Buffalo is our first-round opponent. They have Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, and James Neal. They also have Ryan Miller, who Sid scored the Golden Goal against just over a month ago.
We lost Game 1 at home after the aforementioned Ryan Miller made 36 saves. Sid had an assist on the only Leaf goal, which was scored by Erik Johnson.
We won Game 2 behind a two-point effort from Victor Hedman. Sid was pointless.
Game 3 in Buffalo went to us. Sid scored the game winner.
We also win Game 4 in Buffalo after Sid came up with a three-point performance.
We are, once again, up 3-1 in the first round. But, thank god, Jon Sim is nowhere to be seen as he is off playing in Chicago instead of setting up a comeback against us.
Good God, we lost Game 5 at home in OT on a shorthanded goal by
Matt Read.
We were blown out in Buffalo in Game 6, 7-1. Good God.
Once again, our series is the only one heading 7.
We won, 5-4. Sid said no thanks to the collapse and scored twice. Overall, he had three points, but was a -4. Incredible.
We are playing the Islanders in the second round. The Isles have both Jimmy Howard and Corey Schneider, which I originally laughed at them for until I remembered Andersen is playing his ass off with the Marlies. Other than that, they seem to only really have a young Karlsson and a young Brad Marchand.
Okay, wait, the Isles also have Martin Jones AND Ondrej Pavelec? Amazing. Four tries and they did not end up with a single game-changing goalie. Now I can laugh.
We won Game 1. Sid scored a goal.
We won Game 2 as well. Sid had an assist.
We lost Game 3. Sid was held pointless.
Christ, we won Game 4 11-1. Sid had a goal and an assist in the beatdown. A 3-1 lead, what could go wrong?
We lost Game 5, a close one, 3-2. Sid had a goal and an assist.
And we won Game 6! Sid had an assist. We are going to the Conference Final for the first time!
Patrick Kane’s Bruins and Jonathan Toews’ Thrashers are in a Game 7 to see who will play us. Add these two to the list of split duos.
The Thrashers won. Ilya Kovalchuk scored
four goals and added an assist. Toews had two assists.
Kovalchuk had four goals. The only person not named Thornton, Kane, Bergeron, or Oshie to hit the scoresheet for the Bruins was some guy named Jack Hillman who had an assist in the loss.
So, Atlanta. They have Kovalchuk, Toews, Heatley, and Briere. Where they are weak is on D where Braydon Coburn and Dan Girardi will have to stop Sid. Lehtonen on the back end isn’t that intimidating either. But yeah, good luck to us trying to contain Kovalchuk, who seems to be playing possessed hockey. Guy has 18 points in 12 games in the playoffs.
Game 1 goes to Atlanta 7-3. Kovalchuk had a hat trick. Ilya Kovalchuk, three days removed from a four-goal game, scored a hat trick in Toronto. Somehow, Sid escaped with a +1 and Victor Hedman had an even rating.
Game 2 we lost 2-0.
The series shifted to Atlanta in Game 3 and we lost 3-2 despite a multi-point effort from Sid. Down 3-0, do we have it in us?
No, we don’t. Ilya Kovalchuk beats us down one last time. It’s officially Toews (Kovalchuk!) 1 – Crosby 0.
Sid finished the playoffs with 18 points in 17 games.
Detroit and Atlanta go seven in the Final. Can you imagine if Atlanta won the Cup here and then left for Winnipeg anyway? What a mess that would be.
We are saved from that scenario by the Wings, who eked out a 3-2 win. It took Nick Lidstrom, Niklas Kronwall, Henrik Zetterberg, and Pavel Datsyuk to defeat Ilya Kovalchuk. I wouldn’t be mad if Kovalchuk got the Conn Smythe.
Kronwall gets it.
