Henrik Lundqvist helps, too.
(3) I watched the sequence leading up to Colorado's game-tying goal against Minnesota last night, and for all of the talk about brutal missed calls in the first-round, I'm not sure there was one worse than Andre Benoit's blatant stick-hold to stave off Minnesota's empty-net bid. As obvious as they come, and the referees -- who either outright missed the call, or didn't bother to call it because they thought the game was mostly over anyway -- basically pulled the needle out of Colorado's arm. And, low and behold, an equalizer just moments later.
(4) How good is Nathan MacKinnon? No thought here. Just reality. Watching him (and that young Colorado team in general) grow is going to be fun. I'm not convinced they're a good team right now, but it's hard to believe they're not going to be a force in a couple of years.
(5) I wrote a couple of days ago about the problems Tyler Seguin's posing to Anaheim. I could basically rewrite the same exact story, but switching 'Tyler Seguin' with 'Mikko Koivu' and 'Anaheim' with 'Colorado.
Shot-attempts when Koivu's on the ice are 78-37 in favor of Minnesota through five games. It's kind of nutty how one-sided all of that is., and it's more or less the highest percentage of play carried by any individual this post-season.
I think Koivu's one of the more underrated players in the league, anyway. This feels like a bit of a reminder on that front, though his team's now staring down a 3-2 deficit and a must-win game on home-ice in game six.
Thanks for reading!