Wednesday Night Previews

Washington Capitals v New York Rangers

Can the Caps get their attacking game going in this series? They might be up 2-1 but they have hardly set the playoffs alight yet. All the teams leading the other 7 series so far have looked good in 1 or more games so far. I just haven't been able to get excited about this Washington team yet. Yes, they have played good defensively but the Rangers hardly turned up in those first 2 games in Washington. As soon as game 3 arrived and New York had home ice advantage they improved vastly and Washington just didn't step up with them. You can't win a series by only scoring 2 goals in every game. That's all Washington have managed to do so far. Ovechkin has 2 of these already and has had a pretty good series so far. He can't do it all on his own though, as much as he tried. Washington need to get 3 or 4 players on streaks, Semin, Backstrom, Laich all need to be prominent in game 4 if Washington are to go back to Washington with a chance of ending it in 5.

New York will have the Maddison Square Garden support again tonight and will be looking for further improvements after the 3-2 win last time out. They still need to get more offence going as well, with only 4 goals scored in this series so far. Lundqvist has been superb for the Rangers and they will be looking to him to keep the Caps at 2 goals or less again and give the forwards a chance to get the series tied at 2-2.
Home ice advantage will provail for me and this series will go back to Washington level. Washington need to pick themselves up and raise their game to the level they can play and im sure this will come in game 5 when they are back home. I have seen some fearsome crowds the last few days for away teams, Boston managed to get past it against Montreal Sunday night but Vancouver didn't in Chicago last night and i don't think Washington will in New York.

Pittsburgh Penguins v Tampa Bay Lightning

Pittsburgh are another team who haven't set this playoff's alight yet. They have only scored 7 goals so far in 3 games, almost half of them coming from the 4th line of Adams, Rupp and Asham. They are badly missing Malkin and Crosby from their forward line. Crosby apparently took his first full training session yesterday and is still on the comeback road. Will he be ready for this game? Im not sure. Pittsburgh did themselves a huge favour in stealing game 3 in wrestling home ice advantage back. They could have also bought an extra game for Sid. Losing both games in Tampa would have seen them going back home 3-1 down, they probably would have had to throw Crosby into game 4 to try and stop that. Now, even with a loss, they will be going back equal with the home advantage. Crosby can step back into that game without being rushed.
Pittsburgh will more likely be relying on the likes of Kovalev and Staal to start picking up some points to try and go 3-1 up in this series.

Tampa Bay were one of my favourites to cause an upset. I thought their forwards would be able to dominate the Penguins more than they have and get them through. They did in game 2 but haven't been consistent throughout. They have been good on the powerplay and LeCavilier and St Louis have both been hot. Stamkos now needs to get hot and with Gagne returning in game 3 as well, the Lightning will be looking to these players to come up big in game 4. I don't know what the crowd are like in Tampa Bay. Are the fans as passionate as say a hockeytown that has great tradition such as Detroit, New York, Montreal, Chicago? Will they be a factor tonight and be able to lift their team after a disheartening game 3?
I think they will be and Tampa will head back into Pittsburgh 2-2. At that point, Crosby will step into the series and will likely turn the series in Pittsburgh's favour.

Philadelphia Flyers v Buffalo Sabres

Don't expect anything more than another close game in Buffalo tonight. Buffalo are another team hoping they can get their series back to 2-2 before heading off back to an away day game 5. Buffalo's challenge against the Flyers was always going to be based on defense. They got the perfect start in game 1, shutting down Flyers team that underpeformed and must have been rocketed for there performance. The 2 games since have seen the Flyers score 9 times on All Star netminder Ryan Miller and they will be hoping for the same intensity from the forward lines. Miller will be wanting to cut out the rebounds and hope his defensemen can help him a bit more. 2 of those defensemen could be missing again, Morrisonn and Sekera are still suffering upper body injuries. The only way for the Sabres to win this game is to keep te Flyers to less than 2 goals and hope their hard working forwards can do enough to get the series tied. The Sabres will be hoping Kaleta is fit and see's more ice time than the 3 or 4 minutes he did in game 3 and that Vanek can get amongst the goals.

The Flyers will be extremely happy being 2-1 up after going 1-0 down. They have the chance to make it 3-1 heading home. Carter, Briere and Giroux have all been good for the Flyers, Zherdev is back in the lineup and scoring, Van Riemsdyk Hartnell and Leino can all step it up still and thats without evening mentioning captain Richards. 8 Forwards who on their game could be match winners for this Flyers outfit. I think with this much firepower on their lineup, the Flyers will be heading home to finish off the series 3-1 up. I think the 1-0 loss in game 1 was a shock and a rocket they needed to go out and perform better. As long as the team play their game with desire and passion, the natural skill and balance on this time will win out.

Anaheim Ducks v Nashville Predators

Anaheim will be looking to get an away win and head back into Anaheim 2-2 with home ice advantage still intact. Ray Emery will need to produce another sterling effort in net to try and keep Nashville off the scoreboard. Emery was the one of 2 standout players for the Ducks in game 3, the other was Selanne. After that game Selanne criticised his team mates (excluding Emery) saying they were embarrasing. Is this the rally call for the Ducks that will see them finally start to get on the scoreboard and put these plucky Predators to the sword?

Nashville have been up for this series. They want it. They want to get that first series 1 win in franchise history and get into that 2nd round. There scoring has been spread around the team, with 8 different players getting goals so far. Fisher has been the leader up front, scoring 3 times and getting 2 assists as well. I have queried all series where the Predators were going to get their offence from. I don't think they have a brilliant, skilled forward player who is an out and out point getter. This showed during the regular season with not one player hitting the 60 point mark. What is now being proven is this team relies on every player to step up, not just one. They are getting scoring off every line and whilst the Ducks have been misfiring in general, Nashville have found a way to get goals in each game.
My prediction at the start of the series was for a Ducks sweep. After the first 3 games i can see another strong Predators performance tonight and them taking a 3-1 lead. Anaheim will still be missing Ryan, serving the 2nd game of a 2 match ban - a player who could have had a difference on the outcome of this game.

Detroit Redwings v Phoenix Coyotes

Detroit will want to finish this series off in 4 games to give their stars a rest before the 2nd round. Zetterberg is still out injured and it would mean they won't have to rush him back for a game 6 or 7. Datsyuk hasn't taken part in 3 recent training sessions and Franzen has the war scars still visible from game 2. If they can get this series done in 4 it will certainly give them a better chance of going deeper into the playoffs. After going 7 games with Phoenix last year they then crashed out 4-1 against the Sharks, running out of gas in the 2nd round. Detroit have been impressive so far in the playoffs and a chance to keep players fresh will be welcome and would surely give them an advantage over their 2nd round opponents. The Redwings need to find a way of shutting down the Coyotes powerplay to have any chance of finishing early. Either that or stay out of the box. The Coyotes last 5 goals have all been with the man advantage.

Phoenix have struggled all series. Bryzgalov has struggled between the pipes, conceeding 4 goals in every game so far. He is Phoenix's best player and the one they really needed to be on form in this series. He hasn't made the big saves when he has needed to and needs to show some sort of form this evening.
In the regular season the Coyotes were ranked 5th in even handed goals. This is another area they have struggled. In the last 2 games all the Coyotes goals have come on the powerplay. They need to get some even handed scoring going and going quick. Ever since Datsyuk scored after 7.38 of the 2nd period in game 1, Phoenix haven't had the lead in a game. They need to come into game 4 with all guns blazing, get ahead and stay ahead. They need a way of getting under Howard's skin and getting some pressure around the net. Howard has played well so far but has been allowed to. There are always rebounds where he is concerned but Phoenix haven't capitalised on this. They need to get players to those rebounds and create 2nd an 3rd scoring chances off of plays.

I can't see the Phoenix coming out and blowing the Redwings away in the style Chicago did last night with the Canucks but i can see a close game that could go either way. Powerplays will win or lose this game. If Detroit give away too many 2 minute minors then this game will be going back to the Joe on Friday.