Random Thoughts On The Stanley Cup Conference Quarterfinals: Day Eleven

by Mike

Today was do or die for the Phoenix Coyotes and the L.A. Kings. In the end, Phoenix sees a Game 7 while Los Angeles has concluded what was their most successful season in 8 years.

Phoenix: 5; Detroit: 2
Series is tied 3-3
Phoenix responded without Shane Doan in the lineup and managed to muster two power play goals and a shorthanded tally too. In fairness though, Doan was in the dressing room monitoring the game and talking to the team about what they needed to do for the forthcoming period. To me, that's a true leader considering he could have sat in the press box watching the game from above. There was never a reason to suspect anything less than what we've seen from both teams this entire series and it's been probably the most exciting series to date. Tensions boiled over in the third period though; as Justin Abdelkader fought...

... Twice...

... And the Wings scrambled to score a scrappy goal at the end. However, they were unable to convert on three successive Coyotes penalties and now the series goes back to Phoenix. This can be anyone's series now and Game 7 will be the game to watch.

Vancouver: 4; Los Angeles: 2
Vancouver wins the series 4-2
L.A. had a 2-1 lead going into the third period but much like at other times during the series, they weren't able to hang on and now the Canucks are advancing to the second round. Daniel Sedin put the Canucks up with less than 3 minutes to play in the game and Alexandre Burrows scored his only goal the series (an empty-netter, at that) to seal the deal. L.A. made it interesting but the Canucks were able to get them to play their game too many times for the Kings to be successful. The L.A. crowd was supportive and Dustin Brown said this was a good learning experience for the Kings. I wholeheartedly agree and now the team just need to be better built as opposed to rebuilt; and that's a whole lot farther along than they've been recently.