"And then there were eight" part two: Sid vs. Cinderella

(4) Pittsburgh Penguins vs. (8) Montreal Canadiens

Players to Watch:
Sidney Crosby, C, Penguins- With all due respect to Mikael Samuelsson and Joe Pavelski, Sidney Crosby was the first round’s best player among skaters. He looked like a man among boys as he seemingly scored, skated and passed at will. After the performance this next guy put up in the first round, Crosby needs to keep it up and set the tone for this series like he did for his teammates in the last round.

Jaroslav Halak, G, Canadiens- Wow. What do you say about this guy? Stopping 131 of 134 shots over the last three games against the most powerful team since Iceland in The Mighty Ducks II? That’s legendary stuff. Unfortunately for Halak, he might have to be as good as he was against the Crapitals for the Habs to have a chance to dethrone Pittsburgh. A little under two weeks ago, Alex Ovechkin said that he saw Halak shaking after the Capitals repeatedly lit the lamp in a stunning all-out blitzkrieg on the Montreal net. Well the only thing Halak was shaking on Wednesday was that Russian creep’s hand after he eliminated his ass. Let’s see if he can shut down a few more offensive titans in numbers 87 and 71.

How I see It:
After a flat first game, the Penguins pretty much took it to Ottawa for the duration of their first round series. Sidney Crosby led the way; scoring, assisting, skating through traffic like some sort of possessed demon, driving the zamboni, making the team’s travel arrangements, piloting the team plane, etc. He was a monster force and things will be looking dire for Montreal if he continues this type of production into the second round. We all know he can. For Montreal, they just came off of a HUGE upset against Washington and should be riding high on emotion heading into round two. In other sports that emotion might be deemed overrated or insignificant, and correctly so. But in hockey, emotion can be the great equalizer. This is a heart and soul game and will goes a long, long way; especially in the Stanley Cup playoffs. When looking at this series, we see a lot of reasons to expect it to go the distance. Montreal has the advantage in goal with Jaroslav Halak over the shaky (and horrendously ugly) Marc-Andre Fleury for Pittsburgh. The Pens have the obvious advantages in forwards (we all know how absolutely lethal they are) and on the backline. But where this series can be won for Montreal is in special teams. The Canadiens PP and PK’s are substantially better than those of Pittsburgh. Watching the Captials’ devastating powerplay be crushed to powder by Montreal’s incredible PK and shot blocking shows that Montreal can stay in this if they win the special teams battle. Will it be enough? Can Halak and his teammates reincarnate the heroics of the Cinderella 1993 version of the bleu, blanc et rouge? Anything is possible, but Crosby, Malkin and the gang seem ready to gear it up a notch and show the hockey world that the Eastern Conference and the Stanley Cup still go through the Steel City. Pittsburgh in Seven