Seven Things: 6 May 2011
1.The Vancouver Canucks took a 3-1 lead in their second round series against the Nashville Predators Thursday night. In doing so, they accomplished a seventh playoff win – a feat they haven’t been able to do since 2003, when they lost the second round to the Minnesota Wild in seven games. Seven down, nine to go for the big prize, of course, but one more win puts them in the Conference Final for the first time since 1994.
2. Only the Washington Capitals and Detroit Red Wings made quick work of their first round opponents. (In fact, the first round saw a remarkable four game sevens, with two more going six games.) Going into Friday night’s games, those Caps have already been swept by the Bolts and the Wings are in danger of the same fate against San Jose. Philly is in tough against an angry Bruins team, and Vancouver could finish off the Preds in game 5 on Saturday.
3.After getting off the schneid with a pair of goals in game three, Ryan Kesler scored a highlight reel marker midway through the third period of game four, a tally that would prove to be the game winner. A few more plays like that and he’ll actually deserve the Conn Smythe and team MVP talk.
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4. Ex-Canuck and current Predator Shane O’Brien said in a pre-game interview that the Sedins are “two of the classiest people I’ve ever played with.” Henrik, when asked if game four might bring some hatred into the mix, to make the series a little more interesting. His response: “we’re never about hating the other team. We respect every opponent, and just have to play a good, clean, hard game.” Afterward, Barry Trotz and Alain Vigneault were seen holding hands; Shea Weber and Kevin Bieksa made eyes at one another while Tanner Glass and Joel Ward played a lovely duet for cello and flute. After such a long, bitter Hawks series, this Nashville matchup is all kinds of yawn.
5.Speaking of getting off the schneid, Hank himself scored his first goal since March 27. That’s 16 games without a goal, the longest drought of the season, and he had to pot that marker into an empty net. Should we worry, pull our hair out, burn our Canucks jerseys? Hell, no. He also had a pair of 11-game skids, and opened the season with ten straight scoreless games. Even last year, during his historic, Art Ross-winning, Hart-winning season, he had one 9-game scoreless streak and followed it up not too much later with a 10-game drought. Even this Kesler fellow that everyone’s so high upon had a dry spell during the second half of the season, hitting a few empty net posts along the way – his first goal back was also of the EN variety. He seems to be doing all right for himself.
6.All right, already. Canuck backup Cory Schneider is seriously uncomfortable with all the talk of Kesler and Sedin “getting off the schneid”. So, just, you know, stop it.
7.Not so fresh news: Canucks GM Mike Gillis has been nominated for the GM of the Year award, and deservedly so. Fresh news: the past two games have been the best yet for stretch run pickups (and ex-Montreal Canadiens) Maxim Laperriere and Chris Higgins. Playoff magic requires big shifts from unexpected sources, especially when top lines slump. Higgins and Laperriere have both stepped up from mediocre stints in multiple rosters (between them they’ve played for seven teams in the past two years), and they’ve been dangerous in just about every situation they’ve been asked to play by Alain Vigneault. Both acquisitions look like even grander strokes of genius when you consider the Canucks gave up just late-round picks and an AHLer for the two of them, and the fact that they are making good on the extra minutes they’re getting with the loss of Manny Malhotra to injury.