Rigamarole - A Foot In The Crease - Episode 5.31
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Well if it was parity that the NHL was looking for in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, parity is exactly what they’ve got. As of the recording of this show, seven of the eight series are tied at one game apiece with the potential for that number to grow to all eight should the Chicago Blackhawks defeat the Nashville Predators later on Sunday.
Not only though has there been parity between each series but there has been parity within each series. Two of the series – the Montreal Canadiens against the Washington Capitals and the LA Kings against the Vancouver Canucks – have seen both games go into overtime. The one versus eight seed series in both conferences saw the underdogs – the Montreal Canadiens and Colorado Avalanche – both pull off upsets in game one before the top seeded teams – the Washington Capitals and San Jose Sharks – scored with under two minutes remaining in the third period to tie game two before ultimately winning in overtime.
Moreover, excluding empty net goals, through the first fifteen games played in round one, fourteen of them have been one goal games. The only game decided by more than one goal that wasn’t scored into an empty net was game two of the Red Wings against Coyotes series – a game won by Detroit by a whopping two goal margin.
One third of the first fifteen games have gone into overtime. Really, it’s been an exhibition of remarkable competition and anybody who feels they can accurately predict the outcomes now after the early part of the first round quite simply is full of it. Hey, I went on about how I would be really surprised to see any upsets at all in the first round and we now see how well that’s panned out. But then again, if you don’t want something to happen, get me to predict that it will, and it won’t, but hey, all that was just rigamarole.
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