The Lightning will have to tighten up defensively and give veteran goaltender Dwayne Roloson more help if they’re to upset the offensively potent and more rested Capitals. (Photo: Douglas Jones/US Presswire)

By Stu Hackel

Now that the second round is underway (notes on Thursday night’s Predators-Canucks opener are below), let’s venture some thoughts — but no predictions– about the other matchups. (If you want my SI.com colleagues’ picks, here you go.) The higher-seeded team won six of the eight first round series, but there has been fear of the underdog.

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By Stu Hackel

The NHL Hockey Operations Department once again has failed to take a stand against willful hits to the head when it decided on Thursday not to suspend Boston’s Andrew Ference for this clear attempt to injure Montreal’s Jeff Halpern in Wednesday’s Game 7 between the Bruins and Canadiens. This continues the failure of leadership by the NHL in punishing intentional headshots and stains what has been an excellently played first round in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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It’s only fitting, and not at all rare, that two fierce rivals such as the Canadiens and Bruins should extend their postseason showdown to a dramatic seventh game. (Damian Strohmeyer/Sports Illustrated)

By Stu Hackel

Here’s all you need to know about the allure of Game 7s in the Stanley Cup playoffs: Yahoo’s NHL writer Nick Cotsonika traveled to Montreal — a city consumed by the doings of its hockey team — to cover the crucial Game 6 between the Canadiens and Bruins on Tuesday night and he tweeted yesterday afternoon, “In Montreal for Bruins-Habs, and everyone is talking about … the Canucks.”

And when I tuned in to Montreal’s Team 990 a few hours later to catch Pierre McGuire’s late afternoon segment on the “Melnick in the Afternoon” program, the conversation began with an extensive breakdown on the upcoming Sabres-Flyers Game 7 and moved to the Blackhawks-Canucks Game 7 for 15 minutes before chewing over the Habs-B’s Game 6 in the final three minutes.

Every series has its dramatic story arc and moments of both loftiness and gravity, but lasting greatness and legends are born in Game 7s, when both teams stand at the crossroads of going on or going home (SI.com photo gallery: NHL’s Great Game 7′s). As each game of a series is played, the level of play is ratcheted up and by Game 7, the combination of unmatched performances under extreme pressure far more often than not produces great hockey.
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The reeling Canucks sorely need some of the fire the Blackhawks caught from a devastating hit on Brent Seabrook (left) and the leadership of captain Jonathan Toews. (Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

With decades of disappointments behind them, the Vancouver Canucks and their fans had reason to believe that the team’s 40th season would be the one in which it would shake off its voodooed past like a dog shakes off water. They could point to the Presidents’ Trophy for the NHL’s best regular season record – a first in franchise history — as a sign that their luck had changed, and a deep roster that any GM would admire. Then the Canucks jumped out to a 3-0 series lead against the defending champion Blackhawks, the team that eliminated them in each of the last two seasons. They were on the train to glory.

That was eight days ago.

Tonight, the Canucks will fight for their playoff lives, having not won since as they flirt with the ignominious achievement of choking on a three-game lead in a best-of-seven series. (SI.com gallery: Epic playoff collapses.)  Their offensive motor has stalled, their defensive posture has been exposed, their special teams have not been very special and their goaltending appears to be in chaos.
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After 11 seasons and 803 games as a Pred, David Legwand, and Nashville, have a playoff series win to celebrate. (Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

There is no other championship tournament in sports that each year and each night contains the twists, turns, drama and unpredictability of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

It’s that simple and there can be no argument — especially from anyone who has watched the competition during the last week or so. It should be obvious that winning a single game demands an abundance of energy, discipline, character, talent and luck.

So winning just one series requires those qualities in unimaginable quantities. And no franchise knows that better than the Nashville Predators.

Today, the Predators stand as the third team this spring to move on to the second round. On their website, they are finally able to say, for the first time in their history, “Round 2 Playoff Tickets On Sale Now.” And they’ve gotten the ultimate validation: their own official National Hockey League Stanley Cup Playoffs promotional spots.

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With his masterful management of angles and a pair of 1-0 shutouts of the Flyers, Ryan Miller of the Sabres has become the goaltending star of the playoffs thus far. (Sean Rudyk/NHLI via Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

Sports Illustrated’s Pierre McGuire has probably seen more playoff hockey from up close than anyone so far this spring. From his “Inside the Glass” position on telecasts for TSN (and NBC later in the playoffs), he’s been on the road almost every day since the postseason began and is not likely to get much rest anytime soon.

He began by traveling to Washington for Games 1 and 2 of the Capitals-Ranger series, then Philadelphia for Game 2 for Flyers-Sabres, followed by Nashville for Game 3 of Predators-Ducks, Buffalo for Game 3 of Flyers-Sabres, and New York for Game 4 of Caps-Rangers. He’ll be in Philly for Game 5, Washington on Saturday afternoon for Game 5, and Nashville for Game 6 on Sunday. “And then I don’t know,” he says. “It depends on how many Game 6s and Game 7s there are.”
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The ongoing battle between Bruin David Krejci’s line and Canadiens defenseman P.K. Subban bears watching as this classic rivalry series moves along. (Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

You can never tell what might happen in the playoffs and as hockey’s great playoff rivalry resumes tonight in Montreal, the Canadiens-Bruins series is a good example. During the regular season, the Habs had trouble winning in Boston, and the B’s had trouble winning in Montreal. So naturally this is a series where, so far, the home team has yet to win a game.

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NBC has already given hockey fans innovations such as Pierre McGuire’s up-close “Inside The Glass” segments during games and a little something called The Winter Classic. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

The NHL’s new 10-year U.S. TV deal with NBC and the soon-to-be-renamed Versus is a triumph for Gary Bettman and his negotiators, Bill Daly and John Collins. And while some observers tried to make the case that any new deal that didn’t include ESPN would not be in the game’s best interests, the fact is that this one will be good for the NHL and good for fans.
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By Stu Hackel

Here you go, hockey fans. Four wonderful examples — all since Sunday — of how good a job the NHL has done cracking down on hits to the head. It’s a good thing, too. Imagine what things might look like without the league’s increased vigilance.

Oh, wait. The crackdown won’t come until next season, after the NHL and its general managers have a good hard think about how the rules should change. So for now, the dinosaurs still roam, the rationalizations still fly and the league is apparently unprepared, if not unwilling, to back up its intentions with any meaningful action.
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The Canucks, one of the few teams that has allowed the first goal in a game and lived to tell about it in these playoffs, came back in Game 3 to put the Blackhawks on the brink. (Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

By Stu Hackel

Every year in the playoffs, a strange little trend emerges in the first round. One year it might be shorthanded goals, another year,  road teams winning or an abundance of 5-on-3s.

This year, after the first five days of Stanley Cup play, we’ll be watching two things: Players growing playoff mustaches instead of beards and how often the team that scores the first goal wins the game.
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