San Jose Sharks - Joe Thornton
Like I said before, the only way the Sharks could hope to beat the Red Wings was if "Jumbo Joe" came to play. And sure enough, he did. Thornton racked up 8 points in five games (3 goals, 5 assists). Among those points were a game-winning goal, an assist on an overtime winner, and another on the series clincher. And guess who scored those two crucial goals? That's right, Patrick Marleau. It's no coincidence that both big guns got their game faces on at the same time. A center can really make or break the performances of his wingers. Jumbo certainly brought out the best in Marleau and Heatley in this round. You won't find a better pure-playmaker on any team.
Chicago Blackhawks - Jonathan Toews
No surprise here. Yes, I know I picked Toews as the Blackhawks' first round MVP, but let's face it; he deserved it then, and he deserves it now. A good captain leads by example, and no one does that better than this kid. His 12 points in six games powered his club to a rather decisive series win (the Vancouver victories notwithstanding). Oh, and let's not forget his hat trick and 5-point effort in game 4. Toews has taken the lead in Playoff scoring and will most likely have a stranglehold on it now that Crosby is out of the picture (but don't tell Pavelski or Cammalleri that).
Philadelphia Flyers - Simon Gagne
On the heels of one of the greatest comebacks in sports history (a team has only come back from being down 0-3 in a series to win just 4 times in all sports), there are a lot of heroes in Philly right now. However, I think it's fair to say that Gagne is feeling the most accomplished. After missing the first 3 games due to injury (all of which ended in losses), Simon came back with a mission, scoring an overtime-winner in game 4 to stave off elimination and setting in motion the greatest comeback in Flyers history. He continued to put up points in each game thereafter, including two goals in game 5, and the series clincher late in game 7 (a game at which point the Flyers were trailing 3-0 after roughly 9 minutes).
Montreal Canadiens - Jaroslav Halak
I'm not going to lie, it was really hard to not pick Mike Cammalleri at first. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that if it were not for Halak, all of Cammy's goals would have amounted to absolutely nothing. Sure, the guy averaged a goal a game and even had a couple two-goal performances, but what good are those if your team gives up 4 or 5 an outing? Alas, this was not the case. The Habs have won yet another round, beating yet another invincible foe (or so we thought), silencing yet another peerless superstar (Crosby had just one lousy goal this round, so I don't want to hear anyone giving Ovechkin anymore crap about the first round), and it was all thanks to the small, unassuming Slovakian Stud between the pipes. Anyone who thinks otherwise is full of **** and doesn't know what they are talking about. PERIOD.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment