Of the 266 teams that have been down 0-2 in an NHL playoff series, only 37 have come back to win. And just 15 have managed that feat after dropping the first two games at home.
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| Steve Bernier is tended to by medical staff after taking an elbow to the back of the head. (Getty Images) |
It usually takes three or four games in a playoff matchup for the blood to start boiling over, but the Predators and the Sharks had a head start from meeting in the first round last season and getting into it early in the first game of this series. The flashpoint in Game 1 was a knee-on-knee hit by Nashville's Scott Hartnell on San Jose's Jonathan Cheechoo, a collision that earned the Predators player an ejection and looked like it might end the season for the Sharks' high-scoring winger.
Surprisingly, Cheechoo made it back for Game 2, but there was no sense of forgiveness coming from the Sharks -- and clearly no appearance of remorse from the Predators. In fact, the chippy play started less than a minute into the game when Bill Guerin and Vernon Fiddler were sent off for unsportsmanlike conduct -- an infraction that came while they were lined up for a faceoff -- and kept on going until the final seconds, when the teams got into a wild brawl after the outcome was long decided.
That was icing on the cake for fans in Nashville. These are our Icings for everyone else:
In case you missed it: The play of the night won't show up on any score sheet, but the save Predators defenseman Ryan Suter made midway through the second period could end up as the turning point in this series. Nashville was holding a 2-1 lead and killing off a five-minute penalty when San Jose's Joe Thornton picked up a loose puck with Predators goalie Tomas Vokoun down and out of position. Thornton had a wide-open net, but Suter managed to get the shaft of his stick on the shot, deflecting it out of harm's way. San Jose came away with nothing on the long power play and then Nashville scored twice within the next three minutes to put the game away and change the dynamic of the series.
Things that make you go ugh: Few things hurt a team more than giving up a goal in the first or last minute of a period, so doing it twice in one night has got to be a killer. Just ask the Vancouver Canucks. They allowed Dallas to score 24 seconds into the first period and 45 seconds into the middle frame and lost 2-0.
The Heroes: Stars goalie Marty Turco silenced some, but not all of his critics because he lost the seven-period marathon that opened the series against Vancouver. He came back from that demoralizing defeat with the first playoff shutout of his career. ... J.P. Dumont got his revenge for a questionable and un-penalized takedown by Sharks defenseman Christian Ehrhoff as the first period expired with a pair of second-period markers, including a backbreaker while his team was shorthanded. ... The Ducks organization believe forward Sami Pahlsson should be a Selke candidate for the job he does defending other teams' top forwards, and he proved it again with his shutdown work against Minnesota snipers Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra.
The Zeroes: Evgeni Nabokov wasn't particularly busy in goal for San Jose, facing 21 shots all night, but he allowed four goals. ... Minnesota defenseman Martin Skoula was beaten one-on-one in cringe-worthy fashion by Ducks forward Ryan Getzlaf, who scored a crushing shorthanded goal late in the second period on the play. ... Mattias Ohlund is Vancouver's big man on the blue line, but he had a night to forget because of several giveaways, bad clearing passes and repeated losses in races to the puck.
This and that:
- So much for game plans, eh? The Predators spent the last couple days talking about how important it was for them to get off to a better start against San Jose. Instead, they fell behind less than five minutes into the first period and were outshot 12-5 in the opening 20 minutes. You know the rest.
- If I'm on the Vancouver Canucks, I'm starting to get real concerned about how much tempo Dallas has been able to set in this series. The Stars dictated the play with their quickness from about the middle of the third period in Game 1, and had a lot more jump than the Canucks in Game 2 despite the short turnaround time for both teams. That could be a big problem for Vancouver as the series progresses because injuries have shortened its bench.
- Several Anaheim fans have emailed to, ah, debate my prediction that Minnesota would win this series, and it's getting hard to argue after watching the Ducks systematically tame the Wild in the first two games. Because Gaborik and Demitra are being held in check so well, Minnesota needs better efforts from it support scorers like Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Stephane Veilleux if it hopes to come back in this series.
And finally: With so many super rookies emerging this season, it's been easy to overlook Nashville freshman Alexander Radulov. He didn't spend as much time in the NHL as others because the Predators lineup is so stacked, but he showed a lot of flash and panache when he did get to play, and hasn't let up in these playoffs. Radulov has three goals already, not to mention some notoriety for being ejected in Game 2 for a hit from behind against Steve Bernier. He'll be back when this series resumes in San Jose. Pay attention to him. He's worth watching.
