All four Eastern Conference Quarters were moved forward yesterday and not one fight broke out (I can't count the brief slap-fest between Armstrong and Comrie) Not one! I guess Eric will be trolling for vintage footage. The Sharks and the Preds can't go 20 minutes without a kerfuffle while the Sabres and the Isles refuse to even get their hair mussed.
Saturday saw one team blow two different one goal leads (Ottawa), and another erased a two goal deficit (Buffalo). A third team's goalie rose to the occasion to tie their series (Tampa) while a backup played well enough to win but didn't (Atlanta). The scores were low, the outcomes only mildly surprising, and none of the upper seeds have defended home ice.
Points of Interest:
- Big Story: Rick DiPietro was fantastic for the Isles last night. But, then again, so was the team in fornt of him. If the Sabres don't start taking them seriously and bear down like they mean it, this is going to be a long series.
- The Isles 3rd best road Power Play was the difference in this game, that and they won nearly every puck battle.
- Johan Holmqvist is now 16-6-3 in games after a loss.
- The Devils line-matching gets tougher on the road. That means more room for Vinny and Company.
- Ottawa's defense is soft and it's why the Pens were able to come back and win that game.
- Bryan Murray will never understand why he loses, ''They've won one game and didn't touch the puck for two periods.'' Refusing to take responsibility starts at the top and works through the lineup.
- By contrast Lindy Ruff said, "We just weren't moving... You've got to give them some credit because they were really skating. They were doing a tremendous job backchecking."
- Bob Hartley's decision to start Hedberg was a good one. He played well enough to win stopping 37 of 39 shots. Too bad Ilya Kovalchuk only showed up for the 3rd period.
