No fluke: Penguins, Canucks on brink
The Pittsburgh Penguins, mentioned as Stanley Cup contenders, and the top-seeded Vancouver Canucks find themselves facing elimination Wednesday. USA TODAY Sports’ Kevin Allen looks at the reasons:
Penguins
-The Philadelphia Flyers have distracted the Penguins to the point of making their game unrecognizable. Too many players were looking to settle a score, instead of looking to score.
-Goalie Marc-andre Fleury has gone from a positive force to a negative energy. He was brilliant in the regular season, and now he looks like he has temporarily lost his mojo. He has given up 17 goals in 84 shots. He hasn’t made the big save when they have most needed it.
-Evgeni Malkin hasn’t been the superhero he was in the regular season. He doesn’t have a goal in the series and has 10 shots. He had 10 shots in a single game against the Nashville Predators a few weeks ago.
-The team’s defensive flaws have been exposed. That was overlooked down the stretch in the regular season because the Penguins were able to outscore their opponents. But in the first three rounds, they have looked scattered, shaky and mostly unsure of themselves. The Flyers have had way too much open ice.
-No answers from coach Dan Bylsma. Why would he put James Neal back on the ice after his hit on Sean Couturier?
Canucks
-Los Angeles Kings goalie Jonathan Quick has been the best player in the first-round series. He has given up four goals in three games, stopping 111 of 115 shots for a .965 save percentage. New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist received more attention this season, but Quick has been as dom- inant, if not more dominant.
-The Kings have been lying in the weeds all season. This isn’t a true No. 8 seed. True, they barely made the playoffs, but they were considered a team on the rise coming into the season. Although they struggled to score for most of the season, they were scoring enough late in the season. The Jeff Carter trade helped them.
-Daniel Sedin’s loss to a concussion is too significant for Vancouver. With the parity in the Western Conference, a team can’t lose its best goal scorer and not have its effectiveness compromised. He plans to return to practice today.
-The special teams battle being won by Los Angeles. The Canucks have no goals in 23:01 of power-play time, and the Kings also have two short-handed goals. The Kings have three power-play goals in more than 32 minutes of power-play time.
-D-stin Brown has shown why he’s the Kings’ captain. In the first three games, he has four goals, one assist and 11 hits, including a big wallop against Henrik Sedin. He seems born to play playoff hockey.