7:30 ET, Washington at New York: It would be unfair to put all of the blame for the Capitals Game 1 loss on goaltender Braden Holtby. After all, his teammates gave him just one goal of offensive support and unless he was absolutely perfect there wasn't much that was going to change the outcome of that game. In the end, though, it was one of the first times this postseason that Holtby was outplayed by an opposing goalie, and the Capitals need more from him on Monday night if they're going to even their Eastern Conference Semifinal series.
The Capitals ended up finishing Game 1 by outchancing and outshooting the Rangers, but didn't get the same level of goaltending New York did (even though the Capitals hit the post a number of times behind Henrik Lundqvist). The Rangers managed to generate just 10 scoring chances on Saturday, and three of them found the back the night. That's not good enough. At least two of the goals (Artem Anisimov's goal to open the scoring and Chris Krieder's game-winner) are ones that Holtby would probably like to get a mulligan on.
If Game 1 showed us anything it's that goal-scoring in this series could be awfully tough to come by. Neither team was able to generate all that much offense and it could come down to which goalie makes that key mistake. On Saturday, it was Holtby.
Just take a look at the shot chart from Game 1 via our CBSSports.com Gametracker. Both teams struggled to generate anything from the slot, while both defenses blocked over 31 percent of the other teams attempted shots, which is a pretty high number. The Rangers couldn't seem to get anywhere near the Capitals net, but when they did ... it was in.
Like I said on Saturday: Get used to it. This might be the one series where we expect nothing but defense and low-scoring games, and actually get it.
9 ET, Los Angeles at St. Louis: The status of Blues defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is still unknown at this point, so there remains a chance that he could be unavailable for Game 2 on Monday night. And that would be a huge blow to the Blues as he was their top defenseman during the regular season. Pietrangelo was injured late in the second period on Saturday night when he was hit from behind by Dwight King. It was a play that resulted in a two-minute minor for boarding and led to many questions as to how it wasn't more. It doesn't appear that King is going to face any supplemental discipline for the play, even though Pietrangelo was clearly injured, didn't return, and could miss the next game.
After he left the game things quickly went downhill for St. Louis as the Blues allowed a shorthanded goal (the game-winning goal) and generated just one quality scoring chance for the remainder of the game. And that chance came from center Scott Nichol with less than three minutes to play in the third period.
The Blues came out flying during the first period on Saturday but couldn't take advantage as Jonathan Quick continued his stellar play in net for Los Angeles. Over the final 40 minutes, his teammates did their part to keep the puck as far away from him as possible, outshooting the Blues 18-15 over the final two periods, and outchancing them 7-3. And this is going to be the struggle for the Blues. Is their offense good enough to break through not only Quick, but also the Kings defense?
Daily miscellany
- The best of the NHL playoffs for Sunday night.
- Alex Ovechkin knows he needs to be better in Game 2. [Washington Post]
- Speaking of Ovechkin, Tyler Dellow at mc79hockey has a rather detailed and in-depth look at just what has happened to his offense over the past couple of years. [mc79hockey]
- Los Angeles Kings forward Dustin Penner is now on Twitter. His profile describes him as a "Professional lightning rod, pancake aficionado, comedic enthusiast." He also lists his own personal website as www.ihop.com. This should be something. [@DustinPenner25]
