Hockey Today
SCOREBOARD
Friday, May 1
Anaheim at Detroit (7 p.m. EDT). The Ducks and Red Wings open their second-round series. The eighth-seeded Ducks beat top-seeded San Jose in six games in the first round, while the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings swept Columbus.
STAR
Thursday
— Sami Salo, Canucks, broke a tie on a 3-on-1 rush with 1:13 left in Vancouver’s 5-3 victory over Chicago in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinal series.
SELECTED
Detroit’s Chris Chelios, the NHL’s oldest player at 47, joined Nashville’s Steve Sullivan and Florida’s Richard Zednik on Thursday as finalists for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy. The award, named in honor of late Minnesota North Stars player, is given to “the player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” The winner will be announced June 18.
SWITZERLAND
Dmitri Kalinin scored with 56 seconds left in overtime to give Russia a 6-5 victory over Sweden on Thursday in Bern in the second round of the world championship. Also, Ruslan Salei scored with 25 seconds left in overtime to give Belarus a 3-2 victory over Norway. Canada routed the Czech Republic 5-1, and Latvia rode goalie Edgars Masalskis to a shootout win over Switzerland.
STATUS
Detroit forward Kris Draper will miss Games 1 and 2 against Anaheim because of an upper-body injury. He did not play in the first round against Columbus.
SPEAKING
“It’s definitely not fun to have these marks on your face, but in the playoffs it feels all right. These aren’t something you worry about too much. They get you attention more than anything.”—Vancouver’s Kyle Wellwood after the Canucks’ 5-3 win over Chicago on Thursday night. Wellwood was hit in the face twice with a stick in Game 1 against the Blackhawks, receiving five stitches above his left eye, a fat lower lip, losing a tooth and chipping another. He also had two assists, drew five power plays and started the rush that resulted in Sami Salo’s tiebreaking goal.
What bettors need to know: Friday's NHL playoff action
By DUSTIN NIELSON
Anaheim Ducks at Detroit Red Wings (-240, 5.5)
Beating the best
As far as the NHL regular season standings go, the Anaheim Ducks have already beaten the best team. The prize for beating the President Trophy winning Sharks is a date with the defending Stanley Cup Champs.
"Now, I think we're playing what's the best team in the league in Detroit," Anaheim defenseman Ryan Whitney told reporters. "I know San Jose had a better record, but I think everyone thinks Detroit's probably the best. They're reigning champs. We just have to play the way we did. “
When the puck drops in Game 1 it will mark the first time in a long time that the past two Stanley Cup champions have met in the postseason.
Battle of the bluelines
Never before has there been such a plethora of talent on the backend in a playoff series. The Red Wings boast Niklas Lidstrom and Brian Rafalski while the Ducks comeback with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger.
The foursome has combined for 12 Stanley Cups, eight Norris trophies and two Conn-Smythe awards as playoff MVP.
Scott Niedermayer has been great in the playoffs so far with five points while practically playing a rover role on the Anaheim power play.
Special teams
The Red Wings cruised past the Blue Jackets in the first round thanks in large part to the effectiveness of their power play. The Wings went 7-for-22 in the first round and allowed just three power-play goals against.
One of the keys in the series will be the Ducks’ penalty kill. Anaheim held the Sharks to just four power-play goals in the opening round. During the regular season the Wings power play was 5-for-20 against the Ducks.
Between the pipes
The matchup of masked men features the wily veteran against the upstart youngster. There’s no doubt that Jonas Hiller will get the start for the Ducks in Game 1. Hiller posted two shutouts, a .957 save percentage and 1.64 goals against average in the opening round upset of the Sharks.
The Red Wings showed faith in Chris Osgood and it paid off in the opening round as he showed flashes of brilliance at times against the Blue Jackets. All week long leading up to Game 1, Osgood has been listed as probable and it is likely that he will be ready to go for Detroit.
Carolina Hurricanes at Boston Bruins (-200, 5.5)
The momentum factor
The Carolina Hurricanes are fresh off one of the greatest Game 7 comebacks in the history of the NHL. The Bruins will need to avoid a letdown after having nine days off following a first round sweep of the Canadiens.
Regardless of how well the Bruins played during the regular season, a playoff layoff can be an absolute killer. Look for the Hurricanes to use their momentum from the last minute comeback over the Devils to at least put some pressure on Tim Thomas and the Bruins in the first 10 minutes of Game 1.
The Hurricanes know the Bruins will be a much bigger challenge than the Devils.
“This was an easy series compared to what the next one’s going to be like," pint-sized Hurricanes forward Ray Whitney told reporters.
Head-to-head domination
The Bruins owned the Hurricanes during the regular season. Boston won all four head-to-head meetings and outscored Carolina 18-6. Eric Staal, who was the Game 7 hero against New Jersey, was minus 6 and didn’t have a point in the four regular season games against Boston.
The last time the two teams met the Bruins crushed the Hurricanes 5-1 but following that loss Staal and the Canes turned things around going 17-5-2 down the stretch.
"I think we found our team identity after we played the Bruins," Staal told the media. "Hopefully, they’re going to see a team that’s building off this series and ready to fight to get to the conference finals."
Staying sharp
The Bruins have attempted to stay on the top of their game by holding a 20-minute inter squad scrimmage earlier in the week.
"I think it's important that we don't let ourselves slip too much and try and stay on top of our game and that's kind of the idea behind the scrimmage”, coach Claude Julien told the press. "A little bit of a scrimmage will put us into game-like situations as best we can, and then make sure that we stay on top of our game."
They never had a break of a week or more during the regular season but Boston was 9-3 while playing on three-days rest. The first period of Game 1 will show if they’ve managed to carry that over to the playoffs.
Who is Chad Larose?
Chad Larose scorched the New Jersey Devils for seven points in the opening round of the playoffs. The Devils clearly aren’t too pleased with Larose’s success but I’m stoked that I picked him in the 11th round of my playoff draft.
Canes coach Paul Maurice promoted Larose to the top line with Staal and Whitney in Game 6 and it proved to be a genius move. Larose had four points over the final two games including an assist on Staal’s series clinching goal.
ANAHEIM (46-34-0-8, 100 pts.) at DETROIT (55-21-0-10, 120 pts.)
Top Trends for this game.
ANAHEIM is 5-10 ATS (-8.7 Units) on Friday nights this season.
DETROIT is 63-23 ATS (+20.7 Units) after scoring 4 goals or more in their previous game over the last 2 seasons.
ANAHEIM is 20-13 ATS (+34.6 Units) in a road game where where the total is 5.5 this season.
ANAHEIM is 15-11 ATS (+28.9 Units) in road games second half of the season this season.
ANAHEIM is 21-14 ATS (+6.5 Units) revenging a loss versus opponent this season.
ANAHEIM is 155-145 ATS (+316.8 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season since 1996.
Head-to-Head Series History
DETROIT is 9-9-0 straight up against ANAHEIM over the last 3 seasons
9 of 17 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+1.1 Units)
CAROLINA (49-32-0-8, 106 pts.) at BOSTON (57-18-0-11, 125 pts.)
Top Trends for this game.
BOSTON is 57-29 ATS (+89.0 Units) in all games this season.
BOSTON is 41-24 ATS (+12.9 Units) after a division game over the last 2 seasons.
BOSTON is 31-7 ATS (+31.0 Units) after a win by 2 goals or more this season.
BOSTON is 44-21 ATS (+16.0 Units) after scoring 4 goals or more in their previous game over the last 2 seasons.
CAROLINA is 49-40 ATS (+3.9 Units) in all games this season.
CAROLINA is 31-20 ATS (+7.8 Units) second half of the season this season.
CAROLINA is 10-2 ATS (+7.2 Units) on Friday nights this season.
CAROLINA is 46-31 ATS (+10.3 Units) revenging a loss versus opponent over the last 2 seasons.
CAROLINA is 22-18 ATS (+42.6 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record this season.
CAROLINA is 15-8 ATS (+23.8 Units) when playing against a team with a winning record in the second half of the season this season.
Head-to-Head Series History
BOSTON is 6-6 (+0.2 Units) against the spread versus CAROLINA over the last 3 seasons
BOSTON is 6-6-0 straight up against CAROLINA over the last 3 seasons
8 of 12 games in this series have gone OVER THE TOTAL over the last 3 seasons . (Over=+3.6 Units)
Anaheim at Detroit
Anaheim:
7-24 SU at Detroit
5-10 SU on Friday nights
Detroit:
22-3 SU off a division road win
24-3 SU at home after BB division games
Carolina at Boston
Carolina:
16-28 SU after a win by 1 goal
4-7 SU revenging a home loss by 4+ goals
Boston:
11-1 SU after 3 straight wins by 2+ goals
49-20 SU as a favorite
NHL Playoffs
Boston swept Montreal four straight in first round, is 13-2 overall in last 15 games; they've won five in row vs Carolina, winning 4-2/5-1 at home this season-- all four series games this year went over total. Hurricanes just nipped New Jersey in seven games, scoring two goals in last 1:20 to stun Devils in Game 7, in series where five of seven games were decided by a goal. This is renewal of old Boston-Hartford Adams Div. rivalry.
Anaheim stunned top-seeded San Jose in six games; Ducks got hot at end of regular season, are much better than normal #8 seed, but Anaheim lost seven of last eight visits to Motor City, losing 2-1/5-2 at Detroit in this year's series. Detroit scored 4-4-4-6 goals in sweeping Columbus in first round. Five of six San Jose-Anaheim games had totals of five or less. In last fourteen series games, the home side is 10-4