Eight teams hit the ice Friday and all of them had some serious jam in their games. There were hits, there were scrums, there was vim, there was vigor, there was blood and there was even a lost tooth.
Playoff hockey, folks.
Here are five things we learned Friday in the NHL.
Tempers flare in Tampa
The Detroit Red Wings and Tampa Bay Lightning are known more for their talent rather than truculence, but this series has been nasty at times. Game 2 certainly was.
The physical play started early when Dylan Larkin split Jonathan Drouin’s lip open with a hit.
In the second period, Pavel Datsyuk lost a tooth when Victor Hedman got his stick up high. Datsyuk got a retaliation penalty and Henrik Zetterberg was forced to locate his longtime teammate’s missing chiclet.
A few minutes later, Ondrej Palat was crushed into the end boards by Danny DeKeyser which resulted in a scrum.
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The piece de resistance, though, occurred late in the third period when Justin Abdelkader attacked Mike Blunden during a line brawl (using the term brawl lightly here).
It seems as though we’re going to see more rough stuff in Game 3. Speaking of which…
Red Wings should turn to Mrazek in Game 3
The Red Wings find themselves in a 2-0 hole after another loss to the Lightning. You can’t blame it all on Jimmy Howard but Jeff Blashill would be wise to start Petr Mrazek when the series returns to Detroit Sunday.
Howard has allowed seven goals on 64 shots (.890 save percentage) through two games and was completely out of position on the go-ahead goal in the third period.
Sure, Howard came on strong towards the end of the regular season but overall, Mrazek was the much better goaltender. Also, the 24-year-old Czech had a .925 save percentage and 2.11 GAA in seven playoff games against the Lightning last season.
Tampa trio is the hottest line in hockey
Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn and Tyler Johnson can’t be stopped. After combining for seven points and a plus-9 rating in Game 1, they continued to light it up Friday adding eight more points with each man finishing plus-3.
That means through two games they’ve tallied 15 total points and a plus-18 rating. They’ve now scored 53.4 per cent of the Lightning’s post-season goals since start of 2014-15 playoffs.
Crawford sets new Blackhawks record
The Blackhawks evened their series with the Blues and with the win, Corey Crawford moved into first place on Chicago’s all-time list of playoff victories with 46. Crawford leapfrogged Tony Esposito, who had 45 wins in 99 playoff appearances with the team. Crawford earned his 46th win in his 78th post-season contest.
Getzlaf is unstoppable at home in the post-season
With his goal in the first period, Ryan Getzlaf now has the most home playoff points in the NHL since the 2005-06 season. In 98 career playoff games, the Ducks captain has 95 points, 65 of which have come during home games. Sidney Crosby and Daniel Briere each have 64 and Evgeni Malkin has 63 over that same time period.
Stat pack…
