2007 NHL Playoffs Recap and Predictions - May 4th

1-1 last night. As expected Vancouver went home last night after losing in double OT to Anaheim despite the heroics of Roberto Luongo. Tonight Buffalo will regain the lead in their series vs New York and we will see their vaunted offense wake up a little.

Tonights Game :

New York Rangers (2) at Buffalo Sabres (2) : Coming home is good and it should be enough to spark the Buffalo Sabres offense in game 5 of this round 2 series. Buffalo has managed only 2 goals in their last 2 games and lost both matches in New York by 2-1 scores. Henrik Lundqvist has arguably outplayed Ryan Miller so far this series but it won't be enough tonight. Chris Drury
has only managed 1 goal and 1 assist in this series (all in game 2) and tonight he will remind us why he is such a valuable player for Buffalo. Drury will be the most effective Sabre tonight on both the offensive and defensive ends and his inspired play will light a fire under the rest of the Sabres tonight as they take game 5 for a 3-2 series lead over the Rangers.

Last Nights Recap :

Anaheim Ducks 2 (4) at Vancouver Canucks 1 (1) : Vancouver was completely outplayed by Anaheim last night but Roberto Luongo decided his team was going to win anyway. Luongo made 63 saves in a bid to singlehandedly force game 6 in this series. Unfortunately the rest of the Canucks didn't hold up their end of the bargain and only managed 1 goal on just 27 shots. The Niedermayer brothers combined to end the game in the 2nd OT with a crunching hit and a quick wrist shot that Roberto Luongo missed because he was too busy trying to get the ref to make a penalty call on. Tough way to end a stellar performance for Luongo, but he should have many more chances in the post season. Despite the lackluster performance of the Vancouver Canucks as a whole Luongo has cemented himself as a playoff performing goalie with his play in the first and second rounds of this years playoffs.

Round 2 Predictions:
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Players to Watch
NHL Playoffs - Round 2 Previews and Predictions

Round 1 Predictions:
Round 1 Playoff Predictions and Hot Players
Complete Playoff Predictions