Pretty competitive second round, eh?

Dallas up 2-0

Detroit up 2-0

Pittsburgh up 2-0

First on the Dallas-San Jose series: You’ve got to give props to the Stars, who are playing tremendous hockey, last night rallying from a 2-1 deficit. They’re 8-0-1 in their last nine in San Jose.

Now, the series isn’t over. The Sharks are an outstanding road team, but something’s going on with Dallas. And now, they’ve gotten Sergei Zubov back, and he makes that incredible pass to Mike Modano last night for the third-period power-play goal.

San Jose looked like it swigged Jager between the second and third last night. Joe Pavelski simply fell three times. Brian Campbell couldn’t get the puck out of his own end, and continually didn’t pick up the right players. I keep on watching him and thinking, “He wants $7 or $8 million a year????”

The Sharks just couldn’t make a pass through the neutral zone, while everything seemed to be cohesive for the Stars — from Marty Turco on out. The Stars come at you in waves, and there’s the shrewd veteran play of guys like Stu Barnes, who made the defensive play of the game last night with a bigtime backcheck to save a goal.

And Dave Tippett is a great, great coach, and you can tell with Dallas’ attention to all the little things.

Second on the Colorado-Detroit series: Little different series than the Wild-Avs, eh? First of all, no Peter Forsberg, no Wojtek Wolski, no Scott Hannan (remember I told you how he secretly had a leg injury because I watched him walk into the Pepsi Center with the use of an hourglass?).

Do you go with Peter Budaj in Game 3? Jose Theodore’s been that bad.

The Avs are a different team when they play from behind, which Wild fans would not know

But like I wrote earlier this season, this is not the same type of Detroit team that typically would lose in the first round. The Wings also come at you in waves, and have the grit they didn’t have in years past.

Johan Franzen has emerged as a bona fide Tomas Holmstrom-like star. The Mule was the 97th pick in the 2004 Draft. That was the year the Red Wings didn’t have a first-, second- or third-round pick, yet they show up late to the party and grab a star with their first pick at No. 97.

Their scouts are truly amazing. They constantly get stars late — see Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg.

Third on the Pittsburgh-Rangers series: Game 1 was the best hockey game I’ve seen all year. Rangers were up 3-0, and I kept on saying to two friends of mine, this ain’t over. You could just tell.

Next thing you know, Pittsburgh reels off four straight goals before the Rangers tie it. And again, I kept on saying, this thing’s going to end in regulation. And then Sidney Crosby takes a shot off Evgeni Malkin’s skate and poof, insane meltdown by the Rangers.

Second playoff team this year to blow a 3-0 lead (San Jose in Calgary).

Fast forward to Game 2, and the Pens just smothered the Rangers with a hard, tight style. You know who was unbelievable yesterday? Pascal Dupuis. He was very good on the penalty kill, and relentless at even-strength.

Fourth on the Philadelphia-Montreal series: Tied 1-1, and Nasty with a capital ‘N.’ Montreal scares me. Any city that riots after a first-round win scares me.

Aeros were dispatched 4-1 by Rockford in the first round, so the Wild officially is in the offseason.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.