2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs

[NEW.ERA]

The Refs missed a few High Sticking calls last night across the board.

Tj Galiardi was one that comes to mind.

[NEW.ERA]

Some more devastating news for the Sens.

Milan Michalek to miss the remainder of the Postseason with Torn ACL.

Michalek joins Alex Kovalev and Filip Kuba on the shelf.

[Seadragon76]

Some more devastating news for the Sens.

Milan Michalek to miss the remainder of the Postseason with Torn ACL.

Michalek joins Alex Kovalev and Filip Kuba on the shelf.

Hearing this makes Ottawa's win last night sound even more impressive. The Sens are now down three good players against the defending champs, yet they hold the 1-0 lead in the series.

This means the other players for Ottawa have to step up. Either that or Pittsburgh is going to slap them silly.

[TrueYankee26]

I thought ottawa was gonna blow the lead once the pens got closer at 5-4, but thankfully they held on.

[NEW.ERA]

Some more devastating news for the Sens.

Milan Michalek to miss the remainder of the Postseason with Torn ACL.

Michalek joins Alex Kovalev and Filip Kuba on the shelf.

Hearing this makes Ottawa's win last night sound even more impressive. The Sens are now down three good players against the defending champs, yet they hold the 1-0 lead in the series.

This means the other players for Ottawa have to step up. Either that or Pittsburgh is going to slap them silly.

The one thing I like about the Sens is that their younger players do step up. Peter Regin (Outside of the penalties) and Erik Karlsson both stepped up massively yesterday and with Ruutu, Neil and Kelly all chipping in, This may not be such a big loss.

[SenatorJake]

Some more devastating news for the Sens.

Milan Michalek to miss the remainder of the Postseason with Torn ACL.

Michalek joins Alex Kovalev and Filip Kuba on the shelf.

Hearing this makes Ottawa's win last night sound even more impressive. The Sens are now down three good players against the defending champs, yet they hold the 1-0 lead in the series.

This means the other players for Ottawa have to step up. Either that or Pittsburgh is going to slap them silly.

The one thing I like about the Sens is that their younger players do step up. Peter Regin (Outside of the penalties) and Erik Karlsson both stepped up massively yesterday and with Ruutu, Neil and Kelly all chipping in, This may not be such a big loss.

That may work well for a game or two (and last night it did work) but at the end of the day, I'm expecting a much stronger performance from 3 guys who will be the Senators key to this series. Alfredsson, Spezza & Elliott.

Brian Elliott was better than Fleury last night but that's not saying much. Alfredsson & Spezza were good, but I've seen both of them be much more dominating in the playoffs over the course of their careers in Ottawa. That's the level they're going to have to be at if there's any hope of knocking out the defending Stanley Cup champions.

One last thing. Losing Michalek & Kovalev for the season in the last week is, well, a devastating blow to Ottawa's group of top 6 forwards. If ever there was a time for Cory Clouston's "team first combined with a strong work ethic" approach to shine, it's now. I'm glad the Sens kept Clouston instead of Heatley.

[TrueYankee26]

Sabres won 2-1.

Caps got underway in OT.

[Shane Does Art]

Wow, there should have been a penalty shot in this OT for the Habs.

[NJTank]

Wow this has been a crazy start to the Playoffs.

I guess its proper the Habs won this game that was an awful missed call by the refs, IF not a Penalty shot it should have been a Power play.

[Cujo]

The Pens AND Caps both lose Game 1, both on home ice. How many people saw THAT coming?

[TFoA]

That's the thing about the NHL: Home advantage in the NHL gives nowhere near as much of an edge as in the other sports. At least from what I've been seeing. (Unless they're playing somewhere where terrible climate control causes the ice to basically turn to mush coughfloridacough)

[Shane Does Art]

Jaromir Jagr, I mean Plekanec scores the game winner against Theodore.

What an ending!

[NEW.ERA]

Oh no ESPN might die.

Good on the Habs tonight.

[Cujo]

Oh no ESPN might die.

Yeah, like ESPN even knows there's a hockey tournament going on right now....

[NEW.ERA]

Oh no ESPN might die.

Yeah, like ESPN even knows there's a hockey tournament going on right now....

Well they know the Pens and Caps are in it and that's really all that matters in the end right.

[PurpleRush]

That's the thing about the NHL: Home advantage in the NHL gives nowhere near as much of an edge as in the other sports. At least from what I've been seeing. (Unless they're playing somewhere where terrible climate control causes the ice to basically turn to mush coughfloridacough)

Agreed, just look at the number of #1 seeds eliminated in the first round in the NHL.

[JACK IS CONSTRUCTION]

Alright Sabres!

I was surprised to see the Habs play extremely well, and against the Capitals too! Very exciting two days in hockey.

[The_Admiral]

That's the thing about the NHL: Home advantage in the NHL gives nowhere near as much of an edge as in the other sports. At least from what I've been seeing. (Unless they're playing somewhere where terrible climate control causes the ice to basically turn to mush coughfloridacough)

Agreed, just look at the number of #1 seeds eliminated in the first round in the NHL.

This is a place where the NBA Playoffs have the Stanley Cup beat. That NBA first round reliably separates the wheat from the chaff so that from the second round on, you're guaranteed to get the goods. The entertainment value of the Stanley Cup is always high, but so often you have the little voice in the back of your head reminding you that this isn't really the best on display (2002 Hurricanes, 2003 Mighty Ducks, 2006 both finalists). And that's fine too, but sometimes I like the certainty of an NBA Finals better than Crappy Trappers With A Streaky Goalie gaming the system.

[ElwoodCuse]

Home ice is a huge advantage in Game 7, though. Across all series, the home team has won Game 7 63% of the time. In the final, the home team is 12-3 in Game 7.

[gingerbreadmann]

So what, though? In the last 3 years, home teams in the regular season are 2038-1224-428. They have won 55.2% of all games and if you count OT/SO losses, they have received 61.0% of all possible points in those games. That is a negligible difference from the 63% playoff average and even so, is easily explained by the fact that the better team (well, going by record) plays at home during Game 7 in the playoffs 100% of the time, so they will win more times than not anyway. And for the final, yeah that is a good record, but even disregarding the above reasons, that is not a large sample at all. We can still speculate, but at first glance it seems that home ice is not any more of an advantage for Game 7 than it is for the first game of the year.