With just over ten minutes remaining tonight it looked all but certain that the Toronto Maple Leafs would advance to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
Then a comeback of the ages started to take place. Down 4-1, the Bruins scored three unanswered third period goals before Patrice Bergeron capped off the remarkable comeback in overtime. The final two regulation goals, one from Milan Lucic, the other from Bergeron, came in the last 1:22 of the contest. The Bruins won the series 4-3 with the 5-4 victory, but in the process stunned hockey fans around the continent.
With the win, the Bruins will face the New York Rangers in round 2. The Rangers got a dominating performance by their entire franchise in a game 7 victory over the Washington Capitals. Henrik Lundqvist made 35 saves, while Steve Eminger and Derick Brassard has two assists each in a 5-0 Rangers win and a 4-3 series victory.
Henrik Lundqvist (Robert Kowal, Wikimedia Commons)
Two original six teams forced a game seven on Monday night.
At the Madison Square Garden in New York Sunday afternoon, Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves as the New York Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals 1-0 in game six of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal. This series is now tied up at three games apiece heading into the American national capital city this evening.
The lone Rangers goal came in the second period on a goal from Derick Brassard from John Moore and Mats Zuccarello of Oslo, Norway.
It was a bit of a tough game for Capitals rookie Tom Wilson.
Henrik Zetterberg (Dan Nicholas, Wikimedia Commons)
One of the most exciting times in the world of sports is simply game seven. That’s what we’ll have Sunday night in southern California as the Anaheim Ducks host the Detroit Red Wings.
Last night, Red Wings’ captain Henrik Zetterberg scored at 1:04 of overtime to give the Red Wings a 4-3 win over the Ducks to tie their Western Conference quarterfinal series at three games apiece.
The Red Wings might have a strong core of veterans, but after all these years are still getting it done. Goaltender Jimmy Howard is playing at an elite level as Detroit will look to move on during their last year in the Western Conference. How dangerous will Detrot be next year in the East? The answer is very. The game will be seen Sunday night on TSN at 8:00 p.m.
Here are the other events I’ll be watching this weekend:
Saturday & Sunday– PGA–Players Championship–NBC–12 p.m.– Spain’s Sergio Garcia, probably one of the best golfers in the world to have never won a major, currently leads Tiger Woods by a stroke after shooting a -11 at Sawgrass over the first two days of competition. Garcia and Woods have won the Players Championship once before– Woods in 2001 and Garcia in 2008. As for the first round leader, American Roberto Castro, he went from -9 to -3 and 1st to 30th after shooting a 78 on Friday.
The Boston Bruins are in the driver’s seat in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal. On Wednesday evening in Toronto, David Krejci recorded a hat trick, including the overtime winner as Boston beat Toronto 4-3 to take a 3-1 series lead.
The biggest story however has come the Leafs’ significant others, where actress Elisha Cuthbert (fiancee of captain Dion Phaneuf) gave an uncomfortable glance toward April Reimer (wife of James Reimer). It was Phaneuf who gave the puck up to Krejci on his own blueline.
In other action, two other games went to overtime. Slava Voynov scored in overtime to give the Los Angeles Kings a 3-2 win and a 3-2 series lead in their Western Conference quarterfinal series against the St. Louis Blues. While in Anaheim, the Ducks got an overtime winner from Nick Bonino in a 3-2 win to take a 3-2 series lead over the Detroit Red Wings.
Just when you seem to think the Detroit Red Wings were showing their age and looked vulnerable on defense, they got right back into their Western Conference quarterfinal series with the Anaheim Ducks on Monday.
Damien Brunner scored at 15:10 of overtime last night to give Detroit a 3-2 win over Anaheim to tie their best out of seven series at 2-2.
Brunner scored on the rebound after Ducks goaltender Jonas Hiller made a huge save on Gustav Nyquist.
There will be great excitement at the Air Canada Centre this evening as the Toronto Maple Leafs are heading home for game three of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinal Series against the Boston Bruins.
On the weekend the Maple Leafs shocked the hockey world with a convincing 4-2 win over Boston. Former Edmonton Oiler Joffrey Lupul of Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta notched two goals in Toronto’s victory.
However even though the Maple Leafs are the underdogs. I don’t hear many Canadians cheering for them unless they have strong familial connections to southern Ontario, or they took a gamble by loading up with Maple Leafs in their hockey pool.
This week on 15MOF we update the Boston Marathon bombings, look at an apology (of sorts) from the Edmonton Oilers, check in with the latest player to go under the knife and we cheer on the Edmonton Oil Kings.
In the GABBYs: David Ortiz, Stephen Curry, Keith Yandle, the Toronto Maple Leafs, Yovani Gallardo & the supporters of Argentina’s Huracan football club. The Punchline this week is Liverpool striker Luis Suarez!
For the seventh consecutive season, the Edmonton Oilers will not be playing in the postseason.
On Sunday evening the Oilers lost 3-1 to the Anaheim Ducks. The Oilers needed to win their final five games and get an immense amount of help from other teams to qualify for the postseason. They simply didn’t get it.
How bad is it for the Oilers now? Well, the Calgary Flames beat the Minnesota Wild 4-1 to pass the Oilers in the standings. To make matters worse, it was one of the Flames’ prospects, Mark Cundari, that led the Flames in scoring with a goal and an assist. Cundar was acquired by the Flames from the St. Louis Blues at the trade deadline for Jay Bouwmeester.
Also, the Oilers now have the longest current NHL streak of consecutive playoffs missed after the Toronto Maple Leafs clinched a playoff spot for the first time since 2004 after defeating the Ottawa Senators 4-1 on Saturday.
Edmonton has four more games left this season, and to many loyal fans the end of the season cannot come soon enough.
The biggest story heading into Saturday is Tiger Woods. According to CBS there was a possibility that Woods would be disqualified heading into the third round of the Masters (Saturday, CBS, 1:00 p.m.) for dropping his ball in an illegal area after his approach shot on the 15th hole hit the flag stick and went into the water. Woods apparently dropped his ball two yards back from where he should have dropped it.
However, according to ESPN, Woods was only given a two stroke penalty after officials reviewed the tape. Do you think Woods was given preferential treatment by officials because of his status or is a two-stroke penalty considered harsh enough? Please comment at www.anysportanytime.ca. One thing is for sure, and that is a major golf tournament with Tiger Woods boosts television ratings significantly more than a major golf tournament without him.
So far there have been 15 NHL trades on trade deadline day, but none more were bigger than the trade between the Columbus Blue Jackets and New York Rangers.
On Wednesday, the Jackets acquired Marian Gaborik from the Rangers for forwards Derek Dorsett (an enforcer with offensive upside who is hurt right now but might be ready in time for the playoffs), Derrick Brassard, defenceman John Moore and a sixth round pick.
This trade is interesting primarily because the Blue Jackets and Rangers made a blockbuster deal that involved Rick Nash in the summer of 2012.
In other moves, the Penguins acquired shootout specialist Jussi Jokinen from the Carolina Hurricanes, the San Jose Sharks reacquired defenceman Scott Hannan from the Nashville Predators and Raffi Torres from the Phoenix Coyotes, the Minnesota Wild acquired Jason Pominville from the Mnnesota Wild, the Phoenix Coyotes also sent forward Steve Sullivan to the New Jersey Devils and Matthew Lombardi to the Anaheim Ducks, the St. Louis Blues sent Wade Redden to the Boston Bruins, and the Colorado Avalanche sent Ryan O’Byrne to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
After two losses on their nine game marathon trip to Minnesota and St. Louis, the Edmonton Oilers enhanced their toughness on Monday by acquiring Mike Brown from the Toronto Maple Leafs for a fourth round draft pick in the 2014 National Hockey League Entry Draft.
Brown had one assist in 12 games for the Leafs, but was their leader in penalty minutes with 70, 15 more than Colton Orr.
In 254 games with the Vancouver Canucks, Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs from 2007-2013, Brown has 519 penalty minutes in 254 games.
It will now be interesting to see if Brown will replace Ben Eager as the Oilers’ number one goon and if he will provide the toughness and grit the Oilers are looking for, so their star players have more space on the ice when playing even strength.
The Oilers next play the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight, and are four points back of Dallas for a playoff spot.
Yes there’s hockey and football this weekend, but how could one not get excited about the Australian Open at the moment. There is literally some thrilling tennis from down under. Last night, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario advanced to the fourth round with a straight sets win over Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber. Bad news is he has Roger Federer next!
On the ladies side, Ana Ivanovic, the former French Open champion takes on Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the Wimbledon finalist, in the fourth round (Sunday, TSN2, 1:00 a.m.)
Here are the other games I’m watching this weekend:
Saturday–NHL–Toronto Maple Leafs @ Montreal Canadiens–CBC–5:00 p.m.–I heard a report on Sportsnet yesterday that the Maple Leafs and Canadiens could battle for the worst team in the Eastern Conference this season. The Habs are expected to have Tomas Plekanec in their lineup despite some sore ribs. The Maple Leafs meanwhile will be led this season by Phil Kessel, who averaged a point a game last season.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have fired Brian Burke just over one week before the start of the 2013 National Hockey League regular season.
On Wednesday, Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment announced the firing of Burke and that the franchise’s senior vice-president and director of hockey operations, Dave Nonis would take over.
This is an interesting move on a number of fronts. First, Nonis has a strong experience with Burke, dating back to their days of Anaheim and Vancouver. Second, one could argue that the two hockey executives have similar philosophical approaches about the game and that Nonis is an extension of Burke. And third, one could make the argument that the MLSE decision had more to do with economics than anything else, as outsiders could assume that Nonis would be making less as a GM than Burke.
One more interesting decision is that MLSE has decided to keep Burke on as a senior advisor. What do you think? Let us know at www.anysportanytime.ca.
I said at the beginning of the lockout to anyone that asked me about the National Hockey League situation, that the league would be dumb if they did not play the 2013 Winter Classic on New Year’s Day from Detroit.
With 100,000 fans expected to attend the University of Michigan to see the Detroit Red Wings hosting the Toronto Maple Leafs, the game would have been a gigantic moneymaker for the NHL.
Today the NHL announced there will be no Winter Classic. Sure, you can have one in 2014, but without the Winter Classic taking place, the chances of their being a season are significantly bleaker.
One comment from a Maple Leafs fan I read on the Internet today made me chuckle. “On the bright side, the Leafs are still tied for first overall in the standings” said a fan posted as of November 2.
With just over ten minutes remaining tonight it looked all but certain that the Toronto Maple Leafs would advance to the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
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