The Stanley Cup Playoffs continued last night and now every series has one game in the books. It was another exciting night with 5 great games. Tampa Bay looked strong in their opener against the Devils. Offense is this team’s bread and butter and it didn’t disappoint, putting up 5 goals and propelling them to a 5-2 win. Another good note for Tampa is that Steven Stamkos staked strong during 17 minutes of ice time after missing the last three games of the season. This offense is scary good and the Devils don’t really stand a chance here. The Bruins were also dominate in their opener against Toronto. Like I had predicted, Boston really imposed their size on the smaller Maple Leafs and were in control the whole night, winning the game 5-1. Toronto will need to go back to the drawing board if they want to have any success here, but I don’t think there is much they can do. The Bruins are just a better team, and might be more of a threat than a lot of us thought moving forward. Nashville got off to a slow start against Colorado but came alive with 2 goals in the second and 3 more in the third to roar past the Avalanche 5-2. Forsberg led the charge with two goals and Nashville’s defense clamped down in a fashion we have become accustom to. The Sharks stole game one from Anaheim in 3-0 fashion, scoring all 3 in the second period. The win flips home ice advantage and makes this series even more intriguing. Anaheim looked out of it last night, but definitely has the talent to bounce back. The game of the night was hands down in Washington. The Blue Jackets rallied late to force the game into overtime and scored 6 minutes in to pull the upset. Washington came out hot as Kuznetsov scored twice in the first but Columbus weathered the storm and chipped away until Seth Jones broke through to tie the game with 5 minutes left in the third. This is not good for Washington. Columbus now has home ice advantage and I can already smell the next Capitals choke job. They better wake up.
The road to the Stanley Cup continues tonight as the other three series play their game 2’s. The Flyers will look to bounce back after getting embarrassed two nights ago and the Jets and Golden Knights will look to build off of their game 1 wins. Don’t miss it.