Game of the Playoffs

May 4, 2008   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

FINAL UPDATE: Brenden Morrow came through with the power play winner at 9:03 of the fourth overtime. The Dallas captain redirected a perfect Stephane Robidas pass at the front of the net past Evgeni Nabokov to eliminate the Sharks and destroy San Jose’s hopes for the magical 33 year 0-3 theory. The actual time of the goal was 69:03 of sudden death since it was in the fourth OT. If we were counting regulation, that would make it 129:03.

It was the eighth longest OT game in NHL playoff history.

Some notes from it:

-Morrow played exactly 51:00 and was credited with 19 hits. By far the most of any player. In fact, Dallas outhit San Jose 88-54. The Dallas captain also laid out Milan Michalek with a clean shoulder knocking him out of the game at the end of regulation. The encouraging news was he was able to walk with a cast on.

-There were a total of 117 shots on goal. Marty Turco made 61 saves further cementing his reputation during this postseason. That means he repelled 61 of 62 shots his way. Many quality stops. Evgeni Nabokov saw 55 come his way and stopped 53 to suffer a very hard luck defeat despite one of the greatest saves in sudden death history when he reached out and snagged Brad Richards shot getting it just before it crossed the goal line.

-57 shots were blocked and another 47 missed the net entirely. That’s 104 which didn’t even make it to the net.

-There were only two penalties called in the last five periods with none in the third, the first and second overtime. Just the way a game should be officiated unlike the penalty barrage which has become common in today’s new NHL. Unfortunately for Brian Campbell, he got nabbed and his team wasn’t able to bail him out. The former Sabre logged 56:23 of ice-time getting a ridiculous 68 shifts. The most in the game.

-Sergei Zubov logged 53:50 taking 61 shifts.

UPDATE II:  It still isn’t over. It’s past 2 AM here in NYC and we’re 10 minutes or so away from the fourth overtime. The Sharks have done everything but can’t beat Turco, who’s had a couple of very close calls. The man has 58 or 59 saves. What a game. Nabby has been pretty damn good too.

Whoever loses is going to really hurt.

Here are my fourth OT picks:

San Jose- Mike Grier cause it’s time to go with an obscure former Sabre. 

Dallas- Jere Lehtinen cause he’s a darn good player and I can easily seeing him winning it. 

UPDATE:  Amazingly, it’s going to a sixth period. Will someone end this or is this going to be like that crazy Stars-Canucks game last Spring?

I may as well pick two new players:

San Jose- Patrick Marleau just cause he’s playing with Thornton.

Dallas- Sergei Zubov cause he rocks and could sneak one of those point shots through a screen.

It’s on still and about to go to a second overtime by which time I’ll probably be on a fourth brew.

Great freaking goaltending by Turco and Nabokov. You want to talk about laying it all on the line. This is great stuff! I can’t wait to see what happens.

The series in the balance and Nabby makes one of the most amazing saves ever robbing Richards of a certain winner. Unreal! And then Turco comes back with highway stack jobs on Marleau. Twice!

And Ribeiro came close to winning it twice and hit the pipe. This is just a classic game and what makes our sport so special. So, fire up a brew or not and kick back and relax.

OT picks:

San Jose- Roenick has been flying and has been involved a lot. I wouldn’t be too shocked if the grizzled American vet gets it to keep a shot history going with the whole 33 thing.

Dallas- Lundqvist had some good chances and has skated well. Usually, the pick is a star but I like what I saw from King Henrik’s twin brother. Why not.