Round one was so good it's hard to imagine how the second round could ramp up the intensity. Before we get started on the second round matchups we must say goodbye to eight teams. The Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers, Detroit Red Wings, Columbus Blue Jackets, St Louis Blues, Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars, and, like the inevitability of a Tim Peel intent to blow call we say goodbye to the true nearly men of the league, the San Jose Sharks.
In "The Night Ahead" we take a look at a selection (well, five) of the upcoming games for the evening (early hours here in the UK) and add a preview and opinion on the match ups.
Just the one, that's right, one game in the NHL tonight.
ANAHEIM DUCKS @ DALLAS STARS
Dallas go into tonight's sole NHL fixture 6-3-1 in their last ten but find themselves bottom of the uber competitive Central Division on 24 points after Winnipeg won in New Jersey last night. Anaheim find themselves in quite the opposite situation, sitting atop the Pacific Division, joint for 2nd best in the league with St Louis on 37 points.
Dallas have been heavy reliant on the play of Benn, Seguin and whoever lines up with them, not to mention the excellence of Kari Lehtonen. Whilst the Ducks form is down to the usual suspects, Getzlaf, Perry and free agent pick up Dustin Penner.
The Stars are on a two game skid and the Ducks have own two in a row after a five game losing streak.
Stars is our daily look at the previous night's action in the NHL and who stood out amongst the rest.
FIRST STAR
Chris Kunitz - PITTSBURGH PENGUINS vs New York Islanders
Kunitz had a brilliant night at the Consol Energy Center last night. Picking up two goals and an assist. He had his hat trick goal waived off for a high stick penalty on Evgeni Malkin that shouldn't have been called a penalty. He went on to continually harass the Isles D and with 1:16 left in the game, tied at 3-3, he crashed Radek Martinek into the boards behind the Isles goal, tapped it off to Pascal Dupuis who slid it to Sidney Crosby for the game winner. Also Crosby's 250th NHL goal.
SECOND STAR
Daniel Sedin - VANCOUVER CANUCKS vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Daniel picked up three points in this 6-2 Canucks win, one goal and two assists. His goal tied the game at 1-1 after some nice work behind the net he skated to the front and let rip towards Bobrovsky. He had his shot saved and brother Henrik put in the rebound for 3-1. Then midway through the 3rd he had a shot from the blue line tipped in for Henrik's 2nd of the night.
THIRD STAR
Sidney Crosby - PITTSBURGH PENGUINS vs New York Islanders
As mentioned above, Sid had the game winner which was also his 250th NHL goal. He also assisted on Kunitz's first goal and would have had the primary assist on Kunitz's hat trick goal if the refs didn't make the "high stick" call on Malkin.
Honourable Mentions
Henrik Sedin had a two goal night off his brother Daniel's rebound and then tipped in one of Daniel's shots.
Thomas Vanek also had two goals in the Islanders loss to Pittsburgh. With Kyle Okposo picking up as assist on each.
Alex Ovechkin scored two against the Canadiens. He isn't amongst the stars as he routinely scores on the Habs. He now has 34 points in 32 games against them.
Josh Gorges had two assists in the Habs 3-2 win at the Verizon Center, including on Briere's game winner and on the Habs 2nd which was David Desharnais' first goal in 26 regular season and playoff games.
Ben Bishop. 41 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the Anaheim Ducks remarkably wasn't enough for the toothless Bolts. He unfortunately had a big gaff too. Letting a Ryan Getzlaf shot sneak under his glove and bounce goalwards. No thanks to defenseman Richard Panik who lived up to his name and in the heat of the moment used his stick and inadvertently stopped Bishop making a routine goal line glove grab and giving Anaheim the win with 5 seconds left in OT.
MY PICKS
Last night I went 3-2 in my picks with Calgary and Montreal pulling out wins.
