Here are tonight’s picks, plays and predictions.
| Blues vs Stars ML +107 / -118 O/U 5 |
Penguins vs Capitals ML +122 / -135 O/U 5 |
| Predators vs Sharks ML +144 / -160 O/U 5 |
Here are tonight’s starting goaltenders, courtesy of LeftWingLock.
#2 Blues vs #1 Stars: The Dallas Stars came away with a huge Game 4 victory in overtime to even up the series heading back home.
Vladimir Tarasenko opened the scoring with a breakaway goal midway through the third period. Tarasenko now has six goals and eleven points, leading the team in both categories. Tarasenko played a total of 14:53 at 5v5 in Game 4, which puts him at eighth on the team among forwards in even-strength ice time. Let me repeat: Vladimir Tarasenko, who has 11 points in 11 games and 22 points in 24 career postseason games, the man with 40 goals this season, was behind guys like Troy Brouwer, Patrik Bergland and David Backes in even-strength ice time. Tarasenko saw 18:16 total, which still puts him at fifth among forwards. That, friends, is the definition of underutilization.
Tarasenko has five points in his last two games.
Radek Faksa and Patrick Sharp tallied goals for the Stars in the second period, and Paul Stastny evened things up.
Cody Eakin netted the game-winner less than three minutes into the overtime period. The shot did not initially look particularly dangerous, but Eakin caught Brian Elliott not wholly square to the shot and down to his knees just a half-second too early.
Jamie Benn, finalist for the Ted Lindsay award, had two assists on the night.
Apparently the Stars were propelled to victory on the wings of Shania Twain. Before the game, Jason Spezza started blasting “You’re Still the One” by the country star, which the Stars then credited for motivation after the game. Don’t get me wrong, I dig Shania’s music, but it’s not even one of her upbeat songs!
Coming back home with an even series is huge. It was an even-played game by most accounts. Shots were 28-26 in favor of the visitors, with both teams going 1-for-3 on the man advantage. This whole series has been back-and-forth, with three of the four games being decided by just one goal. Two of them now have gone to overtime. The one exception was the 6-1 beatdown the Blues handed Antti Niemi.
The difference could come in home-ice today, even though the Blues are 5-2 in their last seven visits to Dallas. Either way, this game will likely be decided by one goal.
Prediction: I’m going to stick by my series preview prediction of Blues in six games against my better judgment. Either way, take the over.
#2 Penguins vs #1 Capitals: The Pittsburgh Penguins have the President’s Trophy-winning Capitals on the ropes. The Pens took both games on home ice to go up 3-1 in the series heading back to the Verizon Center.
Mike Weber found himself playing the role of goat. Weber played less than nine minutes in Round 1 against the Flyers, and was inserted into the lineup while Brooks Orpik serves his suspension. Conor Sheary’s weak wrist shot was heading right towards him. Weber was turned around so he had to play the puck on the backhand. It hit hard off the blade of his stick. Panicked, he whirled around and swung wildly at the puck, which only tipped it towards Patric Hornqvist, who buried the overtime winner.
I’m reminded of Roman Hamrlik, inserted into the New York Rangers’ lineup in a pinch in 2013 who made two turnovers in five seconds to surrender what would be the game-winning goal against the Boston Bruins in Game 5. Click the link, it’s impressively bad.
The Penguins have been thriving off the strength of their depth players. Matt Cullen has been incredible for them this postseason. Tom Kuhnhackl, Bryan Rust and Conor Sheary have been very solid role players even in top-six minutes. The Bonino-Kessel-Hagelin line? Nothing short of great.
Matt Murray stopped 34 of 36 shots. There’s nothing that can really adequately describe just how phenomenal he has been for the Penguins since taking over the starting job in Game 3 of Round 1.
The Capitals are in as tight a spot as they come. Their second line has been deathly quiet. Evgeny Kuznetsov has been getting great looks but has only one goal and one assist in 10 playoff games. T.J. Oshie has not registered a point since his Game 1 hat trick.
The time is now for Washington. They need to prolong this series, one game at a time. It starts on home ice.
Prediction: Take the Caps to win. Play the over.
WC1 Predators vs #3 Sharks: The Nashville Predators won a marathon. Eleven minutes and 12 seconds into triple overtime, Mike Fisher finally buried a rebound to bring the game to the end.
The play was borne out of Martin Jones playing the puck behind the Sharks’ net. I never quite understand why goaltenders feel the need to play the puck behind the net when the opposition has more than one forechecker in the zone.
The Predators have three forwards at the hashmarks in striking distance. Jones does not really have much of a play other than dropping the puck behind him and waiting for Paul Martin (top corner) to come and get it. Instead, Jones bats it to the near-side corner to Justin Braun. Braun is hit from behind by the attacker in the slot above, then has the puck stolen away by the left winger. Pass to the high slot, shot off the chest of Jones who barely has time to settle in the crease, rebound put home by Fisher.
The Sharks thought they had the overtime winner back in the first period of extra time, but a controversial call saw the goal waved off due to incidental contact.
This is a tricky call. Pavelski is barreling towards the net at full speed. At the last second, Shea Weber sticks his right leg/hip out which forces Pavelski to the side, where he collides with Pekka Rinne. Pavelski, from his chest on top of Rinne, pokes the puck into the net. Is this goaltender interference? It’s hard to say considering Weber is plop in the middle of the blue paint, but the fact that Pavelski is literally laying on top of the goaltender as he pokes the puck in makes this play pretty hard to defend.
San Jose head coach Peter DeBoer said the incidental contact rule was as “clear as mud.” He’s not wrong, but this one in particular is a lot tougher than he’s making it out to be.
Watching a triple-overtime game is surreal. You feel like it just won’t end. Both teams are afraid of making mistakes and the referees swallow the whistle when it comes to awarding powerplays. Up and down teams skate. Up and down.
But then the moment comes. It finally ends. I’m reminded of being a high school student watching Marion Gaborik’s triple-overtime winner against the Washington Capitals in 2012. I remember thinking, ‘My god, Stu Bickel played three minutes of a 115 minute hockey game.’ By the end of the game, the winning goal feels more like relief and freedom than it does euphoria. Finally, life can resume. We can go to bed.
The Predators have all the momentum in the world going into tonight’s game at the Shark Tank. San Jose will need to fight tooth and nail to avoid falling into a 3-2 hole.
Prediction: Take the Predators to win. Play the under. These will be two exhausted teams giving everything they’ve got.
