Canucks, Penguins Eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoffs
The Stanley Cup Playoffs are turning out to be one of the most surprising in years. During Sunday’s afternoon game between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Philadelphia Flyers, Crosby and Company had their season come to an end after the Flyers eliminated them from the playoffs. Later that day, the Canucks, who went into the playoffs just after winning the President’s Trophy for the most points in the league this year, were knocked out of the playoffs by the Los Angeles Kings in just five games. With two of the frontrunners out of the race to the Cup, it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s coming next.
After the puck dropped in Sunday’s matchup between the Penguins and the Flyers, it took only five seconds for Claude Giroux to hit Sidney Crosby with a smash that would set the tone for the rest of the game: this one was going to be all Flyers. Crosby was most likely still collecting himself when Giroux scored the first goal of the game just 27 seconds after that hit, putting the Flyers up 1-0 in a very early lead. Within the next two following periods, the Flyers took the lead 3-0 and sent the Pittsburgh Penguins home early, with no Game 7 to follow.
The Penguins had a surprising shot at the series, after being down 3-0 and then putting the series back on track 3-2. Power forward for the Penguins, Jordan Staal said, “Being down 3-0, we were confident and we remained confident. But we just ran out.”
Later in the day, the Vancouver Canucks seemed to fight a little harder to keep their series alive, but still couldn’t seem to pull it out. Henrik Sedin gave Vancouver the lead of 1-0 early in the game, seeming to breathe hope in a series in which they were down 3-1. They kept that hope alive for most of the game, but it was dashed shortly into the third period when Brad Richardson put one past Cory Schneider and tied it for the Los Angeles Kings. With both teams fighting desperately throughout the third, the game was still tied at the end of regulation, sending it into overtime. When both teams emerged back onto the ice twenty minutes later, it took Jarret Stoll only 4:27 to knock the puck into the Canucks’ net, sending them onto Round 2 and sending the Canucks home to an early off-season.
So what exactly went wrong for the Canucks, who were not only the top-seeded team in the league going into the playoffs, but also Cup finalists last year? According to Canucks’ defenseman Sami Salo, “The first two games we made a lot of mistakes that were not common for us. We took a lot of undisciplined penalties and gave them unnecessary momentum.”
Two other teams that have been eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs: the San Jose Sharks, by the St. Louis Blues; and the Detroit Red Wings, by the Nashville Predators.
Categorized in: NHL