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Originally Posted by FRED HALE SR.
The series has been pretty decent considering how one sided the 3-0 deficit is. I really thought Pitt looked like the better team in game 3 and came up empty. What a heartbreaker for them. Bostons first line has picked apart Pitt which is a big surprise to me. Should be an interesting game 4 as Pitt is gonna bring the heat, lets see what Boston has in store.
As for the Hawks series I think everything has gone as I thought it would. Their speed through the neutral zone has caused some problems for LA. Quick and the Kings might have spent a little too much in the past two series they look a little gassed at times. That was a sloppy goal Quick let in last night but overall I thought Chicago really brought the game to them in general. Where the hell did Bickel come from that dude has been a monster.
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I thought the Penguins played well in the first 30-35 minutes of game 1, and dominated the second and third periods of game 3. Other than that, it has pretty much been all Bruins.
I think I underestimated how porous the Penguins D is when they play their usual high tempo style of game. The Bruins did whatever the hell they wanted in the first two games to advance the puck up the ice and pen the Penguins in their own zone, especially the Krejci line. And the Penguins didn't help their cause at all with what they were doing on offense. I haven't seen that many defensemen pinch only to lose possession and get caught up the ice for an odd-man rush. It's kind of one of those things that you look back on in hindsight and say, "How did I miss that?" One of the Bruins main strengths is their transition game and breakouts, and it looks like defending that might be the Penguins greatest weakness. They did tighten up a lot defensively in game 3, but the Bruins still found a way to expose them a lot in OT.
The Penguins came on VERY hard in the last two periods of regulation on Wednesday, but, even when they did, the Bruins collapsed very effectively around Rask to limit the Pens' opportunities and Rask himself has been great. How poorly Boston played in the second and third worries me a bit, but they did come on strong in OT and carried the play for the most part. Those second and third periods though... wow. Absolutely nothing was working for them. I don't think I've ever seen the Bruins get dominated on faceoffs like that. Everyone just kind of disappeared except Rask. Still, I take a bit of solace in the fact that they rebounded and that the Penguins threw everything they had into that game and still lost. Not sure how that will affect the Penguins going forward. They could have just hit an emotional wall after losing with that effort, or they could use it as something to build on.
Bruins need to show that killer instinct. They did it against New York, but they could be dealing with a sleeping giant in Pittsburgh if things start to slip.
The Kings just flat out aren't playing good hockey, and I really don't think they have been for most of the playoffs. Quick is pretty much the only thing going for them right now. St. Louis took it to them and carried the play for basically the whole series and they were kind of hit or miss against the Sharks. Having two shots on net in the third when you're trailing by one goal only a minute into the period is just inexcusable. 100% credit goes to Quick for taking them this far (and I wouldn't put it past him to mount a comeback in this series by himself) but I don't think the rest of the team really deserves to win, to be honest.